A Heaven of Words

by Glenway Wescott

  Lady (Maud) Emerald Cunard (1872–1948). American-born London society hostess. An amiable favorite of the literary crowd.

  Nancy Cunard (1896–1965). Daughter of Emerald Cunard; writer, heiress, and political activist. As one of the 1920s Paris expatriates she published The Hours Press deluxe books.

  Mina Kirstein Curtiss (1896–1985). Author, editor, and translator. She was the sister of Lincoln Kirstein.

  Marguerite D’Alvarez (1883–1953). British-born contralto, popular throughout Europe.

  Jacques D’Amboise (b. 1934). Principal dancer and choreographer for the New York City Ballet.

  Duchess de Gramont (born Marie Ruspoli) (1875–1954). French writer. Known for her long-term relationship with American writer, poet, and playwright Natalie Clifford Barney.

  Sergei Diaghilev (1872–1929). Russian ballet impresario and founder of the Ballet Russes, which brought Vaslav Nijinski to fame.

  Marlene Dietrich (1901–92). The popular German-American actress was Wescott and Wheeler’s neighbor at 410 Park Avenue.

  Isak Dinesen (Baroness Karen Blixen) (1885–1962). Danish author best known for Out of Africa and Babette’s Feast, both also successful as films. She fascinated Wescott with her ability to narrate whole short stories from memory.

  Laurie Douglas (b. 1915). Actress of late 1930s to 1940s fame.

  Isadora Duncan (1877–1927). The key figure in modern dance. Her friends Wescott and Wheeler sat with her body the night after her tragic automobile accident.

  T .S. Eliot (1888–1965). Major poet, playwright, and critic.

  Suzanne Farrell (b. 1945). One of the great stars of the New York City Ballet, which Wheeler and Wescott often attended.

  William Faulkner (1897–1962). Novelist and Nobel Prize laureate.

  Peggy Fears (1903–94). Actress known for musical comedies, including the Ziegfeld Follies; also a Broadway producer. She later helped build up the Fire Island Pines and was a central figure of its gay and lesbian community. See the film When Ocean Meets Sky.

  Edna Ferber (1885–1968). Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist, short story writer, and playwright. Films based on her books include Show Boat and Giant.

  Edward Field (b. 1924). Popular and prolific poet and writer.

  Janet Flanner (1892–1978). Writer and journalist who served as the New Yorker’s Paris correspondent for fifty years under the pen name “Genêt.”

  Lynn Fontanne (1887–1983). British-born actress of the American stage mostly. Wife of director and actor Alfred Lunt.

  Charles Henri Ford (1913–2002). Poet, editor of the surrealist magazine View, coauthor with Parker Tyler of the controversial Greenwich Village novel The Young & Evil, filmmaker, collage artist, lover of artist Pavel Tchelitchev, and brother of actress Ruth Ford.

  Ford Madox Ford (1873–1939). Prolific British novelist, poet, and critic. Editor of the Transatlantic Review and the English Review, and a friend of many American expatriates.

  Ruth Ford (1911–2009). Actress of stage and screen, she was a member of Orson Welles’s Mercury Theatre. Her first husband was actor Peter Van Eyck, her second was film star Zachary Scott.

  E. M. Forster (1879–1970). British author of major novels such as Howard’s End and A Passage to India. He arranged that Wescott and Christopher Isherwood would handle the posthumous publication of his gay-love novel Maurice. Monroe Wheeler brought the manuscript to America.

  (Sir) David Frost (b. 1939). British television host, journalist, and writer.

  Robert Frost (1874–1963). A four-time Pulitzer Prize winner for poetry, he first knew Wescott as a twenty-year-old poet.

  Robert Gathorne-Hardy (1902–73). British poet and author of ten books on gardening, as well as Recollections of Logan Pearsall Smith, for whom he was a secretary and companion. His nephew is author Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy (b. 1933), biographer of Alfred Kinsey.

  Paul H. Gebhard (b. 1917). Anthropologist and sexologist who succeeded Alfred Kinsey as Director of the Institute for Sex Research.

  Felicia Geffen (1903–95). Longtime executive director of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

  Elena Gerhardt (1883–1961). German mezzo-soprano singer.

  George Gershwin (1898–1937). Composer and pianist best known for orchestral compositions such as Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris, and Porgy and Bess.

  Ralph Ginzburg (1929–2006). Author, editor, publisher, and photo-journalist.

  Robert Giroux (1914–2008). Cofounder of Farrar, Straus, and Giroux; he was a publisher devoted to ambitious literary works.

  Eric Goldman (1916–89). Historian, educator, and moderator of the NBC program The Open Mind.

  Katherine Graham (1917–2001). Washington Post publisher who enjoyed many literary and social friendships.

  Harley Granville-Barker (1877–1946). British actor, producer, critic, and playwright.

  Jacques Guérin (1902–2000). French bibliophile and collector—he owned Proust’s desk—who inherited a perfume company and was Wescott’s Parisian lover from 1928 to 1934.

  John Gunther (1901–70). Journalist and author known for his sociopolitical “Inside” books (Inside Africa, Inside South America, etc.) and for the popular memoir Death Be Not Proud. His second wife, Jane Gunther, was a mainstay at Wescott gatherings, especially readings.

  Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–61). A posthumous winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and the Secretary-General of the United Nations; died in a suspicious plane crash. Wescott refers to Hammarskjöld’s hidden sexuality in his October 15, 1963 entry.

  Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961). Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist who, early in life, resented the success of certain homosexual authors and parodied Wescott in chapter 3 of The Sun Also Rises. His posthumous novel The Garden of Eden suggests his own unusual sexuality.

  Jimi Hendrix (1942–70). Perhaps the greatest electric guitarist ever.

  John Hersey (1914–93). Novelist and journalist who wrote the powerful account Hiroshima.

  Hermann Hesse (1877–1962). German-Swiss novelist, painter, and poet. Awarded the Nobel Prize in 1946.

  Karen Horney (1885–1952). The German psychoanalyst had the support of Wescott’s sister-in-law Barbara Harrison. The Karen Horney Clinic remains today in Manhattan.

  A. E. Hotchner (b. 1920). Author, editor, and playwright. Best known for his memoir of Ernest Hemingway, Papa Hemingway.

  A. E. Housman (1859–1936). British poet and scholar. Best known for his A Shropshire Lad poems.

  Richard Hughes (1900–76). British novelist, poet, and playwright.

  Violet Hunt (1862–1942). British author and literary hostess. Known for her long relationship with Ford Madox Ford and her affair with W. Somerset Maugham.

  Clement Hurd (1908–88). Artist and illustrator of children’s books.

  Aldous Huxley (1894–1963). British writer, humanist, and intellectual.

  William Inge (1913–73). Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright and novelist. Wescott’s companion John Connolly was his secretary.

  Christopher Isherwood (1904–86). British-American novelist. Author of The Berlin Stories, on which both the play and the film Cabaret were based.

  Juan Ramón Jiménez (1881–1958). Poet, writer, and Nobel Prize winner.

  Philip Johnson (1906–2005). Architect associated with the Museum of Modern Art. Best known for the Glass House.

  Matthew Josephson (1899–1978). Journalist, author, and literary scholar.

  James Joyce (1882–1941). Irish novelist and poet—one of the most influential modernist writers. Author of Ulysses.

  Edward MacKnight Kauffer (1890–1954). Avant-garde artist and graphic designer.

  George Kennan (1904–2005). Historian, diplomat, and political advisor.

  Alfred C. Kinsey (1894–1956). As the first director of the Institute for Sex Research, his study of human sexuality was scientific but compassionate, which led to Wescott’s trust and close friendship.

  Lincoln Kirstein (1907–96). A great force for the arts,
he founded the school of American Ballet and eventually the New York City Ballet.

  John Knowles (1926–2001). Novelist best known for A Separate Peace.

  Jill Krementz (b. 1940). Photographer and author. Wife of novelist Kurt Vonnegut.

  P. Lal (1929–2010). Indian poet, essayist, and translator.

  Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (1896–1957). Sicilian writer whose only novel, The Leopard, was published posthumously.

  D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930). British novelist, playwright, poet, and painter whose sexually controversial works were often censored.

  Lieutenant Colonel T. E. Lawrence (1888–1935). British author and army officer who earned fame as Lawrence of Arabia. Author of Seven Pillars of Wisdom.

  Paul Lèautaud (1872–1956). French critic, memoirist, and novelist.

  Violette Leduc (1907–72). French novelist whose controversial Thérèse and Isabelle also became a commercial film.

  Leo Lerman (1914–94). Writer and entertainment-magazine editor.

  W. S. Lewis (1895–1979). Biographer of Horace Walpole (1717–79) and editor of Walpole’s massive correspondence.

  Anita Loos (1888–1981). Screenwriter, playwright, and author. Best known for Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

  James Lord (1922–2009). Author of biographies of Pablo Picasso and Alberto Giacommetti, as well as the posthumous memoir My Queer War.

  Malcolm Lowry (1909–57). British poet and novelist. Author of the highly acclaimed Under the Volcano.

  Clair Booth Luce (1903–87). Author, ambassador to Italy in the 1950s, and wife of Henry Luce (publisher of the magazines Time, Life, and Fortune).

  Alfred Lunt (1892–1977). Stage director and actor. Married to actress Lynn Fontanne.

  George Platt Lynes (1907–55). The influential portrait and fashion photographer was also known for his ballet photos and mostly—at least posthumously—for his male nudes. He was not only an intimate of Wheeler and Wescott but also a part of the circle of Paul Cadmus and many other artists and photographers. Among the photo books available is the recent Male Nudes (Rizzoli), text by Steven Hasse.

  Russell Lynes (1910–91). Author, art historian, and managing editor of Harper’s Magazine—he helped support the life and legacy of his mercurial brother, photographer George Platt Lynes.

  Norman Mailer (1923–2007). Novelist, journalist, and playwright. He was awarded both the Pulitzer Prize (twice) and the National Book Award.

  Carl Malouf (1916–91). New York artist who designed store windows and excelled in exterior design. He and artist friend Tommy Sullivan hosted gay parties in the 1940s and 1950s, once with Wescott’s friend Dr. Kinsey as an observer.

  André Malraux (1901–76). French novelist, art theorist, and Minister for Cultural Affairs. Author of The Human Condition.

  Thomas Mann (1875–1955). Major German novelist, critic, and philanthropist. Nobel Prize laureate.

  Jayne Mansfield (1933–67). Film, television, and stage actress, and sex symbol of the 1950s. Even her smallest cameo is notable, in Charles Henri Ford’s short film Poem Posters.

  Herbert Marcuse (1898–1979). German philosopher, sociologist, and political theorist who settled in America. “Father of the New Left.”

  William Somerset Maugham (1874–1965). British novelist, playwright, and short story writer, and one of the world’s most successful authors for much of his life, thanks early on to plays and later to bestsellers and film adaptations. He saw Wescott often during the World War II years in America.

  William Maxwell (1908–2000). Novelist, National Book Award winner, and longtime fiction editor of the New Yorker.

  Mary McCarthy (1912–89). Political writer, critic, and novelist.

  Anne O’Hare McCormick (1880–1954). Pulitzer Prize–winning foreign correspondent for the New York Times.

  Carson McCullers (1917–67). Novelist and playwright, with such film adaptations as The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, Reflections in a Golden Eye, and The Ballad of the Sad Café.

  Henry McIlhenny (1910–86). Chairman of the board of the Philadelphia Museum of the Arts, collector, patron of the arts, and philanthropist.

  Marshall McLuhan (1911–80). Canadian educator, philosopher, and communications scholar who taught “The medium is the message.”

  Lady (Elsie de Wolfe) Mendl (1865–1950). American-born actress, interior decorator, and socialite in London, New York, and Paris.

  Charles H. Miller (1913–92). A poet who once served as Auden’s secretary. Author of Auden: An American Friendship.

  Henry Miller (1891–1980). Author best known for Tropic of Cancer; was a memoirist and critic, as well as an artist who worked in watercolors.

  Sal Mineo (1939–76). Actor of film and stage, remembered best for the film Rebel Without a Cause.

  Yukio Mishima (1925–70). Japanese author, poet, playwright, film director, and actor. He committed a sensational ritual suicide.

  Jean Monnet (1888–1979). French economist and diplomat, and one of the early architects of European Unity.

  Marilyn Monroe (1926–62). Actress, model, singer, and sex symbol of the 1950s and early 1960s, until her untimely death.

  Douglas Moore (1893–1969). Composer, educator, and author.

  Marianne Moore (1887–1972). The great poet knew Wescott from his early adulthood to his late years, but was closer to Monroe Wheeler.

  Ted Morgan (b. 1932). French-American author, biographer, journalist, and historian.

  (Charles) Raymond Mortimer (1895–1980). British writer, editor, and literary critic for the New Statesman and the Sunday Times.

  Natalia Danesi Murray (1901–94). Italian-born author, journalist, publisher, radio broadcaster, and director. The American lover of Janet Flanner, she edited Darlinghissima: Letters to a Friend, correspondence organized as memoir. Her novelist son, William, followed up with the memoir Janet, My Mother and Me.

  Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977). Russian novelist, poet, and short story writer. His first nine novels were in Russian, then he rose to greater fame as a writer of English prose, including his masterpiece, Lolita.

  Sir Harold Nicolson (1886–1968). British diplomat, biographer, diarist, and politician.

  Vaslav Nijinski (1890–1950). Russian dancer and choreographer of Polish descent. One of the ballet greats of all time.

  Anaïs Nin (1903–77). French-Cuban author, best known for her journals. Her novel Henry & June led to the 1990 film.

  Frank O’Connor (1903–66). Prolific Irish author best known for his short stories and memoirs.

  John O’Hara (1905–70). Author of thirteen short story collections and seventeen novels, including Butterfield 8.

  Georgia O’Keeffe (1887–1986). A breakthrough artist of the American landscape, she became known as a painter and sculptor of the southwest, but was world renowned.

  Dorothy Parker (1893–1967). Poet, short story writer, screenwriter, and critic. Her Hollywood success was cut short when she was blacklisted for her political views. A famous wit, she was a frequent contributor to the New Yorker and a founding member of the Algonquin Roundtable.

  Isabel Patterson (1886–1961). Canadian-American journalist, novelist, and literary critic.

  Bernard Perlin (b. 1918). Highly regarded painter and illustrator. Longtime friend of Wescott and a close friend of, and original executor for, George Platt Lynes.

  Robert Phelps (1922–89). Distinguished literary editor who helped introduce the work of Colette to America and also edited works of Cocteau. His dedication to Wescott’s work, especially the early journals, Continual Lessons, encouraged the author.

  Rosemarie Beck Phelps (1923–2003). Artist, art historian, and educator. Married to Robert Phelps.

  Donald Pleasence (1919–95). British actor who appeared in more than two hundred films, including the James Bond series.

  Ralph Pomeroy (1926–99). Poet, artist, and intimate friend of Monroe Wheeler. An early collection of poems earned him the nickname “Faux Truman” because the book-jacket profile was e
ven more attractive than the one the young Capote used.

  Katherine Anne Porter (1890–1980). The Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist, story writer, and essayist struggled for notoriety for much of her life—until the publication of Ship of Fools, which was dedicated to Barbara Wescott. She was close to the Wescott clan, though her friendship with Glenway included thorns among the roses.

  Elvis Presley (1935–77). One of the most popular singers of the twentieth century and a pop culture icon. Wescott, though a lover of classical music, listened to pop music on the radio.

  Raymond Radiguet (1903–23).The brilliant, short-lived protégé of Cocteau, and author of The Devil in the Flesh.

  Francois Reichenbach (1921–93). Academy Award–winning French documentary film-maker of forty films. He secretly contributed gay-themed films to Dr. Alfred Kinsey’s archives, including his own Last Spring and Jean Genet’s Chant d’Amour.

  Cliff Robertson (1923–2011). Star of film and television, with a 1968 Best Actor Academy Award for Charly.

  Paul Robeson (1898–1976). Concert singer, recording artist, actor, athlete, and civil rights activist. The black superstar knew Wescott in the early 1920s Greenwich Village years and during the expatriate years in France.

  Richard Charles Rodgers (1902–79). Composer of more than nine hundred songs and forty-three Broadway musicals.

  Ned Rorem (b. 1923). The prolific Pulitzer Prize–winning composer is widely known as the author of a series of tell-all diaries.

  Philip Roth (b. 1933). Celebrated author of dozens of novels. Best known for Goodbye, Columbus and Portnoy’s Complaint.

  Baroness Pauline de Rothschild (1908–76). Wescott called her “My chief female friend.” When she first met the Baron she flattered him by saying, “Oh, the poet.” Before that, as Pauline Potter, she was one of America’s top female fashion designers. She wrote a travel book about Russia, The Irrational Journey.

  Baron Philippe de Rothschild (1902–88). One of the most successful wine growers in the world, he was also a poet, playwright, translator, and, in his youth, a Grand Prix racecar driver.

  Helena Rubenstein (1870–1965). Polish-born Australian-American, she was a self-made millionaire after starting her cosmetics salon in New York.