New book about James Joyce's dancing daughter

LMCtech · **Posted:** Fri Dec 19, 2003 11:03 am

I may actually read this one. It sounds interesting. From the SF Chronicle.

Quote:

A promising artist waylaid by crashing of her mind
Stanford scholar examines life of James Joyce's daughter

Reviewed by William S. Kowinski

In the spring of 1929, Lucia Joyce was one of six finalists in the first international festival of dance in Paris. In a startling, slithery-scaled mermaid costume of blue, green and silver that she designed and made, she improvised a dance that was so enthusiastically received that the audience booed when first prize was chauvinistically awarded to a Frenchwoman, and demanded it be given to "the Irish girl." Then the 22-year-old Lucia went off to celebrate with her father, James Joyce, and her beau, Samuel Beckett.

more...

Azlan · **Posted:** Fri Dec 19, 2003 12:30 pm

I always look forward to biographies of artists written by Stanford professors. Remember Diane Middlebrook's controversial biography on Anne Sexton that was partially based on Sexton's psychiatrist's notes? When I talked to her about the book many years ago, Middlebrook took quite a no-nonsense stance about the ethics of using those notes. Then there were her biographies on Ted Hughes (and Sylvia Plath) and Billy Tipton, the jazz musician who turned out to be a "she."

And don't forget the auto-biography by Carl Djerassi, "The Pill, Pygmy Chimps, and Degas' Horse," that includes an accounting of his invention of The Pill. He also wrote the, um, fiction-based (yeah, right) novel, "Cantor's Dilemma," that is being used in science ethics classrooms all over the US (yes, this is the same Djerassi whose Paul Klee collection adorns various museums around the world).

<small>[ 19 December 2003, 01:33 PM: Message edited by: Azlan ]</small>

Azlan · **Posted:** Fri Dec 19, 2003 12:34 pm

Oh, btw, I think this should go in Misc... Follow me there.


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New book about James Joyce's dancing daughter

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