Parisian Literary Salon

Upcoming Events and Hazel Rowley’s new book. Tete a Tete

* Hazel Rowley’s Tête-à-Tête, a literary biography of de Beauvoir and Sartre is now available at the Red Wheelbarrow & the Village Voice. I had the privilege of meeting her last summer and greatly enjoyed her previous literary biography on Richard Wright. She will be reading in Paris later in the winter- I will announce her visit when I have the details. Check out the review below…
* An established writing circle in Paris is looking for 1 – 2 new participants. They meet once a month, share writing (fiction, poetry) and offer suggestions to each other. Interested persons should email isacooney@yahoo.com (and send a short writing sample).
* Photographer Isabel Gogibu presents her work from 17 October through 17 December at Chez Terrasse a Cie- 74 rue Lamarck (Paris 18 eme, metro Lamarck)

Hazel Rowley’s webpage:
http://www.hazelrowley.com/tete.htm

Tête-à-Tête: Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre

They are one of the world’s legendary couples. We can’t think of one without thinking of the other. Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre-those passionate, free-thinking Existentialist philosopher-writers-had a committed but notoriously open union that generated no end of controversy. With Tête-à-Tête, distinguished biographer Hazel Rowley offers the first dual portrait of these two colossal figures and their intense, often embattled relationship. Through original interviews and access to new primary sources, Rowley portrays them up close, in their most intimate moments.

We witness Beauvoir and Sartre with their circle, holding court in Paris cafés. We learn the details of their infamous romantic entanglements with the young Olga Kosakiewicz and others; of their efforts to protest the wars in Algeria and Vietnam; and of Beauvoir’s tempestuous love affair with Nelson Algren. We follow them on their many travels and to meetings with dignitaries such as Roosevelt, Khrushchev, and Castro. We hear the anguished discussions that would lead to Sartre’s refusal of the Nobel Prize and listen in on the couple as they comment on each other’s works.

The impact of their writings on modern thought can hardly be overestimated, and yet Beauvoir and Sartre are remembered just as much for the lives they led. They were brilliant, courageous, profoundly innovative individuals, and Tête-à-Tête great story is precisely what Beauvoir and Sartre most wanted their lives to be.

Critical Praise
“Fascinating . . . A neatly assembled record of people behaving badly in the name of literature, philosophy and amour.”
-Kirkus Reviews

“TETE-A-TETE has just about everything… Hard as I tried, I could not put it down.”
-Barbara Ehrenreich

“Enormously rich and utterly absorbing… a short, concise, penetrating look into the famous couple who changed their century.”
-Brenda Maddox

“A lively and fulfilling portrait… [A] wonderfully crafted narrative … Thoroughly researched and well-written.”
-Library Journal

“[Rowley] draws from vast stores of published and unpublished writings, correspondence and interviews.”
-Publishers Weekly

New York Times review, October 5, 2005, by William Grimes:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/05/books/05grim.html?pagewanted=all