August 2016
Photo © Claiborne Swanson Frank.
Lesley M. M. Blume is an award-winning journalist, reporter, and cultural historian. She contributes regularly to Vanity Fair and the Wall Street Journal, and her work has appeared in many other publications, including Vogue, Town & Country, and Departures.
What are you reading? What's on your nightstand?
I'm already reading up for my next non-fiction book, whose topic I don't want to reveal yet ... but my nightstand has about three or four big dusty tomes related to it. But, for pleasure in the meantime, and as a nod to my just-released book, Everybody Behaves Badly, I am about to start reading Shakespeare and Company Paris: a History of the Rag & Bone Shop of the Heart. And also Bolshoi Confidential, because I am obsessed with all of the drama surrounding Russia's famed ballet company.
Where do you go to get inspired?
Anyplace that has a compelling history. And in NYC, the garden at MoMA always inspires me; here in LA, the Getty Museum - with its glorious mountain-and-sea views - serves the same purpose.
What's something that surprised you recently (in a good way)?
How much I loved being a mother.
Where do you write?
In my office, on my terrace ... and in NYC: at Morandi restaurant in the West village. Here in LA: in the garden of Chateau Marmont.
What/who makes you laugh? Why?
My husband cracks me up: he's pithy and naughty and subversive - and you never see it coming. My kid, who just turned three, is absurd and hilarious. The Marx brothers. God, I love those boys. The Coen brothers. All of the brothers.
Favorite fictional character ever?
How am I supposed to chose? What anguish. Okay, how about a smattering: Gatsby, for everything he said about human longing and the American dream. Lily Bart, for the same reasons. Holly Golightly: for the same reasons. I guess I am obsessed with human longing and the American dream. Oh - one more: Anthony Blanche in Brideshead ... I just adore him.
What do you want readers to know about you and your books?
That I document the genesis of some of the great artistic works of our times; that I am fascinated by the creative process and how the resultant art both represents a moment in time and transforms us. I've profiled works by Truman Capote, Jackson Pollock, and now Ernest Hemingway, among others.
What other amusing, defining facts about me? Hmmm. Well, I have an ancient French bulldog, who has been my assistant and truest companion for more than twelve years. I'm a fifth generation New Yorker on my dad's side. My mom was a piano prodigy who grew up in a MN farm town. Like Isak Dinesin, I love my home but am addicted to far-flung adventure. I write with a vintage Cartier fountain pen that my husband gave me. I woke up this morning at 5 AM to do an interview with a London-based subject, and still told my husband over work that I love my job. So, I guess the seminal thing about me is that I am addicted to storytelling; it's at the core of my being and my raison d'etre.
What are you working on?
Like Hemingway, I am superstitious about talking about my in-progress work, but I'll say this: it's a book that documents another seismic period in modern American history, centered on larger-than-life characters who may be as compelling as the Lost Generation crew I just wrote about in Everybody Behaves Badly.
"The charm and vibrancy of Ernest Hemingway's first novel, The Sun Also Rises, has attracted readers since its initial publication. Journalist and cultural historian Blume's deeply researched backstory enhances the novel's depth and restates its very real significance. It was written within and about the American expat community in Paris in the 1920s, of which Hemingway was one of the foremost figures."
—Booklist, ***Starred Review***
"Blume has carved a mountain of original research into a riveting tale of Hemingway's literary, romantic, and publishing travails."
—Publishers Weekly
"Journalist and author Blume (Let's Bring Back) focuses on the events in Ernest Hemingway's life from his 1921 arrival in Paris to the publication of The Sun Also Rises in 1926. Drawing on a rich cache of "Lost Generation" memoirs, as well as Hemingway's and his contemporaries' correspondence, the author portrays Hemingway as a ruthless egotist bent on achieving his literary ambitions, often at the expense of early supporters, including Sherwood Anderson, Gertrude Stein, and Robert McAlmon. Researching the actual trips that form the basis for the roman à clef's account of the San Fermín festival in Pamplona, Spain, Blume reveals how Hemingway transformed the lives of his expatriate friends by turning them into memorable characters in what was soon to become a masterwork of American literature. VERDICT Bloom brings together in one place a wealth of information on Hemingway's first novel that will appeal to students and general readers alike."
—Library Journal
Everyone Behaves Badly by
The making of Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, the outsize personalities who inspired it, and the vast changes it wrought on the literary world In the summer of 1925, Ernest Hemingway and a clique of raucous companions traveled to Pamplona, Spain, for the town's infamous running of the bulls. Then, over the next six weeks, he channeled that trip's maelstrom of drunken brawls, sexual rivalry, midnight betrayals, and midday hangovers into his groundbreaking novel The Sun Also Rises. This revolutionary work redefined modern literature as much as it did his peers, who would forever after be called the Lost Generation. But the full story of Hemingway's legendary rise has remained untold until now. Lesley Blume resurrects the explosive, restless landscape of 1920s Paris and Spain and reveals how Hemingway helped create his own legend. He made himself into a death-courting, bull-fighting aficionado; a hard-drinking, short-fused literary genius; and an expatriate bon vivant. Blume's vivid account reveals the inner circle of the Lost Generation as we have never seen it before, and shows how it still influences what we read and how we think about youth, sex, love, and excess.
Julia and the Art of Practical Travel by
When her grandmother dies and the once-majestic family estate is sold, eleven-year-old Julia Lancaster and her aunt Constance must take to the road to find Julia's long-lost mother. They bring with them only the most practical travel things--silver candlestick holders, a few Oriental carpets, some steamer trunks, and Julia's beloved Brownie camera, which she will use to document their journey across 1960s America. On the road, Julia and her aunt meet a cast of peculiar characters, including guitar-strumming hippies in Greenwich Village, a legendary voodoo queen in New Orleans, the honorable proprietor of the World's End Cattle Ranch in Texas, and the colorful sheriff of Gold Point, Nevada (population: 1), who also happens to be the town's mayor, fire chief, and reverend. But will they find Julia's mother and a place to call home? Poignant, engaging, and funny, Lesley M. M. Blume's new novel is a meditation on the thin line between being an insider and being an outsider, and the deep-rooted need we all have to find a place where we can feel at home.
Modern Fairies, Dwarves, Goblins, and Other Nasties by
Perhaps you think fairies are figments of the imagination, or even relics of an ancient past. You may even think all fairies are lovely winged creatures, who dance in bluebell fields, granting wishes to anyone who should encounter them. You would be wrong on all counts. Fairies are very much alive today, and they are everywhere--in our cities, our backyards, and even our kitchen cupboards. Some of them are indeed the sweet-tempered, winged creatures of folklore, but the fairy family also includes goblins, trolls, brownies, and other strange creatures, some of which are revealed to humans in this book for the very first time. While many fairy breeds are harmless, others can be quite nasty or even dangerous. In this luxuriously illustrated guidebook, preeminent fairy expert Miss Edythe McFate shares her knowledge of the modern fairy world and includes practical advice on matters such as how to tell a good fairy from a bad one, how to spot a "fairy ring," how to tell the difference between dwarves and trolls (one species is far deadlier than the other), and how to defend against fairies who would do you harm. Also included are eight true cautionary tales about children who have encountered fairies in ultramodern New York City. You would be wise to read closely, lest you find yourself in your own fairy encounter, for as Miss Edythe McFate reminds us, "Forewarned is forearmed."