Outlaw Marriages (16 page)

Flanner jumped at the offer, as writing the biweekly letter meant she'd finally have an ongoing job in journalism. She'd also be earning a steady income, which meant she'd no longer be a financial burden on Solano, who'd been paying both women's living expenses for four years by writing freelance pieces.
19

In fact, Solano had wanted, for some time, to immerse herself in writing fiction but had felt compelled, because someone had to pay the bills, to continue accepting assignments to write news and travel stories for several American magazines and newspapers. Now she'd be able to concentrate on her fiction writing while Flanner became the breadwinner.
20

Before the two women could move into their new roles, however, Flanner had to figure out how to produce the kind of pieces that Harold Ross had in mind. There were indications that satisfying the editor wouldn't be easy, as he'd already fired three Paris correspondents in the five months since he'd launched the magazine.
21

Flanner knew, based on what Jane Grant told her, that Ross wanted the letters
from France to consist mostly of “anecdotal and incidental stuff on places familiar to Americans,” while at the same time communicating a high level of sophistication and urbanity. Flanner knew she could deliver on these counts, as she was comfortable writing about the art museums and operas that were part of her and Solano's life in Paris. Flanner also was confident she could infuse her letters with humor and satire, another of Ross's expectations, because her reviews in the
Indianapolis Star
had contained plenty of these elements.
22

But other of Ross's requirements worried Flanner. First of all, he wanted the letters to contain not merely the correspondent's personal observations and opinions but also “facts, facts and more facts”—the author would have to be both a critic and a news reporter. In addition, Ross wanted the letters to contain descriptive passages so rich in detail that they'd bring vivid images instantly to the minds of
New Yorker
readers.
23

Flanner had no objection to incorporating these elements into her writing, but she didn't know how to do it. Her reviews in the
Star
had consisted of criticism with only a minimal number of facts and virtually no description. So Flanner turned to the much more experienced Solano, who for fifteen years had been making her livelihood by writing a combination of news articles based on facts and travel pieces overflowing with description.
24

Flanner and Solano's first piece appeared in the
New Yorker
in October 1925. Ross gave his thumbs-up to the letter's style and substance by printing it exactly as he'd received it and also by signing it “Genêt.” The fact that he'd given Flanner a nom de plume meant that he'd accepted her into his stable of authors. Ross didn't print the real name of any of his regular writers, wanting readers to become accustomed to the entire
New Yorker
staff speaking in a single voice consistent with the combination of sophistication and irony that he wanted every piece to communicate.
25

Ross never told Flanner exactly why he chose to identify her as Genêt. She speculated, however, that “to his eyes and ears, it seemed like a Frenchified form of Janet.”
26

In some early
New Yorker
pieces that Solano and Flanner wrote, the factual information came in the form of updates on Paris prices. “Bread has advanced to one franc eighty the kilo,” one letter reported, while another told American readers that, now that spring had arrived, “violets are three francs the bunch on the boulevards.” Another category of facts the women incorporated into their writing had to do with the price of artwork. “Art dealer Marcel Duchamp's sale of works by Francis Picabia is being widely discussed here,” one letter reported. “He received about 89,000 francs for his entire collection of 80 Picabias, the famous ‘Mind the Paint' bringing only 320 francs;
a good hat costs more.”
27

The women also relied, from time to time, on public documents as their sources. One Paris letter reported, “The annual statement of the National Bureau of Tourism has just been made public. Some 220,000 Americans visited France within the last year, and left in their wake $226,160,000. The society optimistically computes that two travelers in every hundred were millionaires, and, even more optimistically, that twenty-eight in every hundred were teachers.”
28

With regard to descriptive passages, the couple crafted numerous statements about the latest trends in fashion. “Tailored suits are still chic,” one letter read, “and evening frocks are carrying even more flowers, which are now pinned on the back, just above the last rib.” They also described performances they attended. One letter about poet Maurice Rostand read, “When he recites his poetry, he slips out on the stage, almost surreptitiously, and stands quiet at one side before a grey velvet curtain, clasping the drapery with his wan, pale hands. It's quite something to look at as well as to hear, and one succumbs.”
29

In addition to helping Flanner develop the two new writing techniques she needed to master, Solano also assisted her partner in striking the appropriate tone. That is, because her pieces were in the form of letters, Ross wanted them to be written in a conversational style, as if the author were chatting casually with her readers. So Solano came up with a plan: after Solano and Flanner finished a draft of a letter, Solano read it out loud. The women then jointly revised the portions of the letter that sounded stilted or overly formal when they'd heard them spoken.
30

Solano played a major role in helping to write the Paris column in 1925 and 1926 until Flanner became more confident with the new techniques her partner had taught her. When Flanner worked on her first profile for the magazine in January 1927, however, she again turned to Solano, with the two women conducting joint interviews with the subject, dancer Isadora Duncan. By the time Flanner took on her second profile nine months later, she interviewed designer Paul Poiret on her own, although Solano still helped her write the piece before they sent it off to New York.
31

By the late 1920s, Flanner and Solano were enjoying precisely the kind of life they'd envisioned when they'd moved to Paris. “There's a kind of gilt on the cage of life over here that is entrancing, delightful,” Flanner said of living in Europe. “There's no sense of captivity.” Flanner and Lane Rehm officially divorced in 1926, and she and Solano expanded their living space in the Hotel Bonaparte to a suite of several rooms in 1928.
32

On a professional basis, Solano published three novels by the end of the decade, although reviewers spoke harshly of them and none of the trio sold
well. Flanner's income from writing the Paris letter and an occasional profile, however, was more than sufficient to pay the couple's routine expenses and to allow them to vacation in the south of France periodically.
33

By the early 1930s, the
New Yorker
had become not only a financial success but also a highly regarded journalistic institution. Flanner had emerged as one of the magazine's most admired writers and was increasingly recognized as an arbiter of the finer things in life—from art, music, and theater to smart cafés and the latest trends in fashion. The epicenter of all these aspects of the cultured life, Flanner consistently wrote, was the city she now called home. “Paris is the capital of Europe,” she said in one letter, “for a kind of obstinate civilization and a cerebral style.”
34

As time passed, the editors at the magazine sent Flanner to cover breaking news elsewhere in Europe. In 1936, she went to Berlin to report on the Olympic Games and to London to chronicle the historic abdication of Great Britain's Edward VIII.
35

Flanner also became widely known as the profile writer who introduced American readers to such influential artists as Russian composer Igor Stravinsky and Spanish painter Pablo Picasso. Her other subjects included perfumer Francois Coty, legendary hostess Elsa Maxwell, and European royalty such as England's Queen Mary—Flanner reported that the British monarch had a passion, while inside Buckingham Palace, for the very un-royal habit of whistling.
36

Flanner's most controversial profile was of Adolf Hitler. The 1936 piece illuminated the human side of the Nazi leader in great detail, including that he abstained from drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, and eating meat. This personal approach didn't sit well with a writer for
New Republic
magazine, who accused Flanner of being a Fascist because she included positive details about Hitler in her profile. Editors at
Time, Collier's
, and
McCall's
had a very different take on the piece, being so impressed by it that they asked Flanner to write similar articles for their magazines, although she turned down the offers.
37

On a personal level, Solano and Flanner remained committed to each other, but they weren't monogamous. Flanner was the one who wanted their outlaw marriage to be an open one because, in the words of one biographer, she “had a roving eye.” She particularly enjoyed spending time in Parisian bars and nightclubs where women dancing and being affectionate with each other was much more widely accepted than in New York—or Indianapolis.
38

The coming of World War II forced Solano and Flanner to leave France in 1939 and relocate to the United States, where they chose to live separately. Flanner then worked out of the
New Yorker
's Manhattan office, her most significant
pieces telling about life in France under German occupation.
39

In 1940, Flanner fell in love with an Italian-born woman who was ten years her junior. Natalia Danesi Murray was working in New York as a broadcaster for NBC when she and Flanner met and, within a matter of months, moved in together. Despite Flanner's new relationship, she continued to correspond with Solano, hiding the letters from Murray.
40

Flanner soon left both women behind when she was named an official war correspondent for the
New Yorker
. Dressed in an American military uniform, she flew first to London and then traveled throughout Europe to provide eyewitness accounts of the fighting.
41

Articles that Flanner wrote in the aftermath of the war contributed to her growing stature as a journalist of the first order. She covered the trial of Nazi war criminals in Nuremberg, Germany, and also wrote a blockbuster investigative series that exposed how the Nazis had stolen millions of dollars worth of artwork from the private collections of European Jews.
42

Partly because of these high-profile pieces, she had earned a reputation, by the 1950s, as one of America's most respected reporters. A highly laudatory profile of Flanner in the
New York Times
stated, “Hers is exemplary journalism in every sense of the word.”
43

In 1963, Flanner faced a new professional challenge when an editor at Atheneum publishing house in New York asked her to put together a book largely consisting of the best of the magazine pieces she'd written over the previous four decades.
44

Flanner initially rejected the offer, saying she didn't have time to take on such a labor-intensive project. When Solano heard about the book offer, however, she urged Flanner to reconsider.
45

Solano then volunteered to read through all of Flanner's
New Yorker
pieces and select which ones should be preserved between hard covers. Solano had, by this point, returned to France and was working as a freelance editor. Flanner took Solano up on her offer.
46

It's likely that Solano had ulterior motives, as she knew that Flanner's relationship with Natalia Danesi Murray was troubled. The problem was that Murray spent the bulk of her time in the United States to be near her grown son and his family. Flanner repeatedly complained that she wanted to spend more time with Murray, who responded that she had other priorities in her life.
47

When Solano and Flanner began working together on the book, they typically met in the room in the Hotel Ritz in Paris where Flanner now lived. Solano would take the train into the city from the French village, an hour away, where she had a small house. Solano and Flanner's time together wasn't all
work and no play, as they often had dinner together and whiled away the evening over wine and conversation. On many of these occasions, Solano stayed the night, with the two women resuming their physical relationship.
48

Flanner's book, titled
Paris Journal
, was released in 1965 to rave reviews. The
Washington Post
gushed, “No better modern history of France has been written than this book. Miss Flanner is that paragon of foreign correspondents—the one with a first class brain, plus the best set of senses in the business,” and the
New York Herald Tribune
weighed in by calling Flanner “the foremost expatriate writer in Paris.”
49

Flanner's acclaim rose to an even loftier level in 1966 when
Paris Journal
received the National Book Award in the category of arts and letters. Judges in the competition praised her writing as “enlightened and humane, her account of France recalling French political thinker and historian Alexis de Tocqueville's earlier study of our own country.”
50