All-night Party by Andrea Barnet

ALL-NIGHT PARTY : THE WOMEN OF BOHEMIAN GREENWICH VILLAGE AND HARLEM, 1913- 1930 by Andrea Barnet is one of my favourites non-fiction books. It contains the stories of such woman of Avant-garde as Djuna Barnes, Marianne Moore, Mabel Dodge, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Ethel Waters and many more of the bright young things who lived and loved in New York at the jazz age.

Meet e.g. “the Mama of Dada” Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven who used to shave half her head and wear the left hair in henna-coloured red and the bolded half lacquered in bright red, while her face was dusted with yellow powder, her lips tinted in black and a birdcage (with a living canary in it) was hanging on her neck. (Great image, isn’t it? I like Dada very much – though it disturbs me sometimes.. – but hey! That’s Dada for you!)

(Elsa von Freytag-Lothringhoven)

And this was just one example of the fascinating women who will be introduced to you in this awesome book! Women who declare their freedom to live their live like/ and with whom they wanted to.

Here are some of the other ladies you're going to meet in this book:

(Mina Loy)

(Bessie Smith)

(A'lelia Walker)

Like Bessie Smith once sung:

“If I should get the feeling
To dance upon the ceiling
T’aint nobody’s business if I do."

A magnificent book, which I like to recommend to everyone interested in the life of some fascinating ladies of the early 20th century. To the blues fans: there are two chapters about Bessie Smith and Ethel Waters! (*Yay!* for that!!)

The German title is CRAZY NEW YORK. ...Well, how do I have to translate that into English.. uhm.. ;")

Don't you just love the German cover??

This book fits in two of the challenges I am participating in:

Read me baby, 1 more time – I did not read this book for the first time – and surely not for the last time. ;”)

LGBT Book Challenge 2011– here you can read a lot about women who fought for free love and lived in lesbian relationships.