Table of Contents
Introduction xi
Prologue: The Ninth Street Show, New York, May 1951 5
Part 1 1928-1948
Lee
1 Lena, Lenore, Lee 21
2 The Gathering Storm 35
3 The End of the Beginning 44
Elaine
4 Marie Catherine Mary Ellen O'Brien Fried's Daughter 55
5 The Master and Elaine 66
Art in War
6 The Flight of the Artists 77
7 It Is War, Everywhere, Always 90
8 Chelsea 100
9 Intellectual Occupation 110
10 The High Beam 122
11 A Light That Blinds, I 136
12 A Light That Blinds, II 148
The Turning Point
13 It's 1919 Over Again! 165
14 Awakenings 173
15 Separate Together 182
16 Peintres Maudits 195
17 Lyrical Desperation 203
18 Death Visits the Kingdom of the Saints 217
19 The New Arcadia 226
Part 2 1948-1951
Grace
20 The Call of the Wild 241
21 The Acts of the Apostles, I 255
22 The Acts of the Apostles, II 262
23 Fame 271
24 The Flowering 284
25 Riot and Risk 296
Helen
26 The Deep End of Wonder 311
27 The Thrill of It 326
28 The Puppet Master 340
Joan
29 Painted Poems 357
30 Mexico to Manhattan via Paris and Prague 371
31 Waifs and Minstrels 387
Part 3 1951-1955
Oh, to Leave a Trace
32 Coming Out 405
33 The Perils of Discovery 414
34 Said the Poet to the Painter 422
35 Neither by Design nor Definition 439
Discoveries of Heart and Hand
36 Swimming against a Riptide 457
37 At the Threshold 468
38 Figures and Speech 480
39 Refuge 493
40 A Change of Art 505
41 Life or Art 518
42 The Red House 530
Five Women
43 The Grand Girls, I 547
44 The Grand Girls, II 560
45 The Grand Girls, III 576
Part 4 1956-1959
The Rise and the Unraveling
46 Embarkation Point 593
47 Without Him 608
48 The Gold Rush 620
49 A Woman's Decision 635
50 Sputnik, Beatnik, and Pop 650
51 Bridal Lace and Widow's Weeds 661
52 Five Paths… 676
53 …Forward 687
Epilogue 701
Acknowledgments 717
Copyright and Permissions Acknowledgments 723
Notes 727
Bibliography 866
Index 892