Bobbed Hair and Bathtub Gin: Writers Running Wild in the Twenties

By Marion Meade

In her exuberant new work, BOBBED HAIR AND BATHTUB GIN, Marion Meade presents a portrait of four extraordinary writers--Dorothy Parker, Zelda Fitzgerald, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Edna Ferber--whose loves, lives, and literary endeavors embodied the spirit of the 1920s.

Capturing the jazz rhythms and desperate gaiety that defined the era, Meade gives us Parker, Fitzgerald, Millay, and Ferber, traces the intersections of their lives, and describes the men (F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edmund Wilson, Harold Ross, and Robert Benchley) who influenced them, loved them, and sometimes betrayed them. Here are the social and literary triumphs (Parker's Round Table witticisms appeared almost daily in the newspapers and Ferber and Millay won Pulitzer Prizes) and inevitably the penances each paid: crumbled love affairs, abortions, depression, lost beauty, nervous breakdowns, and finally, overdoses and even madness.

These literary heroines did what they wanted, said what they thought, living wholly in the moment. They kicked open the door for twentieth-century women writers and set a new model for every woman trying to juggle the serious issues of economic independence, political power, and sexual freedom. Meade recreates the excitement, romance, and promise of the 1920s, a decade celebrated for cultural innovation--the birth of jazz, the beginning of modernism--and social and sexual liberation, bringing to light, as well, the anxiety and despair that lurked beneath the nonstop partying and outrageous behavior.

A vibrant mixture of literary scholarship, social history, and scandal, BOBBED HAIR AND BATHTUB GIN is a rich evocation of a period that will forever intrigue and captivate us.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Aug 11, 2009
• ISBN: 9780385533010

Marion Meade

MARION MEADE is the author of Dorothy Parker: What Fresh Hell Is This? and Bobbed Hair and Bathtub Gin: Writers Running Wild in the Twenties. She has also written biographies of Woody Allen, Buster Keaton, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Madame Blavatsky, and Victoria Woodhull, as well as two novels about medieval France.

Reviews for Bobbed Hair and Bathtub Gin

[kittyjay · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Dorothy Parker has always been a personal fascination, one evidenced by the myriad collections of her work, biographies, and even a movie starring Jennifer Jason Leigh that grace my bookshelves. So naturally I picked up Bobbed Hair and Bathtub Gin by Marion Meade, with its arresting title, and promises to be an account of "writers running wild in the twenties".

Though not strictly speaking a scholarly work - the footnotes and liberal use of quotations notwithstanding, it is often difficult to separate accounts from conjecture - this nonetheless provides a detailed, intimate look at the lives of poetess Edna St. Vincent Millay, Edna Ferber, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Zelda Fitzgerald, and of course, Dorothy Parker from 1920 to 1930. Those familiar with the Algonquin Round Table will see familiar names pop up, though even I had trouble keeping track of everyone since Meade refers to them mostly by their first names.

This conceit makes sense, as the book reads more like a fiction novel than a biography. Meade is not entirely objective, whether she strove to be or not (it's difficult to tell), and clearly has mixed feelings about some of her subjects while clearly adoring others. The quotes and writing are superb, with just the amount of caustic wit and unbridled charisma that draws readers to read about these extraordinary writers and their extraordinary lives in the first place. While there are successes, this is a highly private look: the tragedies, the setbacks, and the behind-closed-doors and private letters type of information, without ever resorting to scandalous gossip or unverified rumors the type tabloids live on. She treats the ones she likes with dignity, though a few telltale tidbits slip out that point to her feelings toward what could euphemistically be called "bad behavior". That said, I realized about halfway through that something was bothering me - namely, the absolute erasure of any evidence that Edna St. Vincent Millay was queer. There may have been a fleeting mention, but it was quickly swept under the rug. While it may have been an oversight or simply left on the cutting room floor since it didn't fit into Meade's narrative, it felt uncomfortably close to queer erasure.

Despite that, if you're not looking for a source for a textbook, but instead interested in a period of time that can never be repeated but only imagined, this is your book.

[thejazzmonger · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this book. I was, likely, predisposed to since I came to it with a long-time interest in the period (Roaring 20's), in the literature of the times, and it's celebrated authors. I think [The Great Gatsby] is, perhaps, the finest novel of American Literature and Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald's lives are major portion of the book.[Bobbed Hair and Bathtub Gin:Writers Running Wild in The Twenties] focuses on four "superstar' women from the culture of The Twenties: Edna St. Vincent Millay, Dorothy Parker, Zelda Fitzgerald and Edna Ferber. Well-researched, with extraordinary access to personal diaries and correspondence, plus extensive interviews with descendants, "Bobbed Hair..." puts us inside the daily lives of these four and their fast-living, artistic friends.Author [[Marion Meade]] gives us the real-life story in a novelized fashion that is fun to read. In addition to the four stars, we encounter other major players in business, literature, publishing, the theater and Hollywood. Ernest Hemingway, George Kaufman, Jerome Kern, Sam Harris (George M. Cohan's former partner), Edmund "Bunny" Wilson, Harold Ross, John Dos Passos and on-and-on.Part social/proto-feminist history, part psychological study of a hard-drinking, non-conformist lifestyle, part literary history of an era, this book touches many genres, and is a respectable addition to all, in my opinion.A great read!

[labwriter · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Marion Meade is also the author of a biography about Dorothy Parker, *What Fresh Hell Is This?*. This was such a fun book. What a shame that I seem to be the only member with this book in her library. I HUGELY recommend this book.Here's a line taken from random, typical of Meade's writing: "Westport, a peaceable village, characterized by lawn mowers and cocktail shakers." Meade has written a group biography: she includes Zelda Fitzgerald, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Dorothy Parker, and Edna Ferber. You don't have to know a single fact about these women before picking up the book in order to be hugely entertained. Plus you can trust her information. Meade really knows 1920s Manhattan.

[damemuriel · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Ambitious-tries to explore the lives of the Queen Bees of the literary scene in America in the 1920s-Edna St. Vincent Millay, Edna Ferber, Dorothy Parker, and Zelda Fitzgerald. The book isn't long enough to do them justice so it sort of comes off as a long-winded synopsis. Plus, I don't really dig Edna Ferber. She doesn't seem to be as widely read these days as the others (though she was immensely popular at the time) and she seemed a bit boring compared with the others. I think the author wasted too many pages on her.