FLANNER, Janet (1892-1978) ​ The American Library in Paris Special Collections Department 10 rue du Général Camou 75007 Paris FRANCE +33 1 53 59 12 60 americanlibraryinparis.org Compiled Spring 2019 by Hannah Jones, Aine O’Connor, Dr. Natalie Dykstra, Kelly Jacobsma Hope College in Holland, MI See Archives Stories website for details on the project: ​ ​ https://archivestoriesparis.wordpress.com/janet-flanner-collection/ 1. Biography 2. Items in the American Library in Paris Flanner Special Collection 3. References to Janet Flanner in the American Library in Paris Institutional Archives 4. References to Flanner using the American Library in Paris Facility 5. Provenance of Flanner Special Collection at the American Library in Paris 6. Other Resources 1. Biography Janet Flanner was born to Quaker parents in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1892. She was the middle of two sisters, Mary Emma (Marie), a pianist and composer, and Hildegarde, a poet. Janet and Hildegarde were quite close throughout their childhood and adult lives. Mary Flanner, the matriarch of the Flanner family, was also a poet. When Flanner was twenty years old, her father, Frank Flanner, committed suicide in his own mortuary. Flanner fled Indianapolis soon after to go to the University of Chicago, where she showed an interest in English and sociology--when she managed to go to class. Three years before her father’s death, Janet had visited Europe for the first time and came away with a deep desire to return to the continent. Europe must have seemed like a distant dream to Flanner in the years following Frank Flanner’s suicide as she went to school. In 1918, Flanner, rather suddenly, married William Lane Rehm, a friend from school and moved to New York. Flanner left Rehm in 1921, and their marriage ended a few years later; The American Library in Paris Special Collection Finding Aid-JANET FLANNER 1/19 she later confided to a cousin that she married Rehm to get out of Indianapolis. Throughout the rest of her life, her romantic relationships were with women, beginning with Solita Solano, whom she met in New York in 1918. Flanner settled in Paris with Solano in 1922, after National Geographic approached Solano with an offer ​ ​ of a European reporting assignment. After moving a few times, Flanner and Solano found a place in the 6th arrondissement, on the Left Bank, that they would call home for the next sixteen years. She became one of a group of writers and artists who lived in the city, such as Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, and Pablo Picasso. In October of 1925, Flanner published her first “Letter from Paris” in the brand-new magazine The New Yorker. Written under the pseudonym Genêt, the letters concerned politics, art, ​ ​ theatre, French culture, and various personalities. According to one of her biographers, Brenda Wineapple, Flanner crafted her material into “well-shaped vignettes edged in sharp humor.” Her contributions to the “Profile” column, in which she wrote about figures as divergent as Adolf Hitler, Edith Wharton, and Jean-Paul Sartre also helped to establish her writing career. She wrote for The New ​ Yorker for five decades. Flanner moved to New York once the Nazis invaded Paris, but she came back ​ after the city was liberated in 1944. Readers return to Flanner because of how Paris appeared as a character in her work, at times scandalous, complaining, hungry, or disgusted, and yet, continuing to resist and persist. Janet Flanner again returned to New York in 1975, where she lived with her partner Natalia Danesi Murray until her death in 1978. In a 1975 recorded interview titled “Writer in America: Janet Flanner,” director Richard O. Moore said to Flanner, “I’ve always thought of you as the most eminent of the foreign correspondents, not a female writer.” “Good,” replied Flanner, “I think I thought of myself rather in a similar manner.” Flanner, Janet. Paris Journal: 1944-1965. Edited by William Shawn. New York: Atheneum, 1965. ​ ​ “Janet Flanner.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Last modified March 09, 2019. Accessed May 23, 2019. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Janet-Flanner Moore, Richard O., dir. The Writer in America. Season one, “Janet Flanner.” Aired 1975 on KQED. ​ ​ https://archive.org/details/thewriterinamericajanetflanner_201505 Wineapple, Brenda. Genêt: A Biography of Janet Flanner. New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1989. ​ ​ “Women Come to the Front.” Library of Congress. Accessed May 23, 2019. https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/wcf/wcf0011.html The American Library in Paris Special Collection Finding Aid-JANET FLANNER 2/19 2. Items in the American Library in Paris Flanner Special Collection Complacent Dictator Hoare, Samuel. Alfred A. Knopf, 1947 327.42 H651c 1100010263 Bookplate: The American Library in Paris Other Information: An ALP perforated stamp is present on the cover page. The front page includes an inscription, in Flanner’s handwriting, of her name and the words “Hotel Scribe Paris.” An “A.L.P. ​ ​ DIRECTOR’S OFFICE” stamp is present on the inside of the back cover on the circulation card. This book was processed by the library in December of 1984. The American Political System Brogan, D. W. (Denis William), 1900-1974. Hamish Hamilton, 1943 342.733 B786a 1100056528 Bookplate: The American Library in Paris Other Information: An ALP perforated stamp is present on the cover page. There is an inscription on the front page in Flanner’s handwriting which reads “Janet Flanner *line break* from my dear publisher, Jamie Hamilton *line break* Paris August 1945.” An “A.L.P. DIRECTOR’S OFFICE” stamp is present on the inside of the back cover on the circulation card. This book was processed by the library in July of 1989. Barnaby and Mr. O'Malley Johnson, Crockett, 1906-1975. Henry Holt and Company, 1944 741 J63b 1111056504 Bookplate: The American Library in Paris Other Information: The inscription on the front page from the author reads: “For Janet Flanner, with warmest regards and all best wishes, Crockett Johnson.” There are two stamps on the inside of the back ​ ​ cover on a slip of paper, one reading, “A.L.P. Director’s Office” and the other reading, “OCT. 2001.” The Unknowable Gurdjieff Anderson, Margaret, 1886-1973. Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1962 The American Library in Paris Special Collection Finding Aid-JANET FLANNER 3/19 197 G96IzA 1100056504 Bookplate: The American Library in Paris Other Information: A written inscription reads, “For my dear friends Janet and Noël, with my love and ​ ​ thanks for many things. ‘The Lolly,’ October I, 1962.” ‘The Lolly’ may be Sylvia Townsend Warner, or the author. An “A.L.P. DIRECTOR’S OFFICE” stamp is present on the inside of the back cover on the ​ circulation card. This book circulated once in 1989 and was processed by the library in October of 1988. The Painter’s Eye Grosser, Maurice, 1903-1986. Rinehart, 1951 751 G914p 1100037714 Bookplate: The American Library in Paris Other Information: A written inscription from the author reads, “Dear Janet, I hope you like this one. Love Maurice Grosser.” Below an address written in the same hand appears, “219 West 14th N.Y.C.” Below that is the date 01.28.1951. This book circulated in the library three times between 1986 and 1993. There is an “A.L.P. DIRECTOR'S OFFICE” stamp on the inside of the back cover. This book was processed by the library in October of 1984. The State of Music Thomson, Virgil, 1896-1989. Vintage, 1962 780.071 T387s 1111049156 Bookplate: The American Library in Paris Other Information: A written inscription from the author reads, “For Noël *line break* love long time Janet too my loves Virgil Orgeral 9.63.” There is also a small annotation likely from Flanner on p. 4, ​ ​ “NOTE: best definition yet,” referring to Thomson’s description of the New Deal. There are “A.L.P. DIRECTOR'S OFFICE” and “OCT. 2001” on the inside of the back cover. This book was processed by the library in April of 1993. The Seeming Real Clapp, Frederick Mortimer, 1879-1969. Harper & Brothers, 1947 811 C536s 1100071439 Bookplate: The American Library in Paris The American Library in Paris Special Collection Finding Aid-JANET FLANNER 4/19 Other Information: A written inscription from the author reads, “Solita’s and Janet’s book affectionately inscribed by Frederick Mortimer Clapp May 16. ‘47.” This book was processed by the library in November of 1989. There is an “A.L.P. DIRECTOR'S OFFICE” stamp on the inside of the back cover. If There is Time Flanner, Hildegarde, 1899-1987. New Directions, 1942 811 F614i 1100077319 Bookplate: The American Library in Paris Other Information: A written inscription from the author reads, “For Janet--English is made much better by her fine use of it. From her sister - with love - Hildegarde Altadena, August 24, 1942.” This book was processed by the library in May of 1998. There are “A.L.P. DIRECTOR'S OFFICE” and “OCT. 2001” on the inside of the back cover. In Native Light Flanner, Hildegarde, 1899-1987. 1970 811 F614i2 1111056509 Bookplate: The American Library in Paris Other Information: The book includes engravings from Hildegarde’s husband Frederick Monhoff. A written inscription from them reads, “For our dearest Janet from Hildegarde Frederick February 10 1971.” This book was processed by the library in October of 2001. There is an “A.L.P. DIRECTOR'S OFFICE” stamp on the inside of the back cover. Two: Gertrude Stein and Her Brother, and Other Early Portraits, 1908-12. ​ ​ Stein, Gertrude, 1874-1946. Yale University Press, 1951 818 St34t 1100044348 Bookplate: Presented by Miss Janet Flanner, 1952. Other Information: An ALP perforated stamp is present on the cover page. A added, typed inscription reads, “Miss Stein, who left her unpublished writings to Yale, authorized their publication.