Literary Rebels & Endless Nights: Authors Who Are 365 Party Girls
BRAT might be officially over, but your reading list is forever…
Vanity Fair recently asked singer-songwriter Charli xcx, during a lie detector test, if writers can be “365 Party Girls”, in light of her recently joining Substack (charli xcx). She said yes (obvi), but only listed Hunter S. Thompson as an example. In memoriam of the BRAT era officially ending (for real this time… maybe…), we’re sharing with you a short list of some of our favorite authors whose work and personal life embodies the audacious, vulnerable, and chaotic ethos of BRAT to keep you inspired, literarily.
Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950)
If you’ve been on our tour, you’ve learned about the poet who preferred to go by Vincent, but for those of you who live far away from New York or are inexplicably resistant to attending the greatest tour on the east coast, we’ll fill you in on one of the most influential New York writers. She was an American poet, playwright, essayist, and feminist who captured the bohemian spirit of Greenwich Village in the 1920s. A graduate from Vassar College (barely, as the faculty voted to suspend her due to “liberal unladylike” behavior, but her peers petitioned in favor due to her talent), she went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1923 for “The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver”. She had many lovers, both male and female, with critic Floyd Dell describing her as “a frivolous young woman, with a brand-new pair of dancing slippers and a mouth like a valentine”. He also proposed to her and she declined, replying, “Never ask a girl poet to marry you, Floyd”. Millay was one of the founders of the Cherry Lane Theatre and also worked with the Provincetown Players, but her poems, which often ventured into taboo subjects at the time such as feminism and female sexuality, are what she is most remembered for. You can see the imagery of her poem “First Fig” which reads, “My candle burns at both ends…” on our tour guide t-shirts, when you come and visit us in the Village on Saturdays to read her poetry aloud together.
Nellie Bly (1864-1922)
Known as the most famous reporter in America, as the original muckracker, Nellie Bly pioneered the era of “Stunt Girl Reporting” and created the profession of what we now refer to as investigative journalism. Born Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman, her use of a pen name was common at the time so that male readers would not discredit her work. Her writings focused on telling the stories of women, specifically the realities of divorce, factory work, and mental asylums. Her journalism career began with a letter to the editor of the local paper, outraged over an article titled "What Girls Are Good For”, a complaint about women working instead of keeping house and raising children. Her reply titled “The Girl Puzzle”, argued that women needed the same advantages afforded to men, including better jobs. Famously, she disguised herself as a mentally ill patient to gain access to the Women’s Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island. In her exposé, Ten Days in a Mad-House, written in 1887, she revealed the horrific conditions, neglect, and abuse occurring to patients, both ill and sane. This forced a public outcry, leading to reform of New York’s mental health system. Other topics covered over the course of her career include the Gold Rush, the Spanish-American War, and the Moscow-Chicago railway. Most notably, she was also the first woman to travel around the world solo in 1889, inspired by the 80-day record from Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days. She completed the trip in just 72, writing about her journey in Around the World in Seventy-Two Days.
F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald (1896-1940 / 1900-1948)
The most notable literary couple of the Jazz Age, the Fitzgerald’s defined a generation, as much with their literary works as their lifestyles, embodying the glamor, hedonism, and liberation of the 1920s. Zelda, most notably, is attributed to pioneering the flapper (the OG American Party Girl), but also was a talented dancer, artist, and author in her own right. While Scott’s work documented and critiqued the American Dream, his talent overshadowed his wife’s, and many question his role in thwarting her efforts, adding to the hostility that would eventually consume their relationship. They often accused each other of plagiarism, with Zelda quoted as saying “plagiarism begins at home”. Allegedly, Scott furthered Zelda’s role as his muse by using her diaries and letters in his novel This Side of Paradise. Zelda’s semi-autobiographical novel Save Me the Waltz, written while hospitalized for schizophrenia, has been speculated to be re-written by Scott, as he did not like how she portrayed their marriage, as it conflicted with his own written accounts. However, scholars have found edits in Zelda’s handwriting proving that she wrote it herself. On one hand, this narrative emphasizes Scott’s role in hindering her creative success due to his issues with insecurity, jealousy, and control. However, this narrative also diminishes Zelda’s own talents, as we see with many women writers. Together, their literary and social impact remains culturally relevant, with the cautionary tale of The Great Gatsby still resonating with generations of readers, and “Roaring 20s” as one of the most popular party themes over a century later.
Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)
Hailing from England, Virginia Woolf is largely considered one of the most influential writers of the 20th century, attributed to her creation of stream of consciousness narrative. She was a founding member of the Bloomsbury Group of British writers and intellectuals, and later created Hogarth Press which published her writings, really elevating the definition of “self-published”. Although many are familiar with her novels such as Mrs Dalloway or Orlando, it is her feminist essay A Room of One’s Own, published in 1929, that has established her as a foundational feminist icon. In it, she examines how women historically have been disempowered both in the home and in society, reflecting on educational, financial, and social issues. Her famous quote, “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction”, would much later in the 1970s, reignite the second wave of the feminist movement, this time with a call to arms to cultivate financial, personal, and creative independence. Woolf’s work challenges traditional gender roles and explored the fluid nature of sexual identity, as a leader of a literary movement that challenged the rigid conventions of the Victorian era she was raised in.
Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891)
French libertine and poet, Arthur Rimbaud is remembered for revolutionizing poetry at the young age of 20, as a pioneer of Symbolism and a precursor to Surrealism. As a prodigy, he accomplished more than most writers do in their lifetime, which notably his was short, ending at only 37 years old due to bone cancer with one leg amputated. His work strayed from traditional 19th century form, creating an early form of prose poetry using free association. Labeled the “enfant terrible” of French poetry, he ran away from home three times, wandering around France and Belgium, developing his poetry style. He led a two year long affair with poet Paul Verlaine, who abandoned his wife and child for their impoverished bohemian drug-induced lifestyle filled with travel, absinthe, opium, and hashish, ending with 18 year old Rimbaud shot in the wrist and Verlaine in jail. Although his poetry was well regarded, after five years of immense productivity, at the tender age of 21, Rimbaud stopped writing altogether. He abandoned his life as a poet to work as a trader and explorer in East Africa. Later, Surrealists like Andre Breton would be inspired by Rimbaud’s “derangement of all the senses”, and avant-garde playwright Bertolt Brecht would be inspired by his hallucinatory language. His rebellious spirit extended into his writing, and still inspires artists and writers today.
Dorothy Parker (1893-1967)
An American poet, author, and literary critic, Dorothy Parker was best known for her role as a founding member of the Algonquin Round Table, which immortalized her witty wisecracks. After selling her first poem to Vanity Fair in 1914, she later became a staff writer for both Vanity Fair and Vogue, with a focus as a theatre critic. Her fellow friends and colleagues Robert Benchley and Robert E. Sherwood would lunch daily at the Algonquin Hotel, first with a group of fellow writers, including Franklin P. Adams, Broadway producers, playwrights and publicists, and then expanding the invite to actors and comedians including Tallulah Bankhead, Noel Coward, and Harpo Marx. The publication of Parker’s lunchtime remarks in Adam’s column “The Conning Tower” is how she developed her witty reputation. Remarks such as, when asked to use the word “horticulture” correctly in a sentence, she retorted, “You can lead a whore to culture, but you can’t make her think”. Over the course of her career she wrote hundreds of poems and short stories, Broadway plays, and several Hollywood scripts including the 1937’s film A Star Is Born.
William S. Burroughs (1914-1997)
As a primary figure of the Beat Generation, Burroughs was a postmodern author and visual artist. His works are semi-autobiographical, very experimental, and often featuring unreliable narrators. Throughout his life he struggled with substance use disorder, specifically with heroin, which is often highlighted in his writings. Additionally, he developed a profound interest in magic and the occult as a child, which influenced his work as well. A highly controversial figure with mental health issues, he navigated several scandals including severing the last joint of his pinky finger when his male paramour ended their relationship, ran a marijuana farm in Texas, and “accidentally” murdered his wife by playing William Tell whilst drunk. He then went on a world tour of drugs and writing throughout Italy, France, England, and most notably the Tangier International Zone. His masterpiece Naked Lunch was prosecuted as an obscene work in Massachusetts and several other states, due to its depiction of violence, homosexuality, and drug addiction, eventually declared “not obscene” in 1966 due to possessing social value and literary merit. He spent most of his life in New York City before ending up in Lawrence, Kansas as his last residence. As one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, his work and his life have inspired countless artists across disciplines to this day.
Anaïs Nin (1903-1977)
Anaïs Nin was a prolific journaler, beginning as young as eleven years old, right up until her death. Her journals, some of which were published while she was alive, detail her marriages to both husbands (yes, at the same time!) and her many lovers, both male and female, including fellow author Henry Miller (and possibly also his wife June). She referred to her act of bigamy as “bicoastal trapeze”, keeping the details of her lives and marriages in New York and California straight by writing them down and keeping them in a “box of lies”. Born in France to Cuban parents who separated, Nin attended high school in New York City, but did not graduate. She led a bohemian life, traveling between the three places, and following her interests, including psychoanalysis. Her most famous works, considered erotica, began as part joke, part need for cash, penning pornographic stories for an anonymous collector. Nin eventually permitted these to be published as Delta of Venus and Little Birds. I’ll leave learning about her surrealist novel House of Incest up to you… (but it’s definitely giving Industry).
Clarice Lispector (1920-1977)
Although known as a Brazilian novelist, Clarice Lispector was born in Ukraine, before her Jewish family fled, after the fall of the Russian Empire led to anti-Jewish pogroms (riots). First they went to Romania, before settling in Brazil, when she was only one years old. Upon arriving, her family changed their names; Chaya became Clarice. Her works intensely focus on interior-emotional states, with a stream-of-consciousness writing style, blurring the line between external reality and inner experience. Many of her novels explore the search for meaning alongside existential loneliness, through the lens of female identity: defying traditional societal roles and transforming the mundane into the mystical. Her highly experimental style and willingness to challenge conventional storytelling is what sets her apart, often compared to literary luminaries such as Joyce, Kafka, and Proust. American translator Gregory Rabassa once said she, “looked like Marlene Dietrich and wrote like Virginia Woolf”.
Haruki Murakami (1949)
Winner of more literary prizes than we could name, Japanese author Haruki Murakami was heavily influenced by Western and specifically Russian authors, resulting in his work criticized in Japan as “un-Japanese”, despite being one of the greatest living writers, with his books translated into over 50 languages worldwide. Unlike most authors, Murakami did not begin writing until he was 29 years old. Take that, youth success culture! Since then, he sort of never stopped, penning new essays, short stories, and novels every few years. His work heavily features elements of both surrealism and magical realism, with many readers describing the settings in his novels as simulacrums, with first person storytelling unfolding as live experiences, similar to a film. Despite being a late bloomer to publishing, Murakami is a lover of jazz music, previously working in a jazz club, which is mirrored in both the rhythm and improvisation used in his work. However, some critics want more for his female characters, citing they are often objectified and sexualized. Despite this heated discourse, his name is often mentioned as a potential candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature, to which he has dismissed by saying, "No, I don't want prizes. That means you're finished".
Recommended Reading:
Collected Poems, by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Ten Days in a Mad-House, by Nellie Bly
This Side of Paradise, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Save Me the Waltz, by Zelda Fitzgerald
A Room of Her Own, by Virginia Woolf
The Complete Works, by Arthur Rimbaud
Enough Rope, by Dorothy Parker
Naked Lunch, by William S. Burroughs
The Diary of Anaïs Nin, by Anaïs Nin
The Passion According to G.H., by Clarice Lispector
Kafka on the Shore, by Haruki Murakami