Nathanael West was a comic artist whose insight into the brutalities and absurdities of modern life proved prophetic. He is famous for two masterpieces,Miss Lonelyheartsand the most penetrating novel ever written about Hollywood,The Day of the Locust. Eileen McKenney, accidental muse and literary heroine, fled Cleveland in search of romance and adventure, inspiring her sister’s humorous stories,My Sister Eileen, which led to stage, film, and television adaptations.
Until their tragic deaths in 1940, husband and wife were intimate with many of the literary, theatrical, and movie notables of the era, and in this dual biography, they provide a one-of-a-kind lens into a world that continues to capture artists’ imaginations. With trenchant insight and erudite charm, acclaimed biographer Marion Meade restores the star-crossed lovers to their rightful places in the rich cultural tapestry of interwar America and paints a lively tableau of one of the country’s most engrossing eras.
From the author of the acclaimed BOBBED HAIR AND BATHTUB GIN comes a joint biography of the author of The Day of the Locust and his wife, the Eileen ofMy Sister Eileen, set against the world of New York writers and Hollywood screenwriters in the 1930s.
1
IN THE HOTEL
SUNDAY, MARCH 16, 1930
THE LOBBY OF the Kenmore Hall Hotel was deserted at three in the morning. Its skylit lounge was shrouded in pearl shadows, the passenger lift stood wearily at attention, the night porter dozed in the vestibule. Sitting behind the front desk was the assistant manager, a long-legged youth of twenty-six in a Brooks Brothers, three-button wool suit. On this night he bent over the keyboard of a typewriter, pounding out a letter to his girlfriend, Beatrice, in Paris and puffing on a cigarette. “Nothing happens,” he wrote.
Kenmore Hall, a pretty redbrick residence hotel not yet twlƒf
![Lonelyhearts The Screwball World of Nathanael West and Eileen McKenney [Paperback]](/itemImage/2/9/9/0/2_2495594.jpg)