Paris is the world capital of memory and desire, concludes one of the writers in this intimate and insightful collection of memoirs of the city. Living in Paris changed these writers forever.
In thirty-two personal essays more than half of which are here published for the first time the writers describe how they were seduced by Paris and then began to see things differently. They came to write, to cook, to find love, to study, to raise children, to escape, or to live the way it s done in French movies; they came from the United States, Canada, and England; from Iran, Iraq, and Cuba; and a few from other parts of France. And they stayed, not as tourists, but for a long time; some are still living there. They were outsiders who became insiders, who here share their observations and revelations. Some are well-known writers: Diane Johnson, David Sedaris, Judith Thurman, Joe Queenan, and Edmund White. Others may be lesser known but are no less passionate on the subject.
Together, their reflections add up to an unusually perceptive and multifaceted portrait of a city that is entrancing, at times exasperating, but always fascinating. They remind us that Paris belongs to everyone it has touched, and to each in a different way."

Carmel Snow, who changed the course of our culture by launching the careers of some of today's greatest figures in fashion and the arts, was one of the most extraordinary women of the twentieth century. As editor in chief of Harper's Bazaar from 1934 to 1958 she championed the concept of "a well-dressed magazine for the well-dressed mind," bringing cutting-edge art, fiction, photography, and reportage into the American home. Now comes A Dash of Daring, a first and definitive biography of this larger-than-life figure in publishing, art, and letters. Veteran magazine journalist Penelope Rowlands describes the remarkable places Snow frequented and the people whose lives she transformed, among them Richard Avedon, Diana Vreeland, Geoffrey Beene, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Cristobal Balenciaga, Lauren Bacall, and Truman Capote. She chronicles Snow's life on both sides of the Atlantic, beginning in nineteenth-century Ireland and continuing to Paris, Milan, and New York City, the fashion capitals of the world. Snow was the daughter of an Irish immigrant, who was herself a forward-thinking businesswoman, and she worked in her mother's custom dressmaking shop before being discovered by the magazine publisher Conde Nast and training under Edna Woolman Chase, the famous longtime editor of Vogue. From there it was on to Harper's Bazaar which, with the help of such key employees as Avedon, Vreeland, and art director Alexei Brodovitch, Snow turned into the most admired magazine of the century. Among the disparate talents who worked at Bazaar in the Snow era were Andy Warhol, the heiress Doris Duke, Maeve Brennan, and members of the storied Algonquin Round Table. Overflowing with previously untold stories of the colorful and glamorous, A Dash of Daring is a compelling portrait of the fashion world during a golden era.

Singer Cyndi Lauper remembers shrieking by a highway near New York s Kennedy International Airport as the Beatles limousine rolled by; popular disc jockey Cousin Brucie Morrow reveals how he helped recover a favorite medal snatched from Ringo s neck by a frenzied fan; humorist Roy Blount Jr. dissects the lyrics to When I m Sixty-Four; and photographer Henry Grossman takes us into the audience of The Ed Sullivan Show--where the Beatles first performed in the United States--and then on tour with the band.The Beatles Are Here explores the emotional impact--some might call it hysteria--of the Fab Four s February 1964 arrival on our shores through the voices of those who witnessed it, were swept up in it indirectly, or, born too late, came to love the band after they broke up. Writers, musicians, fans--including Fran Lebowitz, Billy Joel, Renee Fleming, Lisa See, Pico Iyer, and others--describe in essays and interviews how they were inspired and changed by the Beatles. Conceived as a scrapbook of madness, in John Lennon s famous words, this collection arose from writer Penelope Rowlands s own Beatlemaniac phase, when she was one of five screaming girls captured in an iconic photograph that has been published around the world--and is displayed on the cover of this book. (The stories of the girls, who found each other again 50 years later, are also part of this volume.) The Beatles Are Here is a celebration of the myth, the reality, the phenomenon, the era. Where did the Beatles take us, what did they deliver us from, and finally, what do they mean to us now?