Janet Flanner: Literary Pistol

Born in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1892, Janet Flanner was the daughter of a mortician father and a theatre-loving mother. Music and literature were strongly encouraged among the three girls. Janet Flanner would become a renowned journalist, Marie a concert pianist, and Hildegarde an acclaimed poet. After several family trips abroad, Frank Flanner opened the first cremotorium in Indiana, while the girls attended the Tudor Hall School for Girls.

A rather austere looking portrait of Janet in 1922

In 1912, Janet enrolled in the University of Chicago. That same year, her father poisoned himself inside his mortuary. Shocked and devestated, Janet withdrew from the University. Her father's death would go on to influence the character of James Poole, an idealistic but suicidal real-estate agent in her novel, The Cubicle City.

Along came William Rhem. Janet had met William--an artist in who now lived in New York City, while at the University of Chicago. Many years after their marriage in 1918, Janet admitted to being more in love with the idea of leaving Indianopolis than with her husband.

Janet soon discovered that New York, and particularly Greenwich Village, was practically crawling with young, brilliant, and idealistic artists, writers, and musicians. All of them wanted something more than New York.

During this time, Janet met Sarah Wilkinson, a journalist who now preferred to be called Solita Solano. What began as a perfectly normal friendship between two women, soon showed itself to be something different. Janet quickly divorced her husband, took the job at the New Yorker Harold Ross had offered her, and flew away with Solita to France, where her bisexuality would be accepted.

Upon arriving in Paris in 1925, Janet sent her first "Letter From Paris" to the New Yorker. The first subject was the sensual performer Josephine Baker:

Josephine Baker has arrived at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées in La Revue Nègre and the result has been unanimous. Paris has never drawn a color line. Covarrubias did the sets, pink drops and cornucopias of ham and watermelons, and the Civil War did the rest, aided by Miss Baker. The music is timeless and stunningly orchestrated, and the end of the show is dull, but never Miss Baker's part. It was even less dull the first night, when she did what used to be, what indeed still should be called, a stomach dance.

The first issue of the New Yorker Janet Flanner's "Letter From Paris" appeared in.


The brisk, yet somehow deliciously detailed style of Janet's writing attracted much attention and admiration from her neighbors living on the Paris Left Bank. Pablo Picasso particularly enjoyed the column (though he never told her this until years later). Janet and Solita frequenting the Les Deux Magots cafe, joining the company of F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Joyce, Henri Matisse, and Ernest Hemingway. Soon after, Janet's "Letters" became illuminated with the tales of luxurious parties, French politics, and the odd quircks of the literary and artistic geniuses she was so admired by.

Le Deux Magots in its prime.

Perhaps the greatest friend Janet made was Ernest Hemingway, with whom she had a deep personal connection. Hemingway's father, like Janet's, had also committed suicide. The two discussed this at length, ending the conversation with a promise that if they ever copied their fathers' examples, neither would greive. The two remained friends and mentors to one another until Hemingway's suicide in 1961.

Janet with Hemingway at Le Deux Magots, 1948.

In 1926, Janet authored her first and only novel. The Cubicle City was a story of the liberated and freedom-loving Delia Poole, who was living in New York City as a costume designer. The paralells between Delia and Janet were glaring, especially Delia's suicidal father and her small town upbringing. The novel achieved little success, and Janet accepted that fiction was not her forte. She would later tell a reporter, "Writing is my gift. But not writing fiction."

A rare copy of The Cubicle City

The golden literary era of Paris eventually faded. Hemingway moved to Spain and the Fitzgeralds went to Los Angeles. Then World War II began, and Janet quickly relocated back to New York. During the war, Janet continued her column, but also profiled Adolph Hitler in 1936, and contributed to various radio news broadcasts. In 1945, she covered the infamous Nuremburg Trials, which prosecuted suspected members of the Nazi party.


Until her retirement in 1975, Janet Flanner continued to dispatch her "Letters From Paris". Upon returning to Paris in 1948, she was welcomed with open arms, and was later made a knight of Legion d'Honneur. She would later profile the first French President, Charles de Gaulle in 1969. Though she and Solita lived together for almost fifty years, Flanner's final companion was Natalia Murray, who cared for her until her death on November 7th, 1978.


What brought your person to France? Was there a particular reason he or she left America to pursue their work in France?


Naturally, Janet Flanner was greatly affected by her father's suicide. But now more than ever, she felt stifled by Indianappolis. Though she enjoyed a breif stint as a cinema critic for the local paper the Indianappolis Star, the job soon fell through. At the end of the day, Janet was still stuck in the town where her family's name was tabboo and her father's suicide was still fresh material for the town gossips. Though she felt largely liberated in New York City, she felt rigid moral and social veiws still infringed on her personal and creative views and her sexuality. The only solution was Paris.


What do you think of your person's work? Does it appeal to you? Why or why not?


I love Flanner's unsentimental style of writing. Her dispatches from Paris all read like detailed notes, with special details and hints of the her own sharp personality. It appeals to me most because of the subject, which was so beautifully captured in so little pages. What I like most about Flanner's work from Paris is that she doesn't mince words. She undoubtedly did this because she knew that a lengendary city like Paris would still be Paris even if she used fifty adjectives to describe it, and that it needs no long-winded introduction.


Based on what you know about the person and the samples you've found, would you be interested in more of their work? Why or why not?


I would love to get my hands on The Cubicle City. The paralells between Janet's life and the story of Deliah Poole really interest me, and I think it clearly shows the affect Janet's upbringing and her father's suicide affected her. Janet's Paris journals, which were from 1948 to the early 1970s, would also be interesting to read, as I'm sure Janet had many observations regarding the social and cultural changes Paris was experiencing at the time.