Harriet Lane Levy

Harriet Lane Levy (March 29, 1866 – September 15, 1950) is a California writer best known for her memoir, 920 O’Farrell Street. Levy was also an avid art collector, a girlhood friend of Alice B. Toklas, and an acquaintance of Gertrude Stein.
Early life
She was born on March 29, 1866 in San Francisco, California, United States, into an upper-middle-class Jewish family and raised in San Francisco. From 1865-1869, her cousin, Albert A. Michelson, the first U.S. citizen to win a Nobel Prize for science, lived with her.
Young women such as Levy were expected to marry well-off men, which generated additional societal expectations. However, the intellectually inclined Levy was hesitant to marry early.
Career
Levy graduated from the University of California at Berkeley as an English major in 1886, and became a prominent writer for popular San Francisco publications, such as the San Francisco Call. She also wrote for The Wave, a San Francisco weekly, with notable writers such as Jack London and Frank Norris. Another one of Levy’s passions was traveling.
She visited Paris many times, the first being with her friends Michael (brother of Gertrude Stein) and Sarah Stein. When the 1906 San Francisco earthquake struck, Harriet Levy happened to be overseas. Upon her return, she discovered her home completely destroyed by the disaster.
Levy returned to Paris with her former neighbor Alice B. Toklas, in 1907, living with Toklas and being a peripheral member of Gertrude's "charmed circle" of artists and writers, until Toklas moved in with Gertrude Stein in 1910.
In 1908, in Paris, Levy was invited to Pablo Picasso's party in the Montmartre in and Montparnasse quarters, to honor the painter Henri Rousseau. Levy wrote a description of the famed Rousseau Banquet, which was published in a limited edition of 30 copies, in 1985 as part of a UC Berkeley seminar. While in Paris, she acquired a collection of priceless art including French visual artist Henri Matisse.
In 1910, she resettled in San Francisco, at the age of 47, continuing to live independently by pursuing her intellectual interests, such as psychology and Christian Science, until her death in 1950.
Connections to Gertrude Stein
One of Gertrude Stein's early word portraits was dedicated to Levy, capturing her essence through language. Levy became the center of considerable effort on the part of Toklas and Stein to ensure her return to San Francisco, this time without Alice B. Toklas, her original traveling companion.
Levy moved to Carmel-by-the-Sea, California in 1943, during World War II, and resided at the La Playa Hotel with her friend Mary Godde.
At the age of eighty, Levy's widely acclaimed autobiography, titled 920 O’Farrell Street, was published. The book chronicles her childhood in an upper-middle-class San Francisco neighborhood, offering a glimpse into her early life experiences. A volume of verse, I Love to Talk About Myself, was published the same year. According to a historian's assessment, Levy was not only accomplished as a literary artist and intellectual but also held significant importance in revealing insights about her era and the social life within the upper-middle-class Jewish community in San Francisco. The Saturday Review of Literature lauded her work, describing it as subtly intelligent, with a vibrant atmosphere that vividly depicted the customs and colors of the time. Recently, the book has been reissued, garnering renewed attention. Additionally, a collection of her previously unpublished writings has been released under the title Paris Portrait: Stories of Picasso, Matisse, Gertrude Stein, and Their Circle, allowing readers to delve further into the fascinating world of renowned artists and writers of that era.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Benefactor
The art collection left behind by Levy stands as her enduring legacy, generously bequeathed to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Among the treasures within this collection are masterpieces by renowned artists such as Matisse, Picasso, Derain, Degas, and Utrillo. These remarkable paintings have significantly enriched the museum's holdings of early twentieth-century avant-garde art, ensuring that future generations can appreciate and draw inspiration from these iconic works.
André Derain, Paysage du midi, 1906 oil on canvas
Peter David Edstrom, Portrait of Miss Levy, ca. 1907-1908 terracotta
Henri Manguin, Nu sous les arbres (Nude beneath the Trees) (study), 1905 oil on canvasboard; Corsican Landscape
Henri Matisse, Corsican Landscape, 1899 oil on canvas; La Table au café (Café Table), ca. 1899 oil on canvas; Le Serf (The Slave), 1900–1903, bronze; Madeleine, I, 1901 bronze; Flowers, 1905 oil on cardboard; Assiette de fruits (Fruit Dish), 1902-1903 oil on canvas 1907; La fille aux yeux verts (The Girl with Green Eyes), 1908 oil on canvas; Grosse tête; Henriette, II (Large Head; Henriette, II), 1927 bronze
Pablo Picasso, Scène de rue (Street Scene), 1900 oil on canvas
Death
On September 15, 1950, Harriet Levy passed away at the La Playa Hotel in Carmel-by-the-Sea. She had resided there for the last seven years of her life. The funeral services took place at the Chapel by the Sea in Pacific Grove, with Dr. Reuben Rinder from San Francisco officiating the ceremony. The Paul Mortuary handled all the funeral arrangements.
References
External links
Four short radio readings from 920 O'Farrell Street from California Legacy Project.
The Right of the People to Peaceably Assemble in Unusual Clothing (pdf file; with selections from Harriet Lane Levy's autobiography)
Review and Summary of Harriet Lane Levy's autobiography
Example of bequest by Harriet Lane Levy to the San Francisco Museum of Art.
1867 births
1950 deaths
American women writers
Jewish American writers
Jewish women writers