American Cocktail: A "Colored Girl" in the World
*Starred Review* Beautiful, vivacious, stylish, and free-spirited, Reynolds (1901–80) was asked about her “racially ambiguous appearance” so often that she came up with “American cocktail” to describe her “red, white, and black” legacy.” A dancer, actor, psychologist, and teacher, Reynolds recorded this archly witty, sexually frank, nonchalantly confident, yet curiously humble memoir in the mid–1970s, and it is published now for the first time, thanks to its discovery by Cornell professor George Hutchinson. Reynolds jauntily describes her lively, privileged childhood in Chicago and Los Angeles among her extended multiracial family, which included her cousin, Langston Hughes.  Stating that she always felt free “to do exactly as I pleased,” Reynolds appeared in The Thief of Bagdad with Douglas Fairbanks, moved to New York, absconded with her college tuition, and headed to Paris in 1928––“Away from the lynchings, away from the Negro problem.” Dizzying tales of famous artists and writers, escapades and affairs, sojourns in Tangiers and London, and harrowing moments as WWII begins are punctuated by confrontations with prejudice and hate. Kudos to Hutchinson for bringing this independent and intrepid citizen of the world back to shimmer and shine among us, carrying forward her “guiding passion to try to improve racial relationships, to get people of different nationalities, colors and religions to understand and appreciate each other.” --Donna Seaman