Some of My Lives: A Scrapbook Memoir
“In Paris, she had Picasso’s ear, and Matisse’s, too. Back when blue laws shut Philadelphia down on Sundays, Stokowski came over to her house for dinner. Her long marriage to the art critic John Russell counts as one of the great love stories of our era. Rosamond Bernier, storyteller extraordinaire, friend and confidante to countless of the twentieth century’s cultural icons, has written a remarkable memoir of a remarkable life. Intimate, winning, sunny, and smart,Some of My Liveshas a voice not unlike the one in Diana Vreeland’s autobiography—only here, all of it is true.” —Michael Kimmelman“Wonders never cease in the life of Rosamond Bernier. As the Paris-based European editor ofVogue, she saw the world through the chiffon trenches of haute couture. As the cofounding editor ofL’OEIL, the most influential art magazine of her time, she befriended artists like Picasso, Miró, and Matisse (who suggested she wear a yellow scarf with her orange Balenciaga coat).Some of My Livesis a delicious mosaic of a life elegantly, enchantingly lived.” —André Leon Talley“Rosamond Bernier’s new memoir moves with the unflagging brio, wit, and style of her public lectures and her private conversation. The effect is pure pleasure—a brilliant life, beautifully evoked.” —Calvin Tomkins“Rosamond Bernier’s gorgeous ‘scrapbook’ of a memoir is an exhilarating hopscotch through twentieth-century art that had me careening from the middle to the beginning to the back, delighting in her encounters with everyone who mattered. Bernier makes me believe in string theory. She just might be the unifying force behind everything.” —John Guare