Cecil Beaton: Memoirs of the 40's, is the marvelous autobiography of the great Cecil Beaton, British photographer (Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Vanity Fair), set designer (My Fair Lady, Tenderloin), illustrator and one of the most important witnesses and tellers of the XX Century's Art society. He befriended geniuses like Pablo Picasso, Jean Cocteau, Gertrude Stein, Truman Capote ... and talked about them in the most openly and sensitive way.He was an insatiable diary keeper and his diaries from the 40's form the pages of this book. There are other books with his diaries from the 60's and the 70's or 80's, but as you might know, I'm a 40's lover so I'm sure this will be my all time fave book.
Cecil was to me, before reading this book, a funny character, some kind of effeminate guy whose love for society, magazines and photography led him to be one of the most interesting portrait artists of his time. Thanks to him though I discovered women as Nancy Cunard (who he photographed during the 20's) whose look has been imitated for some many women afterwards, so I had him in big steam.Beaton's image and persona had a meaning to me that has changed 180º since I read the memoirs ... he was not that funny and effeminate guy I thought him to be, he was witty, sharp, sensitive and very very intelligent, and his life was one to envy.
I have been thinking the best way of reviewing this book and I came to the conclusion that who better than he to portrait his own genius?.
I'm going to reproduce parts of this book, (I hope i don't have problems with the law now...) where he portraits artists and people we all know or should know, the way they were, for you to show you how this way differs to what magazines, gossips and legends of the time has told us.
I would like to start with a Spanish person, Rita De Acosta, or Rita Lydig as he calls her (in 1902 she married retired U.S. Army Captain Phillip M. Lydig).
This extract is from a conversation the author has with Mercedes De Acosta, Rita's younger sister and very good friend of Beaton's lover, Greta Garbo. (surprised? i was too!)
" I also asked her [Mercedes] about her remarkable sister Rita Lydig, who was renowned for being the most extravagant woman of her day, and travelled abroad with seven servants including masseuse and hairdresser. [...]
I had known Mrs Lydig from her Boldini portraits but only met her once when I first came to America nearly twenty years ago. But by then her health had been undermined by drugs, to which she had become addicted after a careless doctor has caused her terrible suffering. By forgetting to turn off an electric pad placed under her while being given an anaesthetic before an operation, he had inflicted upon her such serious burns that they were never to heal. [...] 
Her patronage of the arts-with particular taste for music and encouragement of musicians- resulted in her house's being used at all times for rehearsals or concerts. She had a special penchant for the Renaissance, was an expert on Oriental art, and as innovator of fashion wore the first backless evening dress at the opera. Shoes were also one of her passions, and she possessed literally hundreds of pairs made of Elizabethan lace, rare skins, and quattrocento velvet, all buckled, often with jewels, made by the genius Jan Torny, who worked only for women he admired. He did not charge them for every pair -each of a different style- but asked for an initial fee of a thousand pounds. After this, he could afford to have the tress made from wood normally used for making violins. When hard-pressed for money, Mrs Lydig preferred to fill her house with rare white flowers rather than to eat"Cecil Beaton: Memoirs of the 40's. pages 246-247
McGraw-Hill Book Company editorial
McGraw-Hill Book Company editorial
