Princess of 72nd Street - Softcover

Kraf, Elaine

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1564782352 ISBN 13: 9781564782359

Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press, 2000

Synopsis

This remarkable novel by Elaine Kraf received almost no attention when it was first published in 1979. For whatever reasons, America was not ready for this dream-like look at life inside the head of a young woman, a struggling artist, living in New York's Upper West Side and coping with the ravages of manic-depression.

Not only did Kraf take on a dark and disturbing subject, she did so in an utterly original, witty, and inventive manner--a provocative move, even in the liberated culture of the 1970s. And, while others have since expanded upon the territory that Kraf was mining, one still has to go as far back as the early down-and-out-in-Paris novels of Jean Rhys to find a writer who so boldly and honestly portrays a smart, sardonic, attractive, but deeply troubled woman fighting to survive on her own in the city.

About this title

From the Back Cover

In Elaine Kraf's witty, sardonic novel The Princess of 72nd Street, The Princess Esmeralda is sure of her royalty, her seizures of 'radiance, ' and her domain-Manhattan's 72nd Street from Central Park West to Riverside Drive. On the other hand, Ellen has trouble coping with an ex-lover, his psychiatrist, an ex-husband, dining out, putting just one color on her canvases at a time, and trying to keep a radiant Esmeralda from being arrested.

About the Author

An accomplished artist and musician as well as a novelist, Elaine Kraf has been the recipient of many awards, including two National Endowment for the Arts awards ('70 and '82).

Edition details

• Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 1564782352
• ISBN 13: 9781564782359
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 118