Mar 13 2009
Janet Flanner, Genet
Janet Flanner with Ernest Hemingway
Janet Flanner was born on March 13, 1892 in Indianapolis, Indiana. In 1914, she graduated from the University of Chicago. After graduation, she worked a a cinema critic for the Indianapolis Star. In 1918, she married William Rehm; they were divorced in 1926. Janet Flanner was bisexual and had a long-time relationship with Solita Solano. The pair were satirized in Djuna Barnes ‘ Ladies Almanack.
During the 1920s and 1930s, Janet Flanner was a correspondant for the New Yorker Magazine in Paris. She wrote a series of columns under the pseudonym of Genet called Letter from Paris. She became friendly with many of the Lost Generation authors including Ernest Hemingway; she was also a friend of Gertrude Stein. Janet Flanner wrote one novel called Cubical City in 1926; most of her other writing was journalistic. In 1972, she published the book Paris was Yesterday which collected many of her Letter from Paris columns from 1925-1939.
Janet Flanner died in New York City on November 7, 1978.
