Life Itself!

Bol Partner

Author of the celebrated and hilarious THE DUD AVOCADO, the classic novel about a young American ingenue in Paris, Elaine Dundy was born in New York in the 1930s. Her first years were spent in an apartment on Park Avenue until the stock market crash wiped out most of the family's money. She went to university in the south where, among other studies, she worked hard at losing her virginity. Deciding the stage was her true home, Elaine Dundy headed first to Paris and then to London, where she met and married the famous theatre critic Kenneth Tynan. Though their union was intoxicating, it was far from easy and the successful publication in 1958 of her novel finished off the marriage. But it was the opening of a new world of writers for Elaine Dundy, including friendships with Tennessee Williams, Hemingway and Gore Vidal. Extremely funny and extraordinarily honest this wonderfully remembered story of growing up in America is as much a tonic as life itself.

Bol

Elaine Dundy, a New Yorker born in the 1930s, is the author of The Dud Avocado, based on a year she spent in Paris. Here she presents her memoirs which begin in classy apartments on Park Lane before the Crash, include a wild and funny time as an actress in Paris and London, and reveal all about her disastrous marriage to theater critic Kenneth Tynan. Her literary and theatrical circle—which included Peter Finch, Tennesse Williams, Hemingway, and Gore Vidal—is presented along with poignant remembrances of growing up in America in the 40s, and a literary and theatrical life in Paris and London.