Paris Between the Wars

A dynamic portrait of Paris during one of the century's most exciting creative periods, Mann's atmospheric chronicle is studded with 190 duotone period photographs. Revealing shots mingled with posed studio images capture Josephine Baker, Picasso, Antonin Artaud, Jean Cocteau, Andre Derain, Marcel Duchamp, Raymond Radiguet, Fernand Leger and Le Corbusier, to name a few. Mann, a journalist, exhibition organizer, novelist and lecturer on art, compellingly presents interwar Paris as a civilizing force, a city that roared and shook from nightclubs to cafes to theaters, aswirl with cubism, futurism, jazz, dadaist and surrealist provocations. Yet she also notes that the avant-garde was a fringe movement, increasingly eclipsed as the bohemian '20s gave way to the anxiety-riddled '30s--an observation reinforced by photos of street life, unemployment lines and preparations for war. (Oct.)