Just Passing Through: A Seven Decade Roman Holiday: The Diaries and Photographs of Milton Gendel

Abundantly illustrated with the late photographer Gendel’s images, these diary entries show off his fabulously wealthy and cultured milieu of socialites, royalty, artists, fellow American expats, among them Peggy Guggenheim, Mick Jagger, Gore Vidal, Evelyn Waugh, Princess Margaret, and Queen Elizabeth. It’s an intimate series of snapshots and vignettes of the gilded 1970s-era Rome that Gendel (1918–2018) inhabited. His remarks are as candid as his photographs: Salvador Dalí was a “splendid figure with his joke mustache,” but Balthasar Klossowski de Rola (director of the French Academy in Rome) was a “Lizard with a high IQ.” Gendel’s passion for art permeates, as he takes in J. Paul Getty’s mansion or offers a damning review of the 1972 Venice Biennale. Never intended “for public consumption,” per Murphy, Gendel’s writings are sharp and casual (the Queen Mother gets noted “QM”). Though detailed enough to be a bit niche for general readers, those who know the art world will delight in these fresh and often funny notes on some of the 20th century’s most well-known cultural figures. (Nov.)