Genêt, Janet Flanner, a Gentleman of the Press in Skirts

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A well-known photograph of Janet Flanner — known as “Genêt” — shows her wearing a top hat with two masks affixed, one black and one white. Genêt wrote as French correspondent for The New Yorker for 50 years, before and after World War II. Brenda Wineapple presents this as a testament of Flanner’s talent, and of her loyalty. A friend once quoted Flanner as saying,“When I die, let it not be said that I wrote for The New Yorker for 50 years; let it be said that once I stood by a friend.” Flanner’s dispatches, collected into A Paris Journal, won the National Book Award in 1966. Wineapple, author of A Gentleman of the Press in Skirts: Janet Flanner, Genêt, and The New Yorker, discussed Flanner at The Mount’s third Women of Achievement lecture this year, Monday, July 9. Wineapple is now writing a biography of Nathaniel Hawthorne. She has twice been a fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and is co-director of the New York University biography seminar. And she has lectured at The Mount before. She spoke about Gertrude Stein when the lecture series was still held at The Mount itself. Wineapple said Genêt, Janet Flanner, was born in Indiana and began her career as drama critic for an Indianapolis paper. In the 1920s, following a desire for beauty, Flanner moved to Paris. In 1920, tourist passage from America to Paris was $80, and a decent dinner at a Paris restaurant cost 10 cents. Flanner’s hotel cost $1 a day, though the bathroom was one floor up, on the fifth floor. Paris life in the ’20s was simply fun, Wineapple said. F. Scott Fitzgerald climbed up Flanner’s stairs, drunk, and banged on her door until she agreed to discuss Joyce, and Hemingway came to sit in her yellow chair and talk. Flanner dreamt of writing novels. While she worked on the first, she took a part-time job to make ends meet. Jane Grant, Harold Ross’ wife, wrote to ask Flanner if she, Flanner, would consider writing for Ross’s new magazine. Grant wanted plenty of chat and cheerful personality. Flanner’s first novel garnered scant acclaim, and her second was never finished. Her part-time job lasted for 50 years. Ross hoped the magazine would stand on its own, and published its writers under pseudonyms. Janet’s pseudonym, Genêt, is a kind of French version of her first name. Wineapple suggests “Flaneur” might have been more appropriate, considering Flanner’s last name. (A flaneur is one who wanders, usually city streets, observing life and customs.) But Wineapple adds that that Citizen Genêt was also the first French minister to the U.S., and a prodigious letter writer. The 1920s Genêt sent a regular, fortnightly letter to The New Yorker. She discussed everything from the arrival of Charles Lindbergh to the death of Clemenceau: Wineapple said he asked to be buried standing upright, and Genêt said this would be a suitable position for him. Genêt discussed the mushroom market, the flea market, the current fashion, dance. Wineapple said Flanner gave brisk accounts. She did not analyze or openly editorialize, though on listening to a new piece of music, Flanner reportedly wrote that it sounded as though it was played by three people: one on an old boiler, one on a coffee grinder and one on a factory whistle. She never used the first-person pronoun. “I is like fortissimo,” she said; “It is too loud.” Flanner gave Ross credit for teaching her how to write, Wineapple said. He trimmed her romantic ornamentation and infected her with his passion for grammar. As The New Yorker’s reputation grew, Flanner’s connection with it gained her recognition. Wineapple said, though, that her best sources were always her friends, who tutored her on the French government and introduced her to the famous names she profiled. Natalie Barney tracked down one of the soldiers in the firing squad that shot Mata Hari. Barney told Flanner what Mata Hari wore to her final appointment: a new suit specially tailored for the occasion, and white gloves. Flanner once said Barney was a wonderfully interesting woman if you happened to be in love with her, which she was not. Flanner and Barney lived only a few blocks apart, Wineapple said, and knew each other well, but Flanner declined to become Barney’s acolyte. Flanner was “a lesbian who kept her private life private,” Wineapple said. She believed Flanner had three long lasting relationships during her life; Barney, she said, had many. Flanner wrote profiles as well as letters. One of the earliest and seemingly most significant to her was a profile of Edith Wharton. Wineapple said that in the literary revolutions of the ’20s, many considered Wharton “ ‘the literary equivalent of tufted furniture and gas candaliers.’ ” Flanner said that “born for ethics, she ignored the senses. ... At the age of 30, Mrs. Wharton was remarked as already cold and handsome.” Flanner attributed this complexion to too many winters in fashionable Lenox, where the winters lay down “ice so thick no spring can penetrate it, and the rest is under glass.” Wineapple said sections of the profile are even mean-spirited. She suggested Flanner was exorcising the spirit of her mother through this work. Flanner’s mother was a published poet and playwright who read Browning at the YMCA, who said her three daughters robbed her of her talent. Flanner’s father, the local undertaker, committed suicide in his mortuary. Wineapple suggested that it was because of the autobiographical tension in the Wharton piece that, for the first time, Flanner signed it with her own name. Wharton still represented literature and culture for her. Flanner liked Gertrude Stein but found her work unreadable,Wineapple said. “Flanner was no iconoclast ... she loved elegance and grace.” She detested the word ‘journalist’ — she thought of herself as a writer. Ross paid Flanner double his normal rate for the Wharton piece. She sunk part of her earnings into a new typewriter, and began to expand from there. She branched into Europe, and covered the Berlin Olympic Games. She wrote a profile of Hitler that readers both admired and scorned, Wineapple said. During the Second World War, Flanner left Europe for America and continued to write celebrity profiles. When the war ended, she returned to Paris. She and Ross expected her to take up where she left off. But she found, as she said, that nothing was the same in the world or in France. Men and what they had done were too horrible. Flanner’s writing began to develop a new social conscience, Wineapple said. Ross began to tone down her letters, when he felt she was climbing onto a soap box. This tension eventually built into a rift, or at least a shift, in her relationship with the paper. Flanner was writing on a four-part profile of Leon Bloom, the first Jewish socialist Premier of France. In the 1930s, he shortened the work week to 30 hours and proposed paid vacations. In the 1940s, he was arrested and sent to Buchenwald. After the war, he testified at Pétain’s trial. Flanner heard him there, and reported his brief definition of treason: the act of selling out. Flanner said Bloom personified the history of the Third Republic in France. She said that post war, shell shocked France desperately needed idealism, and that socialism might answer the call. She dismissed her lighter ’20s writing as “merititious trash.” Wineapple suggested that in the Bloom profile, Flanner began to transform her writing to suit a darker time. The Bloom work, Flanner said, was the work on which she based her highest hopes for the next quarter century. The New Yorker as policy only published profiles of living people, and Bloom died as Flanner was gathering material. Ross had informally promised Flanner that he would run her profile. After Bloom died, Ross equivocated. Bloom was not only dead, he said, but a foreigner and a socialist. William Shawn, who became The New Yorker’s second editor in 1952, suggested Flanner turn her profile into a little book, add Pétain, and call it Two Frenchmen. He also, pointedly, suggested that she should return to America for some political retuning. America had not yet moved into McCarthyism, Wineapple said, but the Cold War had started, and some accused The New Yorker of communist leanings. Ross worried that Flanner had moved drastically to the left. Flanner believed that McCarthyism was fascistic, and those who caved into it were as bad as the French in 1940. In the fall of 1952, Flanner testified in defense of a friend and fellow New Yorker correspondent, who was accused of being a card-carrying communist. Flanner was furious to learn, afterward, that The New Yorker had decided not to renew her friend’s accreditation as a foreign correspondent. Flanner had not written out her profile of Bloom. Wineapple said she habitually wrote everything at the last minute, and Ross had waffled the last minute out of existence. Flanner later interpolated large parts of the Bloom profile into her Paris letters. Wineapple compared Flanner finally with André Malraux, another celebrity Flanner profiled. Wineapple described him as a politician who disdained politics, the artist outlaw of the 1920s, a French skeptic who refused to sacrifice the individual for the state and who wrote with lucidity, balance and balanced sentences. She suggested that Flanner shared some spirit with Malraux, and also with Wharton. She seemed to feel that Flanner might have described herself when Flanner wrote that “Wharton’s friends were few, but of long standing. It was in her character to support old amities with loyalty. Mrs. Wharton had the tender sentiments of the truly literate. Indeed, once, more than once, she stood by a friend.”
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Friday Front Porch Feature: A Charming House Like New

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff

The home prior to renovations.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Are you looking for a newly renovated home with great space? Then this might be the perfect fit for you!

Our Friday Front Porch is a weekly feature spotlighting attractive homes for sale in Berkshire County. This week, we are showcasing 100 Autumn Drive.

This three-bedroom, two-bathroom split level was built in 1965 and is 1,396 square feet on 0.32 acres.

The house was completely renovated recently. It includes a one-car garage, and comes with appliances including a dishwasher and stove/oven, and other major appliances.

The house is listed for $359,500.

We spoke with owners Michael Zeppieri and Chris Andrews, who did the renovations. Zeppieri is an agent with Alton and Westall Real Estate Agency.

What was your first impression when you walked into the home?

Zeppieri: I purchased this home to do a full renovation flip and saw tremendous potential in this mid-century split level home that had not been updated since it was built in the 1960s, in a great North Adams neighborhood.

 

Andrews: The house was a much different house when we first purchased it in 2022 (photo attached is from about 2010.)  The interior was painted all in dark colors and we brightened it up with neutral colors. The transformation makes you feel like you are in a totally different house.  

 

 

What were the recent renovations, any standout design features?

 

Zeppieri: The house has had a complete reconfiguration including new kitchen with high-end appliances, ceramic tiled baths, hardwood floors, new windows and roof ... just to name a few.  All a buyer has to do is move in and enjoy.

 

Andrews: Yes, we renovated the entire house.  New windows, new roof, all new custom black gutter system, new blacktop driveway, hardwood floors were installed through out the house. New kitchen and bathrooms as well as painting the exterior and interior of the house.  New paver patio in the back yard.

 

What kind of buyer would this home be ideal for?

 

Zeppieri: The buyer for this home could be a first-time homebuyer or a retiree ... the location is close to attractions in North Adams ... and the property is located in Autumn Heights, which is a very small residential development with several long-term owners.

 

Andrews: This home is truly ideal for a variety of buyers. Whether a first-time homebuyer, a small family or even someone looking to downsize from a larger home.

 

 

What do you think makes this property stand out in the current market?

 

Zeppieri: The location, price and move-in condition of this home make it a true market leader in the North Adams Market.

 

Andrews: This house is completely renovated and in a desirable location of North Adams. The natural light in the home really makes the interior pop. And with all the upgrades the home stays quite cool in the summer months.

Do you know any unique stories about the home or its history?

Zeppieri: This home was built for the Gould family in 1969 and they lived there till 2010. It was always a family home during that time in which the Goulds had two children ... and Virgina Gould managed Mohawk Forest Apartments and was a very active resident of North Adams.

 

Andrews: Built in about 1965.

 

What do the current owners love about this home?

 

Zeppieri: As the current owner it was a fun project to transform this home and get it ready for its next adventure with a new family to enjoy for many years.

 

Andrews: No one has lived in the house since we purchased the home. The new owners would be the first to live in the house since the renovations have been completed.

 

 

What would you say to a buyer trying to imagine their life in this space?

 

Andrews: I would suggest seeing the house either on a sunny day or at twilight to really get a vision of how special the home feels.  

 

You can find out more about this house on its listing here.

*Front Porch Feature brings you an exclusive to some of the houses listed on our real estate page every week. Here we take a bit of a deeper dive into a certain house for sale and ask questions so you don't have to.

 

 

 

 

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