The Art of the Affair : An Illustrated History of Love, Sex, and Artistic Influence

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''A guide to some of the more avant-garde relationships of the past century ... Some of the fun lies in its choose-your-own-adventure structure, following arrows back and forth across decades and marriages ... the perfect coffee-table book for the starving artist in your life.'' - Washington Post

''Gorgeously illustrated ... It''s impossible not to lose yourself in the intimate, deliciously scandalous details'' - Nylon

''A dose of naughtily narrated A-list gossip.'' - Elle Magazine
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A surprisingly scandalous and vibrantly illustrated chain of entanglements (romantic and otherwise) between some of our best-loved writers and artists of the twentieth century.

Poet Robert Lowell died of a heart attack, clutching a portrait of his lover, Caroline Blackwood, painted by her ex-husband, Lucian Freud. Lowell was on his way to see his own ex-wife, Elizabeth Hardwick, who was a longtime friend of Mary McCarthy. McCarthy left the father of her child to marry Edmund Wilson, who had encouraged her writing, and had also brought critical attention to the fiction of Anaïs Nin . . . whom he later bedded. And so it goes, the long chain of love, affections, and artistic influences among writers, musicians, and artists that weaves its way through the The Art of the Affair--from Frida Kahlo to Colette to Hemingway to Dali; from Coco Chanel to Stravinsky to Miles Davis to Orson Welles.

Scrupulously researched but playfully prurient, cleverly designed and colorfully illustrated, it''s the perfect gift for your literary lover--and the perfect read for any good-natured gossip-monger.