Intimate Companions: A Triography of George Platt Lynes, Paul Cadmus, Lincoln Kirstein, and Their Circle

Rating:
Summary: [weak]
Review: David Leddick has accomplished in this book what couldn't have been achieved by any impeccably-trained art critic or scholarly biographer: he has told the story of three vastly different but intertwined lives from the standpoint of a cultural historian who knew his subjects very well. I for one don't regret, as other reviewers have, that Leddick didn't write about the various other "menages a trois" that crop up in the world of George Platt Lynes, Paul Cadmus, and Lincoln Kirstein. (I don't believe that the French-Cadmus or the Wheeler-Wescott-Lynes trios, for example, is particularly interesting beyond the sexually titillating.) On the other hand, the Lynes-Cadmus-Kirstein connection, to my knowledge, has not been explored in any depth at all, and Lynes especially is in need of an historical re-evaluation. Leddick does an admirable job of showing the kind of world these three men inhabited when they were at ease sexually and emotionally. Like another reviewer, I found the first-person introductions to the book's chapter divisions first-rate writing and terrific gay-history. And Leddick's evocation of Lynes, the flamboyant cement who seems to have held many of these friendships together, is both heartwarming and heartbreaking. I enjoyed this book immensely.

Rating:
Summary: A fine book, finely written
Review: David Leddick has accomplished in this book what couldn't have been achieved by any impeccably-trained art critic or scholarly biographer: he has told the story of three vastly different but intertwined lives from the standpoint of a cultural historian who knew his subjects very well. I for one don't regret, as other reviewers have, that Leddick didn't write about the various other "menages a trois" that crop up in the world of George Platt Lynes, Paul Cadmus, and Lincoln Kirstein. (I don't believe that the French-Cadmus or the Wheeler-Wescott-Lynes trios, for example, is particularly interesting beyond the sexually titillating.) On the other hand, the Lynes-Cadmus-Kirstein connection, to my knowledge, has not been explored in any depth at all, and Lynes especially is in need of an historical re-evaluation. Leddick does an admirable job of showing the kind of world these three men inhabited when they were at ease sexually and emotionally. Like another reviewer, I found the first-person introductions to the book's chapter divisions first-rate writing and terrific gay-history. And Leddick's evocation of Lynes, the flamboyant cement who seems to have held many of these friendships together, is both heartwarming and heartbreaking. I enjoyed this book immensely.

Rating:
Summary: History as Cocktail Party
Review: David Leddick's look at the Gay Bohemeian New York during the early part of the 20th century was as fun as it was informative. Since homo-history is rarely passed down from parent to child it is important that scholars like Leddick are there to fill in the gaps for Gen-xers like myself. Leddick's technique of setting up each historical period as a fictional "cocktail party" was truly inspired. This helped make his history lessons as pleasurable as a well made martini. Cheers

Rating:
Summary: History as Cocktail Party
Review: David Leddick's look at the mostly homosexual art world of New york in the early part of the 20th century is an absolute pleasure to read. As a Gen-X gay man, I find myself very curious about the history of my culture. Obviously these stories aren't usually passed down from parent to child. Mr. Leddick's use of a fictional cocktail party to introduce each decade sets just the right fun gossipy tone and helps the reader to imbibe the ensuing biographical information like it was a well mixed martini. Cheers to Mr. Leddick!

Rating:
Summary: Chatty, catty Mr. Leddick bit off more than he can swallow..
Review: I bought this book to follow-up two other biographical works I'd recently read (and recommend): "Walker Evans", by James Mellow, and Christopher "Isherwood Diaries, Vol. 1". It seemed a natural: Lincoln Kirstein was a large presence in Walker Evans' early development, and Paul Cadmus became a close friend to Chris Isherwood. A striking revelation of these books is how very many of the creative minds of the literary and art worlds of the '20's-'50's knew each other, and often were in each other's beds.

Sadly, David Leddick puts forward the sexual connections within this small community as the primary focus of his book. In his other books and novels he champions gay culture, but here ultimately sells his subjects short as a result of his glib and superficial approach. He writes about a Cadmus while clearly not understanding very much about 20th century art history. He writes about a Lynes without understanding much about the craft of photography. He completely glosses over the Evans - Kirstein friendship as simple favor swapping. Far too much of this material is annecdotal and unsupported - or worse, just plain wrong. While some portions of this book are amusing, he covers too many lives as a series of light-weight summaries. No footnotes here. The reading resembles more a series of rejected Vanity Fair pufferies. He tells you who was insecure about their penis size, or who was adroit at felatio, but he never puts forth a very convincing case of why these talented men merit greater historical importance.

Mr. Leddick would have us celebrate these three B-list talents amoung the great geniuses of the last century because they were talented AND gay. But his tact finally (and unfairly) turns these three into the worst sort of gay stereotype: shallow and vain sexual compulsives who cared more for their erotic exploits than they did their careers.

Rating:
Summary: Mr. Leddick Tries To Do Too Much.
Review: I picked up this book because I like the work of George Platt Lynes and Paul Cadmus a lot. I also read and liked very much Mr. Leddick's first novel and own a couple of his books on male nude photography. (I have little interest in Lincoln Kirstein or ballet either.) I finished this book not having learned much about either of these two men that I cared to remember. Part of the problem is that Mr. Leddick attempts too much. He is art critic, photography critic, dance critic, literary critic as well as consummate gossip. Additionally since there are no footnotes in this book, the reader has no idea whether Leddick's conclusions about anything are his or something he gleaned from the list of sources at the back of the book. Take the opening sentence from Leddick's chapter on Katherine Anne Porter: "Katherine Anne Porter is among the most esteemed women writers of the twentieth century in America." Is that Mr. Leddick's opinion-- and what qualifies him to make such a judgment-- or the literary critics who tell us whom we should read? Incidentally, Ms. Porter comes off as a most distasteful person. Mr. Leddick paints her as homophobic although she obviously hung out with a lot of people whose lives she couldn't tolerate. He might have discussed her racism as well if he wanted to really give us a rounded view of this pretty ugly woman.

I would have preferred more insight into what made Mr. Lynes one of America's great photographers and less information and speculation as to whom he did bed or might have taken to bed. Mr. Leddick does discuss at some length many of Cadmus' paintings. Without the actual reproductions preferably in color, however, it is impossible to know whether or not this writer has a clue as to what he is discussing.

Mr. Leddick does briefly discuss Lynes' influence on later photographers, particularly Bruce Weber and Herb Ritts. For my money, Lynes is the best photographer of the male nude this country has had. His studio lighting is creative and quite wonderful. Just look at the photographs of anyone who followed him to see the long shadow he cast. (And all this inventive and difficult lighting before the strobe. At least there were no monotonous umbrella reflections in the eyes of Lynes' models.) Robert Mapplethorpe--whose work I admire a lot-- but who lit every photograph he ever took pretty much the same way-- could certainly have learned a plenty from studying Lynes' lighting.

So if you want to appreciate these two men-- study their works and made your own judgments. Mr. Leddick has edited a fine book on Mr. Lynes' photographs and there are several fine books on Cadmus in color.

Rating:
Summary: Intimate Companions by David Leddick
Review: In the introduction the author tells us that he is not concerned with social context but with "sexual shenanigans." This is unfortunate. The real story of these remarkable men deals with their enormous contribution to American modernist culture before World War II. Their sex lives are no more remarkable than any other bohemian group of their day and Leddick's voyeuristic obsession with bedrooms and penis size is ultimately boring to say nothing of discomforting. The endless number of sentences that include the words "must have," "I assume that they," "could have," "might have," "likely to have," shows just how many cracks there are in the factual foundation of this tawdry and disappointing book.

Rating:
Summary: A big disappointment
Review: This book was a big disappointment. Unfortunately, Mr. Leddick is neither a scholar nor a very good story teller. His work is poorly documented, and provides little social context for the subjects' milieu. I was also disappointed in the book's failure to convey any historical context as the bits and pieces of the subjects' lives were scantilly discussed. Although he succeeds in giving the reader a rough synopsis of the lives of Lynes, Cadmus and Kirstein (at least covering the period of time that Lynes was alive), he conveys little understanding of the artistic contributions of each or how these men or their artistic contributions were interconnected. The book makes it seem that the three were only "intimate companions" through a loosely defined group of cocktail party habitués, hardly a basis for a meaningful "triography". One wonders why Leddick chose these three as worthy of a joint writing. It appears that a biography of each would have included little material about the others. I would have thought a "triography" of George Platt Lynes, Monroe Wheeler and Glenway Westcott, who lived in a ménage à trois of sorts, would have made far more interesting reading, as would a "triography" of Paul Cadmus, and Jared and Margaret French. Instead, the reader comes away from "Intimate Companions" starved to read a well-documented exposé of each of these men's lives and artistic contributions.

Rating:
Summary: [weak]
Review: This is an abyssally written, horribly researched, inaccurate, unorganized babble of idle gossip about some truly great artists and writers. The author should not attempt to write about things beyond his limited ken. What a travesty that a publisher would agree to print such garbage!