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

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, & 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, & artistic influences among writers, musicians, & 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 & colorfully illustrated, it's the perfect gift for your literary lover--and the perfect read for any good-natured gossip-monger. 

Catherine Lacey is the author of the novels Nobody Is Ever Missing, The Answers, & Pew, & of the short-story collection Certain American States. Her honors include a Whiting Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, & the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award. Her work has been translated into a dozen languages.

Forsyth Harmon is the illustrator of The Art of the Affair by Catherine Lacey, & has collaborated with writers Alexander Chee, Hermione Hoby, Sanaë Lemoine, & Leslie Jamison. She is also the illustrator of the essay collection, Girlhood, by Melissa Febos. Forsyth’s work has been featured in The Believer, Tin House, Virginia Quarterly Review, & The Awl. She received an MFA from Columbia University & currently lives in New York.