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From one coffee loving writer to another, by way of Honoré de Balzac, we have today’s post in Biographile by Joe Muscolino. Plus “eight Honor é de Balzac quotes for writers who work hard and play harder.” It’s wonderful. Stir, read and enjoy.
I’ll try to hunt down Lily de Gramont’s thoughts on the subject 100 years later.
We know that American painter Romaine Brooks was desperate without several cups a day. Life in the hills of Florence during World War II was living out Coleridge’s worst nightmare for the coffee lover in Romaine: “Water, water every where / Nor any drop to drink.”
Berating Natalie Barney for trying to commandeer luxuries that would call attention to their wealth (and to Natalie’s prohibited Jewishness), Romaine wasn’t above this simple plea made often to Natalie’s sister, Laura, who had fled Paris for New York: 