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Mark Braude is the author of two histories, Making Monte Carlo and The Invisible Emperor. Braude holds an MA in French Studies and a PhD in Modern European History and Visual Culture (his focus was the intersection of modern art and expat life in France), and he was previously a lecturer of Art History, History and French at Stanford. He was selected to be a Visiting Fellow at the American Library in Paris, and received two major grants to pursue the writing of Kiki Man Ray. This is, in many ways, the book he was born to write. He lives in Vancouver with his wife and daughters.
[Kiki is] a vibrant force in a colorful world - and the heart of Braude's history. A rich, affectionate look at bohemian Paris. * Kirkus Reviews * Kiki Man Ray is a thoroughly researched and gracefully written life of the (until now) underestimated model, performer, painter, actress, and influencer known as Kiki de Montparnasse. Mark Braude's biography brings her out of the wings and sets her firmly center stage in this evocative portrait of artistic life in the Paris of the 1920s. * Carolyn Burke, author of FOURSOME and LEE MILLER * Finally, a detailed and entertaining account of Alice Prin, a/k/a Kiki de Montparnasse, and her artistic and romantic relationship with Man Ray. Best known as a popular (and usually nude) artists' model, Kiki was a singer and performer, a painter, a writer, and the central female instigator for the avant-garde demimonde of Paris in the 1920s. Mark Braude's writing and subject make this book irresistible, as was Kiki herself. * Jim Jarmusch * Kiki de Montparnasse was more than a muse?she was a vivacious, independent woman whose talent and magnetism helped make Paris the center of the art world in the 1920s. In Mark Braude's riveting cultural history, the Queen of Montparnasse rises again. This is a lively and compassionate tribute to the chanteuse, model, and portraitist who held center stage in her life, and who inspired some of the finest Surrealist art of the twentieth century. * Heather Clark, author of Pulitzer Prize-finalist RED COMET: THE SHORT LIFE AND BLAZING ART OF SYLVIA PLATH * A delightful, marvelously readable, meticulously researched romp of a book, Kiki Man Ray brings to life not just the kaleidoscopically talented Kiki herself, but the endlessly fascinating Montparnasse milieu over which she reigned. -- Whitney Scharer, author of THE AGE OF LIGHT Man Ray captured 1920s Paris in his photographs, especially those of a singular muse: Kiki de Montparnasse, a hostess, a celebrity, a cabaret performer, a woman whose bawdy, heartfelt songs were the pulse of Paris. Mark Braude turns the tables - and the lens - and gives us a unique portrait: Man Ray from the perspective of that celebrated muse and her ephemeral art of performance. * Tilar J. Mazzeo, New York Times bestselling author of THE HOTEL ON PLACE VENDOME: LIFE, DEATH, AND BETRAYAL AT THE HOTEL RITZ IN PARIS * Kiki de Montparnasse - model, muse, artist - is the sole realist in a room of Surrealists. Unafraid of contradiction, she lived the fast life in the stillness of a pose, the intimacy of a public dream. Beautifully written, with a light touch and a wise eye, Mark Braude's Kiki Man Ray arranges the elements of Kiki's life, letting radiant patterns emerge. * Alexander Nemerov, author of FIERCE POISE: HELEN FRANKENTHALER AND 1950S NEW YORK *
