From Simone De Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre to Anais Nin and Henry James, McDowell examines the ruinous love affairs of the 20th century's greatest female writers, and these relationships' effects on their craft.

Reviews

"McDowell, a literary journalist in Scotland, has culled incredibly juicy details. With so many affairs and broken hearts, the most surprising thing is that anything got written in the last 100 years." - "New York Times Book Review"
"McDowell has read the biographies, diaries, letters and discussions deeply and questioningly. She raises important questions about how sexual choice relates to any writer''s work and how things have changed for women writers." - Ruth Padel, author of "Where the Serpent Lives," in "The Financial Times"
"It is laudatory that McDowell has set herself against the tenor of much of the critical discourse on the price of female talent...overall this is a welcome addition to the lives of writers in love and lust." -"The New Republic"
""Between the Sheets" explores the messy intersection on art, lust, fame, and power. McDowell mines letters and diaries to give us rare insight into the POV of the female halves of some very celebrated literary couples --Suddenly, these feminist-lit figures seem more real and more grand. We "feel" the love and heartache that drove them to write" - "BUST Magazine"
"Lesley McDowell''s new book, "Between the Sheets: Literary Liaisons of Nine 20th-Century Women Writers," ditches some well-worn biographical tropes and sets out to make an interesting point about female authors: that we often think of their love lives as tragic not because they were, but because they''re women." - AOL''s Lemondrop.com
"A fresh and revealing look at the mating habits of literary giants. Author Lesley McDowell examines the famously explosive love affairs of great women writers and finds that there was purpose to their passion and method to their madness. Where others see victims, she sees pioneers who were blazing their own literary, emotional, and sexual trails. We feel as if we are meeting Sylvia Plath, Anais Nin, Simone de Beauvoir, and their "sisters" for the very first time." -Deborah Davis, author of