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.
A lively study of [Kiki de Montparnasse] who exemplified [a]
cocktail of high spirits and a heedless self-destruction.
*The Times*
[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*
Mark Braude focuses on Kiki de Montparnasse and Man Ray . . .
immersing the reader in a world where everyone was pushing their
creativity in unimaginable directions.
*The Spectator*
Exuberantly entertaining . . . A riveting glimpse into the
absinthe-fuelled Parisian jazz age
*Lady Magazine*
Finally, a detailed and entertaining account of Alice Prin, aka
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*
The frank, lively voice that comes through in Kiki's vignettes
makes a cornerstone for the case, which Braude renews, that she was
far more than Man Ray's party-girl companion - that it was, in
fact, her vitality, her connectedness in artistic networks, and her
intuitive understanding of his creative process that hoisted Man
Ray on to the highway to fame.
*The Telegraph*
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*
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*
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 VENDÔME: 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*
Exquisitely crafted . . . [S]harp and succinct . . . Kiki Man Ray
rescues its protagonist from the dustbin of history and advocates
eloquently for the vitality and importance of the world she helped
to forge.
*HAMILTON CAIN, Wall Street Journal*
If the only 'Kiki de Montparnasse' you are aware of is a lingerie
brand, please check out this top-notch, highly readable nonfiction
from cultural historian Mark Braude right now.
*CAT AUER, A.V. Club*
[An] affectionate biography . . . As irresistible as it is
overdue.
*Chicago Review of Books*
Mark Braude's exuberantly entertaining biography sets out to
rebalance the much-told story of Left Bank Paris, in which Kiki -
model, memoirist and muse - is usually cast as a bit player.
*The New York Times*
[A] heady romp through the galleries and nightclubs of interwar
France
*Vogue*
I loved Mark Braude's entertaining dual-biography . . . Kiki
entranced the American Surrealist Man Ray, and the book charts
their tempetuous relationship.
*Lady Magazine *2022 Bookshelf Christmas Special - The Lady's Pick
of the Year's BEST BOOKS**
'Mark Braude's spirited and thoroughly researched account brings
[Kiki] to life, highlighting her belligerent nature and generous
spirit, as well as her activities as an artist and writer . . .
Braude's colourful evocation captures the heady atmosphere of a
Paris still traumatized by the First World War'
*TLS*
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