The Barbizon by Paulina Bren

This is a story of how women were able to leave home in the 20th century and not create an out and out scandal. The hotel was built during the roaring 20s and lingering until 2007, when it was inevitably converted into multimillion-dollar condos, and it was a legend in its heyday. As the most elite of New York’s women-only hotels, it provided a tony Upper East Side address and safe harbor for generations of young women newly arrived with dreams to fulfil. It was a place to call a home away from home for Grace Kelly, Liza Minnelli, Joan Didion – to name a varied few, along with Sylvia Plath, who later spilled its secrets in The Bell Jar. This is the first real history of the place, and it’s a treat, elegantly spinning a forgotten story of female liberation, ambition and self-invention. The fate of those who didn’t make it adds a note of melancholy complexity. One of the things that I did not know before I read this is that women came as teenagers often, and part of the allure of the hotel was not just that it was a safe place for unmarried white collar working women to stay but that it was also possible to parlay the connections that it provided into an upscale marriage if that is what was desired. Most women left within a few years, and on the arms of men who they would not have met otherwise. Grace Kelly was an example but she was not the exception. Another was that Mademoiselle created guest editorships that brought talented literary women to the Barbizon--it was not just a place to meet the right man, but also a place to launch a career.