5 Things Worth Reading
Patricia Highsmith's final months, an art spy in Paris, rebuilding in Malibu, and more
Greetings, readers and writers. I’m writing to you today from Mints and Honey, a cafe in Burlingame, California. I don’t usually write in cafes—writing in bed is more my style—but we had a minor ceiling collapse last week so there are men at the house, fixing things. I am grateful to have things fixed, for sure, especially grateful that there are people in the world who know how to fix things, but plumbing is loud, and so is sheetrocking, and so is Freddie Mercury singing “We Will Rock You.”
I love Freddie Mercury, I could listen to Queen all day long every day and never get tired of it. But I can’t write to music. I can’t even think to music. So here I am at the cafe, writing to you before the meter runs out.
For Francophiles and Art Lovers: The Art Spy Who Kept Hitler from Emptying the Louvre
One of my favorite museums in Paris is the Jeau de P’aume in the Tuileries Gardens, so I loved this post by Messy Messy about a French woman and employee of the Jeau de P’aume who kept her post at the museum during the Nazi occupation, meticulously documenting the theft of 20,000 works of art.
This bit amused me, as it would anyone who has lived in France:
As luck would have it, the French railway workers were on strike when the train was finally ready to depart, on August 10th, 1944. The overloaded train with artworks eventually departed but suffered a mechanical breakdown, and by the time the Germans had fixed the problem, the French Resistance managed to derail two trains, blocking the tracks and leaving the art cargo in limbo.
Yes, a Parisienne’s four years of dangerous, secret labor saved thousands of works of art, but the French railway workers also played a part by doing what they do best: taking some time off.
Literary Gossip
Elena Gosalvez Blanco stumbled into a gig working for a surly, underfed Patricia Highsmith in the final months of the author’s life. Highsmith ate almost nothing and didn’t approve of Blanco going for walks and hanging out with the locals.