First published in 1971 and now available for a younger generation, Living Well Is the Best Revenge is Calvin Tomkins's now-classic account of the lives of Gerald and Sara Murphy, two American expatriates who formed an extraordinary circle of friends in France during the 1920s. First in Paris and then in the seaside town of Antibes, they played host to some of the most memorable artists and writers of the era, including Cole Porter, Pablo Picasso, Fernand Léger, Ernest Hemingway, and Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.

 

Gerald Murphy was himself an accomplished painter, and though he practiced for only eight years, from 1922 to 1929, he produced a number of extraordinary works, seven of which survive and one of which is in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art.

 

Illustrated with photographs from the Murphy family album and featuring a special section on Gerald Murphy's paintings, Living Well Is the Best Revenge is a Lost Generation chronicle as charming and fascinating as the couple themselves. 152 pp.; 80 illus.