Eve Babitz
Eve Babitz | |
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Born | Los Angeles, California, U.S. | May 13, 1943
Died | December 17, 2021 Los Angeles, California, U.S. | (aged 78)
Occupation |
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Period | 1970–2021 |
Subject | Memoir |
Notable works |
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Website | |
evebabitz |
Eve Babitz (May 13, 1943 – December 17, 2021) was an American visual artist and author best known for her semi-fictionalized memoirs and her relationship to the cultural milieu of Los Angeles.
Early life and education
Babitz was born in Hollywood, California, the daughter of Mae, an artist, and
Career
In 1963, her first brush with notoriety came through
Babitz began her independent career as an artist, working in the music industry for Ahmet Ertegun at Atlantic Records, making album covers.[7] In the late 1960s, she designed album covers for Linda Ronstadt, The Byrds, and Buffalo Springfield. Her most famous cover was a collage for the 1967 album Buffalo Springfield Again.[8]
Her articles and short stories appeared in Rolling Stone, The Village Voice, Vogue, Cosmopolitan, and Esquire. She was the author of several books including Eve's Hollywood, Slow Days, Fast Company, Sex and Rage, Two By Two, L.A. Woman, and Black Swans. Transitioning to her particular blend of fiction and memoir beginning with Eve's Hollywood, Babitz's writing of this period is marked by the cultural scene of Los Angeles during that time, with numerous references to and interactions with the artists, musicians, writers, actors, and sundry other iconic figures that made up the scene in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Novelists Joseph Heller and Bret Easton Ellis were fans of her work, with the latter writing, "In every book she writes, Babitz’s enthusiasm for L.A. and its subcultures is fully displayed."[9]
Despite her literary output, which drew frequent comparisons to
In Hollywood’s Eve: Eve Babitz and the Secret History of L.A., biographer Lili Anolik writes, "passing herself off as a groupie allowed Eve to infiltrate, edge into territory from which she'd otherwise have been barred."[15] Reviewing this biography for The Nation, journalist Marie Solis wrote, "Babitz didn’t live a life free from patriarchy, but modern-day readers might surmise that she found a way to outsmart it. Despite her proximity as a Hollywood insider to the powerhouses of male celebrity, she rarely succumbed to their charms; instead, she made everyone play by her own rules."[16]
In 1997, Babitz was severely injured while in her car when she accidentally dropped a lit match onto a gauze skirt, which ignited and melted her pantyhose beneath it.
Babitz died of Huntington's disease at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles on December 17, 2021, at age 78.[18][19][20]
Resurgence
Babitz enjoyed a renaissance from 2010 due in part to the reissuing of much of her work by publishers including
The New York Public Library convened a 2016 panel on "The Eve Effect" that included actress Zosia Mamet and New Yorker writer Jia Tolentino.[25][10] In 2017, Hulu announced it would be developing a comedy series based on Babitz's memoirs, a project led by Liz Tigelaar, Amy Pascal, and Elizabeth Cantillon.[26]
In 2022, the Huntington Library in California announced that it had acquired Babitz's personal archive, which includes drafts, journals, photographs, and letters spanning 1943 to 2011.[27]
Published works
Fiction
Publisher information relates to first publication only. Some of the books have been reissued.
- Eve's Hollywood (1974) New York, NY: Delacorte Press/S. Lawrence. ISBN 0440023394 OCLC 647012057
- Slow Days, Fast Company: The World, The Flesh, and L.A.: Tales (1977) New York, NY: Knopf/Random House. OCLC 2645787
- Sex and Rage: Advice to Young Ladies Eager for a Good Time; a Novel (1979) New York, NY: Knopf.
- L.A. Woman (1982) New York, NY: Linden Press/Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0671420860 OCLC 8110896
- Black Swans: Stories (1993) New York, NY: Knopf/Random House. ISBN 0679405186 OCLC 27067318
Nonfiction
- Fiorucci, The Book (1980) New York, NY: ISBN 0825226082 OCLC 900307237
- Two by Two: Tango, Two-step, and the L.A. Night (1999). New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0684833921 OCLC 41641459
- I Used to Be Charming: The Rest of Eve Babitz (2019). New York, NY: New York Review of Books
Selected essays
- Roll Over Elvis: The Second Coming of Jim Morrison. Esquire, March 1991
References
- ^ a b Nelson, Steffie, L.A. Woman The Los Angeles Review of Books, December 18, 2011 Nelson, Steffie (December 18, 2011). "L.A. Woman". Archived from the original on January 22, 2013. Retrieved May 1, 2012.
- ^ a b c Babitz, Eve (2000). "Eve Babitz". www.beatrice.com (Interview). Interviewed by Ron Hogan. Archived from the original on March 27, 2016. Retrieved September 24, 2015.
- ^ a b Babitz, Eve (June 14, 2000). "Oral history interview". Archives of American Art (Interview). Interviewed by Paul Karlstrom. Babitz's home, Hollywood, California: Smithsonian Institution. Archived from the original on March 6, 2014. Retrieved May 1, 2012.
- ^ ISBN 9781681373799. Archivedfrom the original on April 21, 2021. Retrieved April 21, 2021.
- ^ Babitz, Eve (December 18, 2021). "Eve Babitz: I Was a Naked Pawn For Art". Esquire. Archived from the original on December 19, 2021. Retrieved December 19, 2021.
- ^ a b c d Anolik, Lili (March 2014). "All About Eve—and Then Some". Vanity Fair. Conde Nast. Archived from the original on February 28, 2014. Retrieved March 1, 2014.
- ^ RockDoc999 (November 28, 2020). "Eve Babitz - A Los Angeles Icon". recordart. Archived from the original on December 30, 2021. Retrieved December 30, 2021.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Holter, Andrew. "The RS500 #188: Buffalo Springfield, "Buffalo Springfield Again" (1967)". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on December 30, 2021. Retrieved December 30, 2021.
- ISBN 9780684833927.
- ^ from the original on April 21, 2021. Retrieved April 21, 2021.
- ^ Tolentino, Jia. "The "Sex and Rage" of Eve Babitz". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on February 23, 2021. Retrieved April 21, 2021.
- ^ "Eve Babitz chronicled L.A.'s hedonist heyday and enjoyed the party". Los Angeles Times. January 18, 2019. Archived from the original on April 21, 2021. Retrieved April 21, 2021.
- ^ a b Lambert, Molly (October 7, 2019). "The Perseverance of Eve Babitz's Vision". The Paris Review. Archived from the original on April 21, 2021. Retrieved April 21, 2021.
- from the original on April 21, 2021. Retrieved April 21, 2021.
- OCLC 1057240688.
- from the original on April 21, 2021. Retrieved April 21, 2021.
- ^ "The Eve Babitz Revival". New York Times. October 3, 2019. Archived from the original on April 21, 2021. Retrieved April 29, 2021.
- from the original on December 20, 2021. Retrieved December 20, 2021.
- ^ Olsen, Mark (December 18, 2021). "Author Eve Babitz, who captured and embodied the culture of Los Angeles, dies at 78". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on December 19, 2021. Retrieved December 19, 2021.
- from the original on December 20, 2021. Retrieved December 20, 2021.
- ^ "Eve Babitz". New York Review Books. Archived from the original on April 21, 2021. Retrieved April 21, 2021.
- ^ "Eve Babitz". Simon & Schuster. Archived from the original on April 21, 2021. Retrieved April 21, 2021.
- ^ "Eve Babitz". Counterpoint Press. January 25, 2017. Archived from the original on April 21, 2021. Retrieved April 21, 2021.
- ^ Shapiro, Deborah (March 12, 2009). "Freeways, Taquitos, Stravinsky, and Speed". The Second Pass. Archived from the original on May 23, 2012. Retrieved May 1, 2012.
- ^ Cohen, Stefanie (January 5, 2019). "How a badass, ex-drug addict groupie became a millennial hero at 75". New York Post. Archived from the original on December 14, 2020. Retrieved April 21, 2021.
- ^ Andreeva, Nellie (October 4, 2017). "Hulu Developing 'LA Woman' Comedy Based On Eve Babitz Memoirs From Liz Tigelaar, Amy Pascal and Elizabeth Cantillon". Archived from the original on November 7, 2017. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
- ^ Pineda, Dorany (March 10, 2022). "The Huntington Library acquires archive of Eve Babitz, the late L.A. author". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 26, 2023.
External links
- Anolik, Lili (March 2014). "All About Eve—and Then Some". Vanity Fair. Retrieved March 1, 2014.
- Anolik, Lili (March 2014). "Eve Babitz on Being Photographed Nude with Marcel Duchamp". Vanity Fair. Retrieved March 1, 2014.
- Brubach, Holly. "L.A. Confidential" T: The New York Times Style Magazine. August 19, 2009.
- Gregory, Mollie, "A Slice of Hollywood : BLACK SWANS, By Eve Babitz" Los Angeles Times, September 26, 1993
- Johnson, Reed, "Eve Babitz Kicks Off LA '60s Art World Tribute" Los Angeles Times, August 4, 2011
- Li, Lucy, "Beyond Nude Chess: Eve Babitz Embodied Bygone L.A." toutfait: The Marcel Duchamp Studies Online Journal July 7, 2011
- Kakutani, Michiko, "Books of The Times; Los Angeles Middle Agers Fighting the Old Ennui," New York Times, October 1, 1993
- Eve Babitz: return of the LA woman The Guardian, November 8, 2016
- Official website