The Heart is a Burial Ground: The lost, wild world of Caresse Crosby
Mrs Caresse Crosby takes a ride around the grounds of Rocca Sinibalda, her vast estate just outside Rome in 1964. Photograph: Getty Images
“She is credited with inventing the modern bra, launched Salvador Dali on the international arts scene and founded a publishing house for writers including Hemingway, Joyce and Faulkner. But the extraordinary life of Caresse Crosby, a notorious figure in 1920s bohemian Paris, has been largely forgotten.
Now her remarkable story is being told, and in parts re-imagined, in a book written by her great-granddaughter, Tamara Colchester.”
The Heart is a Burial Ground, by Tamara Colchester, is published by Simon & Schuster on 8 March
Sounds absolutely fascinating. I wonder what those Italian men were thinking as they lugged her around. Extraordinary how much society can change in a relatively short time. I can’t imagine anyone (in Europe) successfully convincing their house staff to carry them around in a sedan chair these days. Imagine the conversation – “Look I’m going to sit in this chair, and the two of you are going to carry it from the house to under that tree over there.”
My Mazamet 
This is nice.
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I know! I’ve always wanted to be carried around too 😀
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Now they buy golf carts. 🙂
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Eeewwww
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Are you sure you have not tried to get yourself carried around, like a prince?
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I reserve the right not to incriminate myself 😀
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What, we are to celebrate the inventor of that modern torture device, the bra?! Merde!
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Quite a woman. From wiki:
She told a reporter that the castle (Rocca Sinibalda, as pictured) had 320 rooms, “At least that’s what the villagers tell me.”
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I could picture Esme traveling this way.
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I had the police carry me into a paddy wagon once after a night of binge drinking and they seemed quite eager to do it. Does that count?
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Or …. it could simply be a staged photograph.
Yes, there is always one kill-joy!
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Good point. If Stanley Kubrick can stage and fake the moon landing in ’69, how hard could staging a picture like this be?
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This inevitably makes me think of colonial Africa and ‘the white man’s burden’ which involves more than touch of irony since it was African peoples who had to lug the white men and women all over the place. Even given the passage of time and changes in sensibility, I’m wondering what kind of grown up person considers it OK to use other humans as beasts of burden. Hm. I’m also wondering if there is a connection between this form of transport and the reasons for re-engineering of the bra…
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I’ve spent hours thinking about your comment – and what was considered acceptable in the “post” colonial world when I was a child
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Do you think you might write about it? (She says hopefully).
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Yes… I’ll try 🙂
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Please give me a prod if you do – in case I miss it in the reader 🙂
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“Look I’m going to sit in this chair, and the two of you are going to carry it from the house to under that tree over there IN YOUR SHORTS.”
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Funny you say that, I, too was wondering what the two men carrying her must have been thinking. Something along the lines of, ‘crazy white woman.’
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When I was a child my grandmother used to have an employee check the bedrooms for mosquitoes… so I imagine the idea of the crazy white woman must be very common 🙂
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I live in a culture where it is so. Amazing, the entitlement when we all sit down to shit, the same. ❤
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-grin- One of my in-laws tells the story of her Great Aunt being ferried around in a wheelbarrow, but I guess that’s Australia for you. Me, I think I’d prefer that golf buggy. 🙂
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It’s only really Australia if it was being pushed by a kangaroo (with a koala on its shoulders) 😀
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lmao – we have had kangaroos and wallabies turning up in unusual places lately. And a snake in the middle of town! That was just plain weird though.
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I’m supposed to be paring down prior to a big move but I can’t resist buying this book. Thank you so much for bringing it to my attention 😊
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It´s discounted if you pre-order from the Guardian book shop 🙂
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Oh thank you … I will this very afternoon 😊
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