Marcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni (28 September 1924 – 19 December 1996) was an Italian film actor, regarded as his country's biggest film star of all time. His films include: La Dolce Vita; 8½; La Notte; Divorce Italian Style; Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow; Marriage Italian Style; The 10th Victim; A Special Day; City of Women; Henry IV; Dark Eyes and Everybody's Fine. His honours included BAFTAs, Best Actor awards at the Venice and Cannes film festivals, two Golden Globes and three Oscar nominations. Marcello Mastroianni, all'anagrafe Marcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni (Fontana Liri, 26 settembre 1924 – Parigi, 19 dicembre 1996), è stato un attore italiano. È stato tra gli interpreti italiani più conosciuti e apprezzati all'estero negli anni sessanta e settanta, soprattutto per i ruoli da protagonista nei film di Federico Fellini e per le pellicole recitate in coppia con Sophia Loren. Capace di destreggiarsi perfettamente sia nei ruoli drammatici che in quelli comici, è generalmente affiancato ai grandi della commedia all'italiana Alberto Sordi, Ugo Tognazzi, Vittorio Gassman e Nino Manfredi. È stato per tre volte candidato all'Oscar al miglior attore: per Divorzio all'italiana (1963), per Una giornata particolare (1978) e per Oci ciornie (1988). Ha vinto 2 Golden Globe, 2 Premi BAFTA, 8 David di Donatello, 8 Nastri d'argento, 5 Globi d'oro e un Ciak d'oro. Come Jack Lemmon e Dean Stockwell, ha ottenuto in 2 diverse occasioni il Prix d'interprétation masculine al Festival di Cannes, nel 1970 per Dramma della gelosia e nel 1987 per Oci ciornie. Ha vinto per 2 volte la Coppa Volpi alla Mostra internazionale d'arte cinematografica per Che ora è e Uno, due, tre, stella!. Nel 1990 gli è stato conferito il Leone d'oro alla carriera. BiographyMarcello Mastroianni was born in Fontana Liri, a small village in the Apennines in the province of Frosinone, Lazio, and grew up in Turin and Rome. His father ran a carpentry shop. Mastroianni was a nephew of sculptor Umberto Mastroianni. During World War II, after the division into Axis and Allied Italy, he was interned in a loosely guarded German prison camp, from which he escaped to hide in Venice. His brother Ruggero Mastroianni was a film editor who worked on some of Marcello's films (City of Women, Ginger and Fred), and appeared alongside Marcello in Scipione detto anche l'Africano, a spoof of the once popular sword and sandal film genre released in 1971. Mastroianni made his screen debut as an uncredited extra in Marionette (1939) when he was fourteen, and made intermittent minor film appearances until landing his first big role in Atto d'accusa (1951). Mastroianni married Flora Carabella (1926–1999) on 12 August 1950. They had one daughter together, Barbara (1951–2018). Within a decade he became a major international celebrity, starring in Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958); and in Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita (1960) playing a disillusioned and self-loathing tabloid columnist who spends his days and nights exploring Rome's decadent high society. Mastroianni followed La Dolce Vita with another signature role in Fellini's 8½ (1963)in which he plays film director who, amidst self-doubt and troubled love affairs, finds himself in a creative block while making a film. After his role in La Dolce Vita (1960), Marcello Mastroianni became Latin lover in public eyes. Although he tried to defend himself against such fame, he was romantically involved with different women during his marriage. His first serious relationship was with Faye Dunaway, his co-star in A Place for Lovers (1968). Dunaway wanted to marry and have children, but Mastroianni, a Catholic, refused to divorce Carabella. In 1970, after more than two years of waiting for Mastroianni to change his mind, Dunaway left him. Mastroianni told a reporter for People magazine in 1987 that he never got over his relationship with Dunaway. "She was the woman I loved the most", he said. "I'll always be sorry to have lost her. I was whole with her for the first time in my life." Marcello Mastroianni and his wife Flora Carabella separated in 1970, but he never divorced her. After Dunaway, another serious relationship Marcello Mastroianni had was with French actress Catherine Deneuve, nearly 20 years his junior. They lived together for four years in the 1970s, and had a daughter, Chiara Mastroianni (born 28 May 1972). During that time, the couple made four films together: It Only Happens to Others (1971), La cagna (1972), A Slightly Pregnant Man (1973) and Don't Touch the White Woman! (1974). After Mastroianni and Deneuve broke up, his wife Carabella reportedly offered to adopt Chiara because her parents' work kept them away so often. Deneuve would have none of it. Mastroianni's other lovers reportedly included actresses Silvana Mangano, Anouk Aimée, Ursula Andress, Claudia Cardinale, Carole Mallory and Lauren Hutton. Around 1976, he became involved with Anna Maria Tatò, an author and filmmaker. They remained together until his death. His other prominent films include Days of Love (1954) with Marina Vlady; La Notte (1961) with Jeanne Moreau; Too Bad She's Bad (1954), Lucky to Be a Woman (1956), Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1963), Marriage Italian Style (1964), Sunflower (1970), The Priest's Wife (1971), A Special Day (1977) and Robert Altman's Prêt-à-Porter (1994) – all co-starring ; Luchino Visconti's White Nights (1957); Pietro Germi's Divorce Italian Style (1961); Family Diary (1962) with Jacques Perrin; A Very Private Affair (1962) with Brigitte Bardot; Mario Monicelli's Casanova 70 (1965); Diamonds for Breakfast (1968) with Rita Tushingham; The Pizza Triangle (1970) with Monica Vitti; Massacre in Rome (1973) with Richard Burton; The Sunday Woman (1975) with Jacqueline Bisset; Stay As You Are (1978) with Nastassja Kinski; Fellini's City of Women (1980) and Ginger and Fred (1986); Marco Bellocchio's Henry IV (1984); Macaroni (1985) with Jack Lemmon; Nikita Mikhalkov's Dark Eyes (1987) with Marthe Keller; Giuseppe Tornatore's Everybody's Fine (1990); Used People (1992) with Shirley MacLaine; and Agnès Varda's One Hundred and One Nights (1995). He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor three times: for Divorce Italian Style, A Special Day and Dark Eyes. Mastroianni, Dean Stockwell and Jack Lemmon are the only actors to have been twice awarded the Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival. Mastroianni won it in 1970 for The Pizza Triangle and in 1987 for Dark Eyes. He was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 1994. In 1996 Mastroianni starred alongside his daughter with Catherine Deneuve, Chiara Mastroianni, in Raúl Ruiz's Three Lives and Only One Death. For this performance he won the Silver Wave Award at the Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival. His final film, Voyage to the Beginning of the World (1997), was released posthumously. Mastroianni died of pancreatic cancer on 19 December 1996 at the age of 72. Both of his daughters, as well as Catherine Deneuve and Anna Maria Tatò, were at his bedside. The Trevi Fountain in Rome, associated with his role in Fellini's La Dolce Vita, was symbolically turned off and draped in black as a tribute. At the 1997 Venice Film Festival, Marcello Mastroianni's daughter Chiara Mastroianni, his ex-wife Carabella Mastroianni and Catherine Deneuve tried to block the screening of Tatò's four-hour documentary, Marcello Mastroianni: I Remember. The festival refused and the film was shown. The three women reportedly tried to do the same thing at Cannes. Tatò said Mastroianni had willed her all rights to his image. Italiano/ItalianMarcello Mastroianni nacque a Fontana Liri, al secolo parte dell'allora provincia di Terra di Lavoro, il 26 settembre del 1924, ma registrato all'anagrafe quale nato il 28, figlio di Ottorino Mastrojanni, un falegname, fratellastro dello scultore Umberto Mastroianni, e di Ida Irolle, originari entrambi del vicino paese di Arpino. Poco tempo dopo la propria nascita, si trasferisce con i genitori dapprima a Torino, dove, nel 1929, nasce il fratello Ruggero, e successivamente, nel 1933, definitivamente a Roma, presso il quartiere San Giovanni, dove frequenta le scuole in via Taranto. Da giovanissimo riesce a lavorare come comparsa in Marionette di Carmine Gallone, ne La corona di ferro di Alessandro Blasetti, in Una storia d'amore di Mario Camerini, e ne I bambini ci guardano di Vittorio De Sica. Nel 1943 consegue il diploma di perito edile presso l'Istituto tecnico industriale statale Galileo Galilei. Dopo aver conseguito il diploma, lavora come disegnatore tecnico, prima per il comune di Roma, poi per quello di Firenze all'Istituto Geografico Militare, che dopo l'armistizio viene assorbito dall'Organizzazione Todt. A causa della fusione, Mastroianni si trasferisce a Dobbiaco (in provincia di Bolzano), da dove, in vista di un suo ulteriore trasferimento in Germania, fugge con il collega e amico Remo Brindisi. Nel 1945, terminata la guerra, comincia a prendere le prime lezioni di recitazione e a bussare nuovamente alle porte del cinema. È in questo periodo che condivide le sue aspirazioni di attore con una giovane ancora sconosciuta, Silvana Mangano, con la quale frequentava un corso di recitazione, e i due vivono una breve storia d'amore. Il vero e proprio debutto nel cinema avviene nel 1948 con I miserabili, film di Riccardo Freda tratto dall'omonimo romanzo di Victor Hugo. Nello stesso periodo comincia ad ottenere piccole parti in teatro, dapprima in compagnie di dilettanti. Viene notato da Luchino Visconti, che gli offre il suo primo ruolo da professionista, in Rosalinda o Come vi piace da Shakespeare e poi in Un tram che si chiama Desiderio di Tennessee Williams. Sul set teatrale de Un tram che si chiama Desiderio al Teatro Eliseo di Roma conobbe l'attrice Flora Carabella, che sposò il 12 agosto 1950 e dalla quale ebbe una figlia, Barbara (1951-2018), costumista di cinema e teatro. I due si separarono nel 1970, ma mai divorziarono. Dopo aver interpretato sotto la regia di Luciano Emmer diversi ruoli da attor giovane in commedie neorealistiche (Domenica d'agosto, Parigi è sempre Parigi, Le ragazze di piazza di Spagna), arrivano anche al cinema i primi ruoli drammatici in Febbre di vivere di Claudio Gora, Cronache di poveri amanti di Carlo Lizzani e Le notti bianche di Luchino Visconti, mentre sul set di Peccato che sia una canaglia di Alessandro Blasetti incontra per la prima volta Sophia Loren. L'affermazione definitiva arriva nel 1958 con I soliti ignoti, cui segue Adua e le compagne (1960). I due capolavori di Federico Fellini: La dolce vita (1960) e il successivo 8½ (1963) gli conferiranno il successo internazionale e la fama di «latin lover», dalla quale cercherà, più o meno inutilmente, di difendersi fino all'età più matura. Nel 1961 esce Divorzio all'italiana commedia nera basata sull'omicidio d'onore. Il film presentato al 15º Festival di Cannes ottiene il premio per la migliore commedia e vincitore, nel 1963, di un Premio Oscar per la migliore sceneggiatura originale, risulta essere un successo internazionale, consolidando la fama di Mastroianni che ottiene per la sua interpretazione del barone Cefalù il Nastro d'argento al migliore attore protagonista, il premio BAFTA al migliore attore straniero, il Golden Globe per il miglior attore in un film commedia o musicale e infine la candidatura all'Oscar al miglior attore. Nel 1962 il settimanale americano Time gli dedica un servizio, come divo straniero più ammirato negli USA. Il suo fascino di attore gli derivava, oltre che dalla sua bellezza e da interpretazioni sempre di altissimo livello, anche da un tratto distaccato, a tratti sornione, dal quale sembrava trasparire talvolta una velata malinconia e persino una certa timidezza. Ne I compagni (1963), di Mario Monicelli, interpreta il ruolo di un intellettuale socialista che fomenta le rivolte di fabbrica, mentre, sotto la direzione di Vittorio De Sica, ritrova Sophia Loren come partner femminile in Ieri, oggi, domani (1963), Matrimonio all'italiana (1964) e I girasoli (1970): la coppia che ha formato con lei è stato un sodalizio artistico tra i più riusciti del cinema italiano, che si è snodato con episodi memorabili lungo l'intera carriera di entrambi. Nel 1966 debutta anche nella commedia musicale, interpretando per circa tre mesi il ruolo di Rodolfo Valentino in Ciao Rudy di Garinei e Giovannini, cantando e ballando tutte le sere e cercando di sfatare un'altra fama che si era creato, quella di eterno pigro. La critica non sarà tenera con lui, e anche se le repliche sono costantemente gremite fino al "tutto esaurito", Mastroianni abbandona le scene pagando una penale di 100 milioni di lire per girare Il viaggio di G. Nel 1968 gira Amanti sotto la regia di Vittorio De Sica. Protagonista femminile è Faye Dunaway, con la quale avrà una breve ma chiacchieratissima storia sentimentale quando viveva con la moglie. La loro fu una relazione intensa, tanto che Faye avrebbe voluto sposarlo e avere da lui dei figli, ma lui temporeggiava, indeciso se lasciare o meno la moglie; infine, la Dunaway si fidanzò con Harris Yulin e la loro relazione ebbe così termine. Nello stesso periodo gira alcuni film in lingua inglese, manifestando una notevole capacità di dizione anche in questa lingua. Nel 1971 lavora con Marco Ferreri in La cagna e sul set conosce Catherine Deneuve, con la quale intreccerà una lunghissima relazione dal 1971 al 1975, da cui nascerà Chiara Mastroianni. Nel 1972 si trasferisce a Parigi e avrà l'opportunità, tra il 1972 e il 1974, di lavorare in numerose pellicole francesi. Nel 1976 si legò alla regista Anna Maria Tatò, con la quale convisse fino alla morte. Tornato in Italia, riprende a interpretare ruoli in commedie leggere (Culastrisce nobile veneziano, La pupa del gangster), film d'autore (Todo modo, Una giornata particolare), drammi a tinte forti (Mogliamante, Per le antiche scale), film grotteschi (Ciao maschio). Nel 1978 debutta in uno sceneggiato televisivo: Le mani sporche, che Elio Petri trae da Sartre. Nel 1980 viene richiamato da Federico Fellini, che a diciotto anni da 8 ½ lo rivuole protagonista ne La città delle donne. Lavorerà con lui ancora nel 1985 in Ginger e Fred, e nel 1987 in Intervista. Nel 1988 è protagonista insieme a Massimo Troisi di Splendor e Che ora è, entrambi diretti da Ettore Scola. Per quest'ultimo film i due protagonisti riceveranno ex aequo la coppa Volpi alla Mostra del cinema di Venezia. Nel 1990 vince il Leone d'oro alla carriera che gli viene consegnato da Federico Fellini al Palazzo del Cinema durante il Festival del cinema di Venezia. Negli anni novanta Marcello Mastroianni gira soprattutto all'estero, con grandi autori del cinema internazionale. Colpito da un tumore del pancreas, poco prima della morte realizzò durante la lavorazione del suo ultimo film, Viaggio all'inizio del mondo di Manoel de Oliveira, una lunga auto-confessione: Marcello Mastroianni - Mi ricordo, sì, io mi ricordo (curata da Anna Maria Tatò, la sua ultima compagna) che è considerata da molti il suo testamento spirituale. L'ultimo impegno fu la commedia Le ultime lune nei teatri italiani a Napoli.
Poi tornò a Parigi. Morì pochi mesi dopo nel suo appartamento di Parigi il 19 dicembre 1996, stroncato dalla malattia e assistito dalla figlia minore, Chiara. Le sue spoglie riposano nel cimitero del Verano, a Roma.
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Marpessa Hennink(12 July 1964) is a Dutch fashion model. She is best known for her work as a runway model, which earned her the moniker “The Catwalk Contessa”. Marpessa Hennink was born in Amsterdam, Netherlands to a Dutch mother and a Dutch / Surinamese father of African ancestry. From as young as the age of four, Hennink expressed an interest in fashion and began working as a model after she turned sixteen, having been discovered by a magazine editor in her native Amsterdam. This happened despite being rejected, deemed “too exotic” by the Eileen Ford agency during a casting call. Amongst the many magazines that Hennink has been featured in are various international editions of Vogue, as well as other publications such as Elle, Glamor, Time, Vanity Fair, Marie Claire, L'Officiel, Harpers & Queen and Photo. She credited the late fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez with recommending her to some of the prominent designers, such as Azzedine Alaia, and Karl Lagerfeld of the fashion house Chanel. Most notably, Hennink walked the runway for Dolce & Gabbana's first fashion show in 1985, at the beginning of their career as designers. The same year, she appeared in the music video for Bryan Ferry's song, "Slave to Love", directed by Jean-Baptiste Mondino. Hennink went on to walk the runway for many other designers including Versace, Christian Lacroix, Valentino, Christian Dior, Gianfranco Ferré, Oscar de la Renta, Calvin Klein, Issey Miyake, Moschino, Claude Montana, Salvatore Ferragamo, Comme des Garçons, Lanvin, Thierry Mugler, Donna Karan, Trussardi, Mila Schön, Rifat Özbek, and Bruce Oldfield. In 1987, Hennink was chosen by Dolce & Gabbana to star in the advertising campaign for their Fall / Winter collection. It was the first campaign for the label, and Hennink agreed to do it for free. The campaign was photographed in Sicily by Ferdinando Scianna of Magnum Photos. The photographs from the campaign made such an impression that Hennink came to be seen as an icon of Mediterranean femininity. In October of that year, Hennink was named "Model of the Year" during the “Oscars de la Mode” in Paris. After which she was given the nickname "the Catwalk Contessa". In 1993, after the publication of the book Marpessa, uno sguardo, by Ferdinando Scianna, Hennink retired from modeling, having also been put off by the arrival of the grunge fashion trend. Upon her retirement, she moved to Ibiza, Spain, where she began a career as an interior decorator. She made a return to the fashion runways in 2004, where she closed the Fall / Winter show for designer Antonio Marras. In 2005, Hennink gave birth to a daughter. In January 2011, Hennink was chosen to walk in a special fashion show held by designer Alberta Ferretti in Florence, Italy. Then, in May 2011, she walked in the "Fashion for Relief" benefit show in Cannes, France. The following year, Dolce & Gabbana launched a line of made-to-measure clothing called "Alta Moda", and chose Hennink as the global ambassador for that line. Marpessa Hennink speaks six languages. In her spare time, she enjoys interior decorating and photography. She considers Inès de La Fressange, Diana Vreeland, and Madeleine Castaing as her style icons.
Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher (July 3, 1908 – June 22, 1992) was an American food writer. She was a founder of the Napa Valley Wine Library. Over her lifetime she wrote 27 books, including a translation of The Physiology of Taste by Brillat-Savarin. Fisher believed that eating well was just one of the "arts of life" and explored this in her writing. W. H. Auden once remarked, "I do not know of anyone in the United States who writes better prose." BiographyFisher was born Mary Frances Kennedy on July 3, 1908, at 202 Irwin Avenue, Albion, Michigan. Rex was a co-owner (with his brother Walter) and editor of the Albion Evening Recorder newspaper. In 1919, her father Rex purchased a large white house outside the city limits on South Painter Avenue. The house sat on thirteen acres, with an orange grove; it was referred to by the family as "The Ranch." Although Whittier was primarily a Quaker community at that time, Mary Frances was brought up within the Episcopal Church. Mary enjoyed reading as a child, and began writing poetry at the age of five. The Kennedys had a vast home library, and her mother provided her access to many other books. Later, her father used her as stringer on his paper, and she would draft as many as fifteen stories a day. Mary received a formal education; however, she was an indifferent student who often skipped classes throughout her academic career. She attended Illinois College, but left after only one semester. In 1928, she enrolled in summer school at UCLA in order to obtain enough credits to transfer to Occidental College. While there, she met her future first husband: Alfred Fisher ("Al"). She attended Occidental College for one year then married Al on September 5, 1929, and moved with him to Dijon, France. Food became an early passion in her life. An early food influence was "Aunt" Gwen. Aunt Gwen was not family, but the daughter of friends — the Nettleship family. Mary recalled cooking outdoors with Gwen: steaming mussels on fresh seaweed over hot coals; catching and frying rock bass; skinning and cooking eel; and, making fried egg sandwiches to carry on hikes. Mary wrote of her meals with Gwen and Gwen's brothers: "I decided at the age of nine that one of the best ways to grow up is to eat and talk quietly with good people." Mary liked to cook meals in the kitchen at home, and "easily fell into the role of the cook's helper." In September 1929, newlyweds Mary and Al sailed on the RMS Berengaria to Cherbourg (now Cherbourg-Octeville), France. They traveled to Paris for a brief stay, before continuing south to Dijon. Al attended the Faculté des Lettres at the University of Dijon where he was working on his doctorate; when not in class, he worked on his epic poem, The Ghosts in the Underblows. The poem was based on the Bible and was analogous to James Joyce's Ulysses. Mary attended night classes at the École des Beaux-Arts where she spent three years studying painting and sculpture. They lodged at 14 Rue du Petit-Potet in a home owned by the Ollangnier family. The Ollangniers served good food at home, although Madame Ollangnier was "extremely penurious and stingy." Mary remembered big salads made at the table, deep-fried Jerusalem artichokes, and "reject cheese" that was always good. To celebrate their three-month anniversary, Al and Mary went to the Aux Trois Faisans restaurant — their first of many visits. There, Mary received her education in fine wine from a sommelier named Charles. The Fishers visited all the restaurants in town, where in Mary's words: We ate terrines of pate ten years old under their tight crusts of mildewed fat. We tied napkins under our chins and splashed in great odorous bowls of ecrevisses a la nage. We addled our palates with snipes hung so long they fell from their hooks, to be roasted then on cushions of toast softened with the paste of their rotted innards and fine brandy. By 1931, Fisher had finished the first twelve books of the poem, which he ultimately expected to contain sixty books. That year, Mary and Al moved to their own apartment, above a pastry shop at 26 Rue Monge. It was Mary's first kitchen. It was only five feet by three feet and contained a two-burner hotplate. Despite the kitchen's limitations, or perhaps because of it, Mary began developing her own personal cuisine, with the goal of "cooking meals that would 'shake [her guests] from their routines, not only of meat-potatoes-gravy, but of thought, of behavior.'" In The Gastronomical Me she describes one such meal: There in Dijon, the cauliflowers were very small and succulent, grown in that ancient soil. I separated the flowerlets and dropped them in boiling water for just a few minutes. Then I drained them and put them in a wide shallow casserole, and covered them with heavy cream, and a thick sprinkling of freshly grated Gruyere, the nice rubbery kind that didn't come from Switzerland at all, but from the Jura. It was called râpé in the market, and was grated while you watched, in a soft cloudy pile, onto your piece of paper. After Al was awarded his doctorate, they moved briefly to Strasbourg, France, then a tiny French fishing village, Le Cros-de-Cagnes. Al had stopped work on his poem, was trying to write novels and did not want to return to the States. After running out of funds, the Fishers returned to California, sailing on the Feltre out of Marseilles. Back in California, Al and Mary initially moved in with Mary's family at "The Ranch" and later moved into the Laguna cabin. Al spent two years looking for a teaching position until he found one at Occidental College. Mary began writing and she published her first piece — "Pacific Village" — in the February 1935 issue of Westways magazine. The article was a fictional account of life in Laguna Beach Mary worked part-time in a card shop and researched old cookery books at the Los Angeles Public Library. She began writing short pieces on gastronomy. The pieces were later to become her first book: Serve It Forth. Mary next began work on a novel she never finished; it was based on the founding of Whittier. During this period, Mary's marriage with Al was beginning to fail. In 1933, Dillwyn Parrish and his wife Gigi moved next door to them, and they rapidly became friends. After Parrish divorced Gigi in 1934, Mary found herself falling in love with him. In Mary's words, she one day sat next to Parrish at the piano and told him she loved him. In 1935, with Al's permission, Mary traveled to Europe with Parrish and his mother. The Parrishes had money, and they sailed on the luxury liner Hansa. Mary revisited Dijon and ate with Parrish at Aux Trois Faisans where she was recognized and served by her old friend, the waiter Charles. She later wrote a piece on their visit — "The Standing and the Waiting" — which was to become the centerpiece of Serve It Forth. Upon her return from Europe, Mary informed Al of her developing relationship with Parrish. In 1936, Dillwyn invited the Fishers to join him in creating an artists' colony at Le Paquis — a two-story stone house that Parrish had bought with his sister north of Vevey, Switzerland. Notwithstanding the clear threat to his marriage, Al agreed. "Le Paquis" means the grazing ground. The house sat on a sloping meadow on the north shore of Lake Geneva, looking across to the snowcapped Alps. They had a large garden in which "We grew beautiful salads, a dozen different kinds, and several herbs. There were shallots and onion and garlic, and I braided them into long silky ropes and hung them over rafters in the attic." In mid-1937 Al and Mary separated. He returned to the States where he began a distinguished career as a teacher and poet at Smith College. In 1938, Mary returned home briefly to inform her parents in person of her separation and pending divorce from Al. Meanwhile, her first book, Serve It Forth, had opened to largely glowing reviews, including reviews in Harper's Monthly, The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune. Mary, however, was disappointed in the book's meager sales because she needed the money. During this same period, Mary and Parrish also co-wrote (alternating chapters) a light romance entitled Touch and Go under the pseudonym Victoria Berne. The book was published by Harper and Brothers in 1939. In September 1938, Mary and Parrish could no longer afford to live at Les Paquis and they moved to Bern, where Parrish underwent two surgeries but could not get a good diagnosis from his doctors. With the onset of World War II, and Parrish's need for medical care, Mary and Parrish returned to the States, where he ultimately was diagnosed as having Buerger's disease (Thromboangiitis obliterans) — a circulatory system malady that causes extreme thrombosis of the arteries and veins, causing severe pain, and often necessitating multiple amputations. The disease is progressive and there was (and is) no known successful treatment. They returned briefly to Switzerland to close down their apartment, and returned to California. Once in California, Mary searched for a warm dry climate that would be beneficial for Parrish's health. She found a small cabin on ninety acres of land south of Hemet, California. They bought the property and named it "Bareacres" after the character Lord Bareacres in Vanity Fair by Thackeray. Lord Bareacres was land-poor; his only asset was his estate. Although Parrish's life at Bareacres had its ups and downs, its course was a downward spiral. Ultimately, Parrish could no longer tolerate the pain and the probable need for additional amputations. On the morning of August 6, 1941, Mary was awakened by a gunshot. Venturing outside, she discovered that Parrish had committed suicide. Mary later would write, "I have never understood some (a lot of) taboos and it seems silly to me to make suicide one of them in our social life." During the period leading up to Tim's death (Parrish was often called "Tim" by family and friends, but referred to as "Chexbres" in Fisher's autobiographical books), Mary completed three books. The first was a novel entitled The Theoretical Foot. It was a fictional account of expatriates enjoying a summer romp when the protagonist, suffering great pain, ends up losing a leg. The second book was an unsuccessful attempt by her to revise a novel written by Tim, Daniel Among the Women. Third, she completed and published Consider the Oyster, which she dedicated to Tim. The book was humorous and informative. It contained numerous recipes incorporating oysters, mixed with musings on the history of the oyster, oyster cuisine, and the love life of the oyster. In 1942, Mary published How to Cook a Wolf. The book was published at the height of WWII food shortages. In May 1942 Mary began working in Hollywood for Paramount Studios. While there she wrote gags for Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, and Dorothy Lamour. Mary became pregnant in 1943, and secluded herself in a boarding house in Altadena. While there she worked on the book that would become The Gastronomical Me. On August 15, 1943, she gave birth to Anne Kennedy Parrish (later known as Anna). Mary listed a fictional father on the birth certificate, Michael Parrish. She never revealed the father's identity. In 1944, Mary broke her contract with Paramount. On a trip to New York, she met and fell in love with publisher Donald Friede. She spent the summer in Greenwich Village with Friede, working on the book that would become Let Us Feast. Her relationship with Friede gave her entree to additional publishing markets, and she wrote articles for Atlantic Monthly, Vogue, Town and Country, Today's Woman and Gourmet. In fall 1945, Friede's publishing entity failed, and Mary and Donald returned to Bareacres, both to write. On March 12, 1946, Mary gave birth to her second daughter, Kennedy Mary Friede. Mary began work on With Bold Knife and Fork. Mary's mother died in 1948. In 1949, she moved to the Ranch to take care of her father, Rex. On Christmas Eve 1949, the limited edition release of her translation of Savarin's The Physiology of Taste received rave reviews. During this period, Mary also was working on a biography of Madame Récamier for which she had received an advance. Her marriage with Donald was starting to unravel. He became ill with intestinal pains and after considerable medical treatment, it became apparent that the pain was psychosomatic, and Don began receiving psychiatric care. Mary in turn had been under considerable stress. She had been caretaker for Tim, had weathered his suicide, suffered her brother's suicide a year later, followed by the death of her mother, only to be thrust into the role of caretaker for Rex. Despite her financially successful writing career, Don lived a lifestyle that exceeded their income, leaving her $27,000 in debt. She sought psychiatric counseling for what essentially was a nervous breakdown. By 1949, Donald had become frustrated by his isolation in a small Southern California town and separated from Mary. They divorced on August 8, 1950. Her father died June 2, 1953. Mary subsequently sold the Ranch and the newspaper. She rented out Bareacres and moved to Napa Valley, renting "Red Cottage" south of St. Helena, California. Dissatisfied with the educational opportunities available to her children, Mary sailed to France in 1954. She ended up in Aix-en-Provence, France. She planned to live in Aix using the proceeds from the sale of her father's paper. Once in Aix, Mary employed a French tutor and enrolled Anna and Kennedy, then aged 11 and 8, in the École St Catherine. In Aix, her life developed a pattern. Each day she would walk across town to pick up the girls from school at noon, and in late afternoon they ate snacks or ices at the Deux Garçons or Glacière, but she never felt completely at home. Mary left Provence in July 1955, and sailed for San Francisco on the freighter Vesuvio. After living in the city for a short period, she decided that the intense urban environment did not provide the children enough freedom. She sold Bareacres and used the proceeds to buy an old Victorian house on Oak Street in St. Helena. She owned the house until 1970, using it as a base for frequent travels. During extended absences she would rent it out. In fall 1959 she moved the family to Lugano, Switzerland, where she hoped to introduce her daughters to a new language and culture. She revisited Dijon and Aix. Falling back in love with Aix, she rented the L'Harmas farmhouse outside Aix.
In July 1961, she returned to San Francisco. She contracted to write a series of cookbook reviews for The New Yorker magazine. In 1966, Time-Life hired Mary to write The Cooking of Provincial France. She traveled to Paris to research material for the book. While there, she met Paul and Julia Child, and through them James Beard. Child was hired to be a consultant on the book; Michael Field was the consulting editor. Fisher was disappointed in the book's final form; it contained restaurant recipes, without regard to regional cuisine, and much of her signature prose had been cut. In 1971, Mary's friend David Bouverie, who owned a ranch in Glen Ellen, California, offered to build Mary a house on his ranch. Mary designed it, calling it "Last House". And she spent the last twenty years of her life in "Last House". After Dillwyn Parrish's death, Fisher considered herself a "ghost" of a person, but she continued to have a long and productive life, while suffering from Parkinson's disease and arthritis. M.F.K. Fisher died at the age of 83 in Glen Ellen, California, in 1992. |
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