Janet Flanner's fortnightly "Letter from Paris," which appeared in the New Yorker from 10 October 1925 to 29 September 1975, provides a comprehensive picture of life in the city that drew so many young Americans to it during the twenties and thirties. Her more than seven hundred columns cover not only cultural events and trends in modern literature but fashion, sporting events, nightlife, fascinating trivia, bizarre crimes, and the activities of history-making individuals. Her many New Yorker profiles display a similar range. From major cultural figures to politicians to French couturiers to socialites and royalty, she applied her acute powers of observation and her incisive style to an analysis of culture in its broadest sense. Once an aspiring novelist herself and a friend to most of the major American writers, editors, and publishers in Paris during the twenties and thirties, her reports are notable for her early recognition of literary excellence in...