SOURCE: “Women of the Left Bank,” in Women of the Left Bank: Paris, 1900-1940, University of Texas Press, 1986, pp. 3-36.

In the following essay, Benstock examines American female modernist writers living in Paris, believing that many of them were ignored unfairly by such American editors as Ezra Pound, whom she perceives as predisposed to give short shrift to women writers.

Margaret Anderson

Djuna Barnes

Natalie Barney

Sylvia Beach

Kay Boyle

Bryher (Winifred Ellerman)

Colette

Caresse Crosby

Nancy Cunard

Hilda Doolittle (H. D.)

Janet Flanner

Jane Heap

Maria Jolas

Mina Loy

Adrienne Monnier

Anaïs Nin

Jean Rhys

Solita Solano

Gertrude Stein

Alice B. Toklas

Renée Vivien

Edith Wharton

These women were part of the artistic community that formed on the Paris Left Bank early in the twentieth century. Their literary contributions—which include major works of prose, poetry, drama, critical and journalistic essays, autobiographies, pensées, and...