Kathleen Eaton Cannell (usually known as Kitty Cannell) (1891 – 1974) was a

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

-based

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

dance and fashion correspondent for major U.S. papers and periodicals. Before moving to Paris she was the dance critic for ''

The Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles in electronic format as well as a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper ...

''. During the years of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

she was a dancer and performed under the stage name of 'Rihani', inventing a dance style called 'static dances'. She was a well-known figure in the American community of artists in Paris in the 1920s. She was briefly married to the poet

Skipwith Cannell Skipwith Cannell (1887–1957) was an American poet associated with the Imagist group. His surname is pronounced with the accent on the second syllable. He was a friend of William Carlos Williams, and like Ezra Pound he came from Philadelphia. C ...

but divorced him in the spring of 1921, later marrying French poet Roger Vitrac.

William Carlos Williams William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet, writer, and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism. In addition to his writing, Williams had a long career as a physician practicing both pedia ...

describes her thus: "Kitty Cannell in her squirrel coat and yellow skull cap, which made the French, man and woman, turn in the street and stare seeing a woman, approaching six feet, so accoutered". She had an affair with

Harold Loeb Harold Albert Loeb (October 18, 1891 – January 20, 1974) was an American writer, notable as an important American figure in the arts among expatriates in Paris in the 1920s. In 1921 he was the founding editor of ''Broom: An International Magazin ...

and they socialized with

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fic ...

and his wife Hadley. In ''

A Farewell to Arms ''A Farewell to Arms'' is a novel by American writer Ernest Hemingway, set during the Italian campaign of World War I. First published in 1929, it is a first-person account of an American, Frederic Henry, serving as a lieutenant () in the am ...

'' Hemingway based the character Helen Ferguson on Kitty, and also the character Frances Clyne in ''

The Sun Also Rises ''The Sun Also Rises'' is a 1926 novel by American writer Ernest Hemingway, his first, that portrays American and British expatriates who travel from Paris to the Festival of San Fermín in Pamplona to watch the running of the bulls and the bu ...

'', although she denied this, but a reading of her letters to Loeb indicates strong parallels with the story. She became the Paris fashion correspondent for ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'', and, during the German occupation, reported on occupying forces' press conferences for the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

. Her only book was '' Jam Yesterday'', a memoir of her childhood, which was spent shuttling back and forth between the U.S. and Canada. It was published by William Morrow & Company in 1945. Her papers are held by Harvard University's Houghton Library.

References

Sources

* Robert Karoly Sarlos, ''Jig Cook and the Provincetown Players: Theatre in Ferment,''

University of Massachusetts Press The University of Massachusetts Press is a university press that is part of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The press was founded in 1963, publishing scholarly books and non-fiction. The press imprint is overseen by an interdisciplinar ...

, 1982 * Humphrey Carpenter, ''Geniuses Together: American Writers in Paris in the 1920s,'' Unwin Hyman, 1987. (see pp. 101, 153, 183) * Bertram D. Sarason, ''Hemingway and 'The Sun' set'' NCR / Microcard Editions, 1972 * James J Wilhelm, ''Ezra Pound in London and Paris 1908-1925'' Penn State Press, 1990. (see p. 301) {{DEFAULTSORT:Cannell, Kathleen Eaton 1891 births 1974 deaths American female dancers American dance critics American expatriates in France American women journalists The Christian Science Monitor people American women critics 20th-century American dancers 20th-century American women