Noël Riley Fitch
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Noël Riley Fitch is a biographer and historian of expatriate intellectuals in Paris in the first half of the 20th century. She is the author of several books on
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, 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), ma ...
(''Literary Cafes of Paris'', ''Walks in Hemingway's Paris'') as well as three biographies: ''Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation'' (1983), translated into Japanese, Spanish, German, Italian and French; ''Anaïs: The Erotic Life of Anaïs Nin'' (1993), published in French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and Polish, and nominated for the
Grand prix des lectrices de Elle The Grand prix des lectrices de Elle is a French literary prize awarded by readers of ''Elle'' magazine. History Unlike other literary prizes that have professionals for their juries and selection committees, the Grand prix des lectrices de Elle i ...
; and she is the first authorized biographer of Julia Child, with ''Appetite for Life: the Biography of Julia Child'' (1997).New York Times
/ref> The
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 f ...
book, a biographical and geographical study of his Paris years, has been published in Dutch, the Cafés of Paris book in Dutch and German.


Early life

Fitch was born in 1937 in
New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134 ...
of New England parents (John E. Riley and Dorcas Tarr) and raised with two younger sisters in the Snake River Valley in
Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyomi ...
. She has lived in Quincy, Massachusetts; in
Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. ...
,
La Jolla La Jolla ( , ) is a hilly, seaside neighborhood within the city of San Diego, California, United States, occupying of curving coastline along the Pacific Ocean. The population reported in the 2010 census was 46,781. La Jolla is surrounded on ...
and
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
,
California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
; and in
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, 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), ma ...
, France. Her writing career began when she was a columnist for her high school and college school papers; but it was in graduate school that she discovered the story of Sylvia Beach's bookshop on the Left Bank of Paris and decided she would tell the story of Sylvia Beach, her bookshop Shakespeare and Company (1919–1942), and the publication of
James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...
's '' Ulysses'' (the 1922 novel that would change world fiction). Since then, every book Fitch has written has some connection with Paris and the artists who lived and worked there, including her biographies of Beach, Nin, and Child.


Career

In June 2011, Noel Riley Fitch was awarded the prestigious Prix de la Tour Montparnasse literary award in France for her book ''Sylvia Beach: Une américaine à Paris'' (Perrin Publishers 2011), the French translation by Elizabeth Danger of Noel's widely acclaimed 1983 book ''Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation.'' Her book ''Appetite for Life: The Biography of Julia Child'' (1997) was written with Child's full cooperation and exclusive authorization. ''
Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...
'' said the book is written "warmly and compellingly." Kirkus Reviews called its "details ... exquisite" and the story "exhaustively researched, charming."
Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cu ...
named it number five of the ten best books of the year. Following her earlier ''Literary Cafés of Paris'', Fitch returned to the travel genre to author ''The Grand Literary Cafés of Europe'' (London, 2006; US, 2007). Covering the history of
coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. Seeds of ...
and the coffeehouse, the book features nearly 40 cafes in 20 countries. ''Paris Café: The Sélect Crowd'', co-authored with illustrator Rick Tulka, was published November 2007. Fitch appears in several documentary films, including '' Portrait of a Bookstore as an Old Man'', '' Berenice Abbott: A View of the Twentieth Century'' (1992), ''Paris: The Luminous Years'' (PBS 2010) and the A&E ''
Biography A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...
'' of Julia Child, first shown October 14, 1997 and based on her book, ''Appetite for Life''. Fitch earned a Ph.D. from
Washington State University Washington State University (Washington State, WSU, or informally Wazzu) is a public land-grant research university with its flagship, and oldest, campus in Pullman, Washington. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest land-grant uni ...
and has taught at
Point Loma Nazarene University Point Loma Nazarene University (PLNU) is a private Christian liberal arts college with its main campus on the Point Loma oceanfront in San Diego, California, United States. It was founded in 1902 as a Bible college by the Church of the Nazarene ...
,
San Diego State University San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California. Founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system ...
,
University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...
, and the American University of Paris. She is presently writing the story of the Irish woman Louison O'Morphi ( Marie Louise O'Murphy) mistress of
Louis XV of France Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reache ...
, model for
Rococo Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...
painter François Boucher, and subject of a chapter in
Giacomo Casanova Giacomo Girolamo Casanova (, ; 2 April 1725 – 4 June 1798) was an Italian adventurer and author from the Republic of Venice. His autobiography, (''Story of My Life''), is regarded as one of the most authentic sources of information about the c ...
's memoirs. Fitch recently retired from lecturing at both the University of Southern California and the American University of Paris. She and her husband live in Los Angeles, Paris, and New York City. She has one daughter.


Noël Riley Fitch Collections

Firestone Princeton University Library
Manuscript Division
Noël Riley Fitch Papers-C0841 1858-2011 (mostly 1965–1995)
Consists of the writings, correspondence, interviews, printed works, and other additional papers of the American educator and author Noël Riley Fitch (1937-). Also included are a selection of Sylvia Beach papers that Fitch consulted for her book Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation: A History of Literary Paris in the Twenties and Thirties (1983).
Firestone Princeton University Library
The University of Texas at Austin
Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center
Noël Riley Fitch an inventory of her papers G11541, G12152
The collection contains Fitch's research, from inception to culmination, for the 1993 publication of the biography, Anaïs: The Erotic Life of Anaïs Nin.
The University of Texas at Austin
New York University
Fales Library and Special Collections
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
Guide to the Noël Riley Fitch Julia Child Papers 1912 - 2011 MSS 323
The Noël Riley Fitch Julia Child Papers consists largely of material related to the research, production, and reception of the best selling book Appetite for Life: The Biography of Julia Child.

Southern Illinois University
Special Collections Research Center
The Noël Riley Fitch Collection of Henry Miller, 1987-1993 1/1/MSS 270
The collection consists of correspondence, reviews of "Significant Other" and a manuscript of "A Literate Passion: letters of Anaïs Nin and Henry Miller".
Southern Illinois University


Works


Books

*''Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation: A History of Literary Paris in the Twenties and Thirties''. (1983) *''Faith and Imagination: Essays on Evangelicals and Literature'' (Edited with Richard W. Etulain, 1985) *''Hemingway in Paris: Parisian Walks for the Literary Traveller'' (1989) *''Literary Cafés of Paris'' (1989) *''Walks in Hemingway's Paris'' (1990) *''Anaïs: the Erotic Life of Anaïs Nin'' (1993) *''Appetite for Life: The Biography of Julia Child'' (1997) *''Literary Cafés of Paris'' (Second edition, 2005) *''The Grand Literary Cafés of Europe'' (2006) *''Paris Café: Sélect Crowd'' (2007) *''The Letters of Sylvia Beach'' (preface, 2009) *''Sylvia Beach: Une américaine à Paris'' (2011)


Periodicals

*"Child in Paris," Paris Notes. Cover essay. March, 2007 *"Notre Dame de la cuisine and the Prince des Gastronomes," Gastronomica; The Journal of Food and Culture. Summer, 2005: 73–79. caliber.ucpress.net/doi/abs/10.1525/gfc.2005.5.3.73 *"America honors its favorite 'French Chef'," International Herald Tribune 24 July 2003, Thursday, 9. *"A Writer's Secret Place," Michigan Quarterly Review. Spring 2000. pp 451–52. *"Beach, Sylvia Woodbridge," American National Biography. ACLS. Oxford Univ.Press, 2000. pp. 389–90. *"A New Beginning for Julia Child," AIWF Newsletter 13 (June 1999): 3. *"This is Everybody's Life" and "When 'Biography' Calls," Los Angeles Times Calendar (26 April 1998): 4–5, 95–96. *"Life Lessons from Julia Child," Bottom Line: Tomorrow. 6.4 (April 1998) 1–2. *"A Dramatic Encounter at Louveciennes, 1990," in Anaïs Nin: A Book of Mirrors. Ed. Paul Herron. MI: Sky Blue Press, 1996, pp. 21–24. *"Julia: The Book," American Institute of Wine and Food Newsletter (Aug.96): 3. *"The Crisco Kid," Los Angeles Magazine (August 1996): 82–84. *"Sylvia Beach: Commerce, Sanctification, and Art on the Left Bank," in A Living of Words: American Women in Print Culture. Ed. Susan Albertine. Knoxville: Univ. of Tennessee Press, 1995, pp. 189–206. *"The Literate Passion of Anaïs Nin and Henry Miller" in Significant Others: Creativity and Intimate Partnership. Eds. Whitney Chadwick & Isabelle de Courtivron. London: Thames & Hudson, 1993, pp. 154–171. *"Djuna Barnes" in American Writers Supplement III. New York: Scribners, 1993. *"The Elusive 'Seamless Whole': A Biographer Treats (or Fails to Treat) Lesbianism" in Lesbian Texts and Contexts: Radical Revisions. Eds. Karla Jay & Joanne Glasgow. New York: New York University Press, 1990, 59-69 pp. *"Introduction" to In transition: A Paris Anthology. New York: Doubleday; London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1990, 11-16 pp. *"La Communion Gastronomique" in L'honnete Volupte: Lettre International. Paris: Editions Michel de maule. December 1989, pp. 86–88. *""Bohemian Paris," Paris Magazine. Summer, 1989. Special Bicentennary Edition, pp. 3–5. *"L'Entente de la Vie," Arete. Vol. 2, issue 1 (July/Aug. 1989), pp. 80–85. *"The First Ulysses" in James Joyce: The Augmented Ninth. Ed. Bernard Benstock. Syracuse Univ. Press, 1988, pp. 349–61. *"The Banality of Genius," James Joyce Literary Supplement. No. 3 (spring 1988): 13. *"Paris was matria and sororitas," James Joyce Literary Supplement. No. 1 (May 1987): 8–9. *"The Cover," Journal of Library Science. Vol. 21, No. 3 (summer 1986): 600–03. *"The Failure of Spiritual Values in Henry James's The Aspern Papers" and "The Christian as Catcher: On Reading Secular Literature" in Faith and Imagination. Albuquerque, New Mexico: Far West Books, 1985: 91–101, 13–19. *"Sylvia Beach," Americans in Paris, 1920–1939, Vol. 4, Dictionary of Literary Biography. Detroit: Gale Research, 1980: 28–37. *"Voyage to Ithaca: William Carlos Williams in Paris," The Princeton University Library Chronicle AL (spring 1979): 193–214. *"Ernest Hemingway c/o Shakespeare & Company," Fitzgerald/Hemingay Annual 1977 (Detroit: Brucolli/Clark Research, 1977): 157–181. *"A Decade of Women: A Perspective from Mexico City," Wittenburg Door Vol. 26 (Aut./Sept 1975): 18–19. *"Sylvia Beach's Shakespeare and Company: Port of Call for American Expatriate," Research Studies. Vol. 33, No. 5 (Dec. 1965): 197–207.


Biographical sources

International Authors & Writers Who's Who *Who's Who in the West & Who's Who in Calif *Who's Who of American Women *Who's Who in the World *The Authors Guild (The Authors League of America) *Directory of American Scholars *Contemporary Authors *Who's Who Historical Society *Directory of Women in American Studies
Usc.edu


References


External links

* *
Noel Riley Fitch Sharing Julia Childs Appetite for Life UCSD TV Sept 14, 2014
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fitch, Noel Riley 1937 births Living people American expatriates in France Writers from New Haven, Connecticut Historians from Idaho Point Loma Nazarene University faculty American biographers 21st-century American historians American women historians American women biographers 21st-century American women writers