Harriet Lane Levy (29 March 1866–15 September 1950) is a California writer best known for her memoir, ''920 O’Farrell Street''. Levy was also an avid art collector, a girlhood friend of

Alice B. Toklas Alice Babette Toklas (April 30, 1877 – March 7, 1967) was an American-born member of the Parisian avant-garde of the early 20th century, and the life partner of American writer Gertrude Stein. Early life Alice B. Toklas was born in San F ...

, and an acquaintance of

Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny West neighborhood and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris ...

Biography

She was born into an upper-middle-class Jewish family and raised in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. From 1865-1869, her cousin,

Albert A. Michelson Albert Abraham Michelson Royal Society of London, FFRS HFRSE (surname pronunciation anglicized as "Michael-son", December 19, 1852 – May 9, 1931) was a German-born American physicist of Polish/Jewish origin, known for his work on measuring the ...

(the first U.S. citizen to win a

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

for science), lived with her. The first part of her autobiography, ''920 O’Farrell Street'', chronicles her childhood in an upper-middle-class San Francisco neighborhood. Additionally, young women such as Levy were expected to marry well-off men, which generated additional societal expectations. However, the intellectually inclined Levy was hesitant to marry early. Instead, she graduated from the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...

in 1886 and became a prominent writer for popular San Francisco publications, such as the ''

San Francisco Call ''The San Francisco Call'' was a newspaper that served San Francisco, California. Because of a succession of mergers with other newspapers, the paper variously came to be called ''The San Francisco Call & Post'', the ''San Francisco Call-Bulletin ...

''. She also wrote for ''The Wave'' with notable writers such as

Jack London John Griffith Chaney (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to ...

and

Frank Norris Benjamin Franklin Norris Jr. (March 5, 1870 – October 25, 1902) was an American journalist and novelist during the Progressive Era, whose fiction was predominantly in the naturalist genre. His notable works include '' McTeague: A Story of San ...

. Another one of Levy’s passions was traveling. She visited

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 ...

many times, the first being with her friends Michael (brother of Gertrude Stein) and Sarah Stein. She later returned to Paris with Toklas, in 1907, living with her until she moved in with

in 1910.(Stein, 1934, p. 105-07) In 1910, she resettled in San Francisco, at the age of 47, continuing to live independently by pursuing her intellectual interests (such as psychology and Christian Science) until her death in 1950.

Connections to Gertrude Stein

Levy was the subject of one of

's early word portraits. Levy was the subject of much effort on the part of Toklas and Stein to return Levy to San Francisco ''sans''

, her original traveling companion. (Stein, 1934, p. 105-07) Levy wrote a description of the famed ''Rousseau Banquet'' which was published in a limited edition of 30 copies, in 1985 as part of a UC Berkeley seminar:
(discussion of the Levy posthumous publication appears at page 4 of this Charles Hobson catalog)

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Benefactor

Harriet Lane Levy bequeathed to the

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...

: *

André Derain André Derain (, ; 10 June 1880 – 8 September 1954) was a French artist, painter, sculptor and co-founder of Fauvism with Henri Matisse. Biography Early years Derain was born in 1880 in Chatou, Yvelines, Île-de-France, just outside Paris. I ...

, ''Paysage du midi'', 1906 oil on canvas * Peter David Edstrom, ''Portrait of Miss Levy'', ca. 1907-1908 terracotta *

Henri Manguin Henri Charles Manguin (; 23 March 187425 September 1949)
2008 was a French painter, associated with the < ...

, ''Nu sous les arbres (Nude beneath the Trees)'' (study), 1905 oil on canvasboard; Corsican Landscape *

Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known prima ...

, ''Corsican Landscape'', 1899 oil on canvas; ''La Table au café (Café Table)'', ca. 1899 oil on canvas; ''Le Serf (The Slave)'', 1900–1903, bronze; ''Madeleine, I'', 1901 bronze; ''Flowers'', 1905 oil on cardboard; ''Assiette de fruits (Fruit Dish)'', 1902-1903 oil on canvas 1907; ''La fille aux yeux verts (The Girl with Green Eyes)'', 1908 oil on canvas; ''Grosse tête; Henriette, II (Large Head; Henriette, II)'', 1927 bronze *

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

, ''Scène de rue (Street Scene)'', 1900 oil on canvas

References

Primary sources

* Levy, Harriet Lane, ''920 O'Farrell Street''. Doubleday, 1947; Santa Clara University Heyday Books, 1996. . * Levy, Harriet Lane, ''A Supper in Montmartre,'' Bancroftiana, April 1986.

Secondary sources

* Kellner, Bruce, ed. ''A Gertrude Stein Companion: Content with the Example''. New York, Westport, Connecticut, London: Greenwood Press, 1988. . * Mellow, James R. ''Charmed Circle: Gertrude Stein & Company''. New York, Washington: Praeger Publishers, 1974. . * Stein, Gertrude. ''Harriet'' in ''Portraits and Prayers''. New York: Random House, 1934. .

External links

* Fou
short radio readings
from ''920 O'Farrell Street'' from

California Legacy Project California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

.
''The Right of the People to Peaceably Assemble in Unusual Clothing'' (pdf file; with selections from Harriet Lane Levy's autobiography)

Example of bequest by Harriet Lane Levy to the San Francisco Museum of Art
{{DEFAULTSORT:Levy, Harriet Lane 1867 births 1950 deaths American women writers Jewish American writers Jewish women writers