''Kiki's Memoirs'' is a 1929 autobiography by

Alice Prin Alice Ernestine Prin (2 October 1901 – 29 April 1953), nicknamed the Queen of Montparnasse and often known as Kiki de Montparnasse, was a French model, chanteuse, memoirist and painter during the Jazz Age. She flourished in, and helped defin ...

(October 2, 1901 – April 29, 1953), known as Kiki de Montparnasse; a model, artist, and actress working in

Montparnasse Montparnasse () is an area in the south of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centred at the crossroads of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes, between the Rue de Rennes and boulevard Raspail. It is split betwee ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

in the first half of the twentieth century. Translated from the French by

Samuel Putnam Samuel Putnam (October 10, 1892 – January 15, 1950) was an American translator and scholar of Romance languages. He authored ''Paris Was Our Mistress'', a memoir on writers and artists associated with the American ex-patriate community in Paris ...

, and published in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

by Black Manikin Press, her memoirs are a lively account of the

bohemian Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to: *Anything of or relating to Bohemia Culture and arts * Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, originally practised by 19th–20th century European and American artists and writers. * Bohemian style, a ...

lifestyle typical among the artists in Paris during the 1920s, with an introduction provided by

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway ( ; July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized fo ...

. She tells of her encounters with

Man Ray Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky; August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976) was an American naturalized French visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealism, Surrealist movements, ...

Tsuguharu Foujita was a Japanese–French painter. After having studied Western-style painting in Japan, Foujita traveled to Paris, where he encountered the international modern art scene of the Montparnasse neighborhood and developed an eclectic style that borrow ...

Moïse Kisling Moïse Kisling (born Mojżesz Kisling; 22 January 1891 – 29 April 1953) was a Polish-born French painter. Born in Kraków, then part of Austria-Hungary, to Jews, Jewish parents, Kisling studied at the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts, Academy ...

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau ( , ; ; 5 July 1889 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, film director, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost avant-garde artists of the 20th-c ...

Kees van Dongen Cornelis Theodorus Maria "Kees" van Dongen (26 January 1877 – 28 May 1968) was a Dutch-French painter who was one of the leading Fauves. Van Dongen's early work was influenced by the Hague School and symbolism and it evolved gradually into a ...

Chaïm Soutine Chaïm Soutine (; ; ; 13 January 1893 – 9 August 1943) was a French painter of Belarusian-Jewish origin of the School of Paris, who made a major contribution to the Expressionist movement while living and working in Paris. Inspired by clas ...

, and others. The memoirs were first published in English in 1930, but due to their sometimes explicit content, were banned in the United States until the 1970s. However The book had been reprinted under the title ''The Education of a Young Model'' throughout the 1950s and 1960s (e.g., a 1954 edition by Bridgehead has the Hemingway Introduction and photos and illustrations by Mahlon Blaine). These editions were mainly put out by

Samuel Roth Samuel Roth (1893 - July 3rd, 1974) was an American publisher and writer. He was the plaintiff in the landmark 1957 case '' Roth v. United States'', in which the United States Supreme Court redefined the constitutional test for determining whic ...

. Taking advantage of the fact that the banning of the book meant it did not receive

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive legal right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, ...

protection in the U.S., Roth put out a series of supposedly copyrighted editions (which were never registered with the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

) which altered the text and added illustrations – line drawings and photographs – which were not by Prin. Editions published in and after 1955 include an extra 10 chapters supposedly written by Prin 23 years after the original book, including a visit to New York where she meets with Samuel Roth and Ernest Hemingway; none of this was true. A copy of the first US edition (1930) was held in the section for banned books in the

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second-largest public library in the United States behind the Library of Congress a ...

through the 1970s. A new edition, edited by

Billy Klüver Johan Wilhelm Klüver (November 11, 1927 – January 10, 2004) was an American electrical engineer at Bell Telephone Laboratories who founded Experiments in Art and Technology. Klüver lectured extensively on art and technology and social iss ...

and Julie Martin, was released in 1996. *, 1996 edition. Further reading: * ''Kiki's Memoirs, 1930'' (2006) translation by Semoniff N., Salamandra P.V.V., 2011(in Russian) * ''Kiki Souvenirs, 1929'' (2005) translation by Semoniff N., Salamandra P.V.V., 2011(in Russian)

References

1929 non-fiction books Show business memoirs {{memoir-stub