Paris, in Tears and Laughter

By Laura Vitray

It's New York, 1918. Yve is a young woman aspiring to become a writer who earns $500 when she publishes a children's' book. She decides to use the money to travel to France where war is raging because, "a writer is impelled to go where things are happening." When she gets to Paris, the war has just ended. She decides to stay and immerses herself in the lives of the people she meets in Paris. Yve is driven to learn to speak French like a native. To perfect her French, she spends time with one of the grand dames of the French theater, whose first words to Yve are: "Ugh! You speak the most horrible French I have ever heard!" But she turns out to have a soft heart and she takes Yve under her wing. Around the same time, Yve begins to see a young actor who is also helping her with French and with whom she falls in love. Their marriage immerses Yve in the avant-garde theater movement in Paris and takes her on adventures in England, Geneva and Vichy. After their son, Alain, is born, Yve begins a career in journalism writing stories about Paris nightlife, the circus and other "Gay Paris" activities for an American newspaper. This novel is based on Laura Vitray's years living in Paris starting in 1918. In 1918, Laura boarded a ship bound for France to write about the war, a young woman alone, with no job waiting for her there and just basic high school French, her only skill her writing ability. By 1930, she was the city editor of the New York Evening Graphic, the first female city editor of a major metropolitan newspaper in United States history. Not long after that, she published her first book, "The Lindbergh Hullabaloo" (1932), based on her role as lead reporter on the Lindbergh baby kidnapping. In 1939, she published "Pictorial Journalism," an important reference for the profession. Years later, she focused her work on the interests of young women. She became editor of American Girl Magazine. She published "The Questions Girls Ask" in 1959, and two novels that featured young women protagonists: "Celia, Country Reporter," (1958) and "Fashions for Cinderella," (1960). This book tells of the formative years of an adventurous, intelligent woman at a time when women had to overcome even more significant obstacles than they do today.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1729136192
• ISBN13: 9781729136195
• Release Date: October 2018
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 180 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.5" x 6.0"