Eyre de Lanux papers, 1865-1995

Biographical records include various membership certificates, medical records, travel papers and tickets of Eyre de Lanux and Paolo Casagrande, and a transcript of a psychic reading. Also found is an audio recording concerning Pierre de Lanux. An 1865 Oath of Loyalty of George C. Harris is included; however the connection with Eyre de Lanux is unclear.

Personal business records consist of addresses of friends, a calendar, consignment and loan agreements concerning the sale of Eyre's art collection, receipts, rental and lodging forms, stocks, and a copy of a will. Sales arrangements include records from the Betty Parsons Gallery, through which de Lanux sold her personal collection of artwork.

Correspondence spans the years 1922 until 1995 and includes extensive letters between Eyre and her husband Pierre, her lover Paolo Casagrande, and her daughter Anne Strong (Bikou). Other notable correspondents include Louis Aragon, Natalie Barney, Betsy Fahlman, Consuelo Ford, Alexander Lenard, and Evelyn Wyld. Much of the correspondence is personal in nature, however a folder of correspondence between Eyre and her literary editors is found at the end of the series.

Eyre de Lanux's outgoing correspondence spans 1918 to 1955 and consists mainly of her letters to husband Pierre and lover Paolo Casagrande (probably letters she did not mail.) The most complete is the correspondence between Eyre and Pierre which dates from the beginning of their courtship in New York in 1918 and ends with Pierre s death. Often separated, they were in frequent contact. During the years Pierre worked in Geneva as Director of the Paris Office for the League of Nations, from 1923 to 1933, he wrote to her regularly. Eyre's letters to Pierre include those written during her stay in the United States in 1927-28. These letters offer some of the clearest expressions of her desire to make a living in the field of the decorative arts. Pierre and Eyre's correspondence is written in both French and English.

Scattered letters are from friends and lovers, including poet James Merrill, Mr. and Mrs. Archibald MacLeish, lover and design collaborator Evelyn Wyld, lover Natalie Barney, writer and lover Pierre Drieu La Rochelle, and poet and lover Louis Aragon.

Correspondence is arranged alphabetically by correspondent.

There are 64 volumes of Eyre de Lanux's diaries dating from 1923 to 1988. There are no diaries for the period 1927 to 1947, with the exception of two small notebooks from 1938 and 1945. The diaries resume regularly in 1948, with Eyre's arrival in Rome, and continue, with multiple volumes for most years, until the late 1980s when her eyesight failed. The handwriting is difficult to read and she moves from one language to another within entries, writing in English, French, and Italian. Eyre de Lanux used her diaries to record her impressions of the world rather than to enumerate daily activities.

The diaries for her early years in Paris, from 1923 to 1926, are immensely detailed, containing verbatim transcriptions of recent conversations. The diaries can also be explicit in describing her encounters with her lovers of the period: Consuelo Urisarri, Natalie Barney, Louis Aragon, and Pierre Drieu La Rochelle. For instance, the 1925 diary (May to June) records a nighttime walk with Louis Aragon through the Park Buttes-Chaumont and the interruption of their kiss by the watchman.

She generally refers to individuals using initials rather than first names. The diaries after 1948 may be characterized as travelogues, as she often began a diary after arriving in a new locale. They contain numerous references to Paolo Casagrande, her lover from 1948. They are filled with notes for stories and sketches of the places they visited: Capri, Ischia, Sicily, Greece, and Morocco. While she traveled, she continued to develop her fresco technique, using her sketches as fresco studies.

In her 1949 journal, she jotted down from memory the advice Brancusi had given her on fresco painting twenty years earlier. He is the only one of her art teachers to appear in her diaries. The diary for March 1961 joyfully announces her discovery of an apartment at The Picasso on E. 58th Street in New York City, where she settled, inaugurating a new life in the United States. Subsequent diaries are filled with observations, notes for stories, and records of her travels to Rome, Bucharest, Paris and Japan. Her 1977 diary contains a chronology of her life which she may have prepared at the request of a dealer.

Diaries are arranged chronologically. Titles of diaries are handwritten by Eyre de Lanux and typically refer to the places in which she travelled during the span covered by the diary.

Writings include drafts, copies, and notes for de Lanux's short stories from the 1920s until the 1980s and annotated entries and drafts of her magazine column, Letters to Elizabeth. Also found are Eyre's poems, a note written to Paris, and notes concerning interior decoration. Writings by others include handwritten poems by Ann Lee, travel journals by Paolo Casagrande and Paul Eyre, and a draft of Pierre de Lanux's "Memoires-Jours de Notre Vivre."

Eyre de Lanux's short stories are arranged alphabetically by title and many are undated. Alternative story names are included whenever possible. Writings by others are arranged alphabetically by author.

Research files consist of Eyre de Lanux's notes, drafts, photographs, published works, and research correspondence relating to her biography on Tobias Lear, the personal secretary of George Washington and a proposal for a work entitled Illusions of Identity. Other materials include copies of Betsy Fahlman's research on architect Wilson Eyre, de Lanux's uncle. Fahlman's correspondence with de Lanux can be found in the correspondence series and a draft of a biography by Fahlman on Eyre de Lanux is found in writings.

Printed material is scattered and includes periodicals including writings by Pierre de Lanux and Eyre de Lanux, one exibition announcement for Eyre's work, reproductions of works of art, blank postcards, and souvenirs presumably gathered from de Lanux's many trips throughout the world.

Photographs are of Eyre in her studio and of her family and friends including: Louis Aragon, Natalie Barney, Paolo Casagrande and family, Alice Delmar, Paul Eyre, Consuelo Ford, Pierre de Lanux, Anne Strong, and Evelyn Wyld. Of interest is a photo of Barney's 20 Rue Jacob known as the Temple d'Amitie. Other photos are of buildings, travel, interiors, and works of art. Among the photographs of works of art include two portraits, one of Eyre de Lanux by Romaine Brooks and one of Romaine Brooks by Eyre de Lanux.

Artwork includes sketches, drawings, prints, and paintings by Eyre de Lanux probably dating from the 1920s to the 1940s. There is a painted sketch concerning interior decoration from circa 1949. Sketches of note include Parisian street scenes, portraits of friends, a design for a perfume advertisement for the fashion house Lucien Lelong, and illustrated notes for Consuelo Ford.