Published in 2024 (first published 1979)
160 pages
5 hours and 43 minutes
Elaine Kraf (1936–2013) was a writer and painter. She was the author of four published works of fiction—I Am Clarence (1969), The House of Madelaine (1971), Find Him! (1977), and The Princess of 72nd Street (1979)—as well as several unpublished novels, plays, and poetry collections. Kraf was the recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts awards, a 1971 fellowship at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and a 1977 residency at Yaddo. She was born and lived in New York City.
What is this book about?
A provocative and thoroughly feminist “cult classic” (The New Yorker) about a smart, sensitive, yet deeply troubled young woman fighting to live on her own terms.
I am glad I have the radiance. This time I am wiser. No one will know… The radiance drifts blue circles around my head. If I wanted to I could float up and through them. I am weightless. My brain is cool like rippling waves. Conflict does not exist. For a moment I cannot see—the lights are large orange flowers.
Ellen has two lives. A single artist living alone on New York’s Upper West Side in the 1970s, she periodically descends into episodes she describes as “radiances.” While under the influence of the radiance, she becomes Princess Esmeralda, and West 72nd Street the kingdom over which she rules. Life as Esmeralda is a colorful, glorious, liberating experience for Ellen, and despite the chaos and stigma these episodes can bring, she relishes the respite from the confines of the everyday. And yet those around her, particularly the men in her life, are threatened by her incarnation as Esmeralda and the freedom it gives her.
In what would turn to be her final published work, originally released in 1979, Elaine Kraf tackles a dark and disturbing subject in an utterly original, witty, and inventive manner. Provocative at the time of its publication and thoroughly iconoclastic, The Princess of 72nd Street is a remarkable portrait of an unforgettable woman.
