Quick Facts
Biography
James Lord (November 27, 1922 – August 23, 2009) was an American writer. He was the author of several books, including critically acclaimed biographies of Alberto Giacometti and Pablo Picasso. He appeared in the documentary films Balthus Through the Looking Glass (1996) and Picasso: Magic, Sex, Death (2001).
Life and career
Lord was born in Englewood, New Jersey, and grew up there, the son of Louise and Albert Lord. His father was a stockbroker, and until the Wall Street crash the family lived, as Lord put it, in "the lower echelons of the upper classes".
He served in the United States Army during World War II, keeping his homosexuality carefully hidden.
Lord attended Wesleyan University, though he never earned a degree.
He died in Paris in 2009, aged 86.
Books (Biographies, memories and novels)
He was the author of the following works, among others:
- No Traveler Returns (1956, novel)
- The Joys of Success (1958, novel)
- A Giacometti Portrait (1965, biography)
- Giacometti: A Biography (1985, biography)
- Picasso and Dora: A Personal Memoir (1993, biography)
- Six Exceptional Women (1994)
- Some Remarkable Men (1996)
- A Gift for Admiration (1998)
- My Queer War (2010, posthumous)
- "Making Memoirs" (1995, biography)
- "Stories of Youth" (2001, fiction)
Essays
- Regard vers l'invisible / Looking at the invisible, in: Derrière le miroir, n°226, Paris: Maeght Editeur, December 1977. ISBN 2-85587-038-0 (Text in French and English.)