A short life of the author
Eve Babitz (1943–2021) was born on 13 May 1943 in Hollywood, California. Her father was a violinist for the 20th Century Fox studio orchestra; her godfather was Igor Stravinsky. She grew up at the center of Los Angeles’s art world and became famous when she was photographed playing chess naked with Marcel Duchamp in 1963.
Life and Career
Eve’s Hollywood (1974) — a collection of autobiographical essays and stories about growing up in Los Angeles — is her debut and her best-known book. Written in a voice that is simultaneously brainy, sexy, and nonchalant, it captures the texture of 1960s and 1970s Los Angeles like nothing else.
Slow Days, Fast Company (1977) — more essays and sketches about Los Angeles life — is her finest single book: a perfect evocation of the city’s light, heat, parties, and aimlessness. Sex and Rage (1979) — a loosely autobiographical novel about a surfer girl who moves to New York — extends her range.
Babitz’s books fell out of print for decades before being reissued by New York Review Books Classics in the 2010s, leading to a major critical reassessment.
Major Works and Themes
Babitz wrote about Los Angeles — its beauty, its pleasures, its superficiality, and its overlooked depths — with an authority and sensuality that no other writer has matched.
Key Works
- Eve’s Hollywood (1974)
- Slow Days, Fast Company (1977)
Collecting Babitz
Original editions (Delacorte, 1974–1979) bring $100–$300. NYRB Classics reissues are the standard reading editions. Babitz died in 2021.