Imagine the Montparnasse cafes, such as Le Select –\u00a0which was famous for French Onion Soup – in Paris 1965. I read about the history of artists – painters, writers, philosophers, etc. – who hung out there, sometimes to keep warm, and decided to go.<\/p>\n Packing my bags in my New\u00a0 York City Greenwich Village one-room rent-controlled apartment, I sailed alone on a boat to France, intent on starting “my novel.” What better\u00a0 place. In fabled Montparnasse caf\u00e9s in the 1920s\u00a0many poor\u00a0writers, like Hemingway,\u00a0spent long hours – as documented in A Moveable Feast<\/em>. Also,\u00a0Picasso (see the photo at La Rotonde). Or Henry Miller. Writers, painters, dancers, philosophers\u00a0mingled and kept warm. Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir lived in the neighborhood and are buried now in the Montparnasse cemetery. The atmosphere was still alive in 1965. Why wouldn’t it be? It was the 1960s. The\u00a0menu in the slider is from yet another famous Montparnasse caf\u00e9; it displays\u00a0the signatures of some of the regulars. But I actually sat down to begin writing just down the street, at “Le Dome.”<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"Hunter](\"https:\/\/margaretharrell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/hstmainMedium.jpg\")
<\/a>Keep This Quiet!<\/em> captures the fear and loathing, charm and romance of Hunter in the late Sixties\u2014along with tales of two other underground authors. Included are genuine, funny letters he sent Margaret during and after the publication of Hell\u2019s Angels<\/em>. Also, priceless reminiscences of some of Hunter\u2019s oldest friends: William Kennedy, David Pierce, Rosalie Sorrels, and editor Jim Silberman\u2014covered in no other account. Featured in addition are \u201cpo\u00e8te maudit\u201d Jan Mensaert and Greenwich Village \u201cpoet genius\u201d Milton Klonsky.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/a>