author
Mercedes de Acosta
1893–1968
A poet, playwright, and novelist moving through the worlds of Broadway and early Hollywood, she became almost as famous for the company she kept as for the books she wrote. Her work and memoir offer a vivid glimpse of queer artistic life in the first half of the twentieth century.
2 Audiobooks
Archways of life
by Mercedes de Acosta
Moods : Prose poems
by Mercedes de Acosta
About the author
Born in New York City, Mercedes de Acosta was an American writer who published poetry, wrote plays, and produced a novel and later a memoir. She came from a well-connected family and moved easily through artistic circles, building friendships and romances with some of the best-known performers and cultural figures of her time.
Her writing career included several volumes of poetry and stage work, but she is often remembered most for Here Lies the Heart (1960), a memoir that stirred attention for its portraits of famous people she had known. That book helped fix her place in literary and cultural history, especially in accounts of queer life and celebrity culture in the early twentieth century.
Today, de Acosta is read not only as a writer but also as a figure who linked many creative worlds at once — literature, theater, dance, and film. Her life continues to interest readers because it opens a window onto glamorous, complicated, and often hidden histories.