I Shock Myself: The Autobiography of Beatrice Wood

I Shock Myself: The Autobiography of Beatrice Wood by Beatrice Wood. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780961607104.

Beatrice Woods life was extraordinary in every way -- from earliest childhood when her dominating Victorian mother realized she "wasnt like the rest of them" -- to her productive 105-year life, the last years of which she spent amidst the mountains of the sacred Ojai, California valley. Rebellious, radical and romantic, Beatrice Wood was determined to be an artist. She fled to Paris for several bohemian seasons as a painter and actress, then returned to New York where she fell into the loving clutches of two Frenchmen: author Henri-Pierre Roché and Dada artist Marcel Duchamp. Her promising youth was followed by a disastrous marriage, financial woes and a debilitating physical affliction, but in 1933, al the age of forty, she discovered the passion that would change her life: pottery. Aged 92 at the time of publication and one of Americas acclaimed ceramicists, Beatrice Wood shares the intriguing details of her unconventional life in I Shock Myself. With candor and insight, she recollects nearly ten decades of world shaking events, heart-breaking romances, famous moments in art and many moments of truth. She gives us rare glimpses into the lives of such personalities as Duchamp and Roché, Brancusi, Isadora Duncan, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Anais Nin and many others. She recalls the early days with Theosophist Annie Besant and the young Krishnamurti. Above all, it is the mystery of love, sex and romance that intrigued Beatrice Wood and fired the imagination of both her life and art. I Shock Myself reflects the charm, magic and rare spirit of a woman who defied propriety, as well as time, to become a true national treasure.