Here Lies the Heart

by Mercedes de Acosta

2016 Reprint of 1960 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Mercedes de Acosta (1893 - 1968) was an American poet, playwright, and novelist. She was professionally unsuccessful but is known for her many lesbian affairs with famous Broadway and Hollywood personalities and numerous friendships with prominent artists of the period. De Acosta was involved in numerous lesbian relationships with Broadway's and Hollywood's elite and she did not attempt to hide her sexuality; her uncloseted existence was very rare and daring in her generation. In 1916 she began an affair with actress Alla Nazimova and later with dancer Isadora Duncan. Shortly after marrying Abram Poole in 1920, de Acosta became involved in a five-year relationship with actress Eva Le Gallienne. Over the next decade she was involved with several famous actresses and dancers including Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Ona Munson, and Russian ballerina Tamara Platonovna Karsavina. Additional unsubstantiated rumors include affairs with Pola Negri, Eleonora Duse, Katherine Cornell, and Alice B. Toklas. In 1960, when de Acosta was seriously ill with a brain tumor and in need of money, she published her memoir, "Here Lies the Heart." In it are recounted the off stage life and lifestyles of many of the iconic figures of Hollywood in from the 1920's to 1940's.

Genres: Nonfiction, Poetry, LGBT, Queer, Memoir, Autobiography, Historical

372 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1960

About the author

Though she was the author of books of prose, collections of poems, and scripts, Mercedes de Acosta is rarely remembered for her writing. She is, instead, celebrated as a passionate lover who had affairs with some of the most intriguing and beautiful women of her time. De Acosta is rumored to have boasted often of her prowess as a lover, even going so far as to declare “I can get any woman from any man.” Her list of lovers is long, including Eva Le Gallienne, Isadora Duncan, Marlene Dietrich, and, most famously, Greta Garbo.

De Acosta, the daughter of affluent Cuban immigrants, grew up in New York where, in the 1920s, she was a figure in both the city’s “high society” and its drag clubs and speakeasies. “These were years guided by the spirit of the New,” she wrote of this period; “We were on fire with fire, with a passion to create and a daring to achieve.” Equal to the times, de Acosta was a forward-thinking student of eastern religions and a strict vegetarian. An early feminist, de Acosta advocated, along with her friend and lover the dancer Isadora Duncan, the elimination of uncomfortable and restricting fashions for women; while other women were lacing themselves into corsets, de Acosta was often seen wearing trousers. When she convinced Garbo to visit her tailor and get a pair also, the two caused a great commotion on Hollywood Boulevard. “GARBO IN PANTS!” the headlines exclaimed. “Considering what walks down Hollywood Boulevard now,” de Acosta wrote in 1960, “it seems strange that Greta and I should have caused such a sensation.”

After a life surrounded by fame, glamour, and wealth, Mercedes de Acosta spent her last years in loneliness and poverty. She suffered a variety of illnesses later in life, requiring several painful surgeries, and was forced to sell her diamonds to pay her medical bills. Her 1960 tell-all autobiography, Here Lies the Heart, alienated many of de Acosta’s friends. Some claimed the book to be wildly exaggerated and even blatantly untrue.

Reviews

[Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

the lesbian stuff is subtext for someone who allegedly said 'I can get any woman away from any man', but this book is so good. she meet everyone who matters in old hollywood & has so much gossip about it all + the outlandish lives they all had. her sister refused to pay in cash for anything bc that would be 'vulgar' and gave everyone emeralds instead + imagine being the one to spend 6 weeks on a private island with garbo. similar to 'the sewing circle', its the perfect read when ur gossip starved

[Ceren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Als er een schrijfster bestaat die een voller en rijker leven heeft geleefd dan Mercedes de Acosta, dan moet iemand me dat laten weten. Potverdomme zeg.

[Hopkin Royse · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this interesting and deeply moving at times but could not get into the spirituality stuff.

[Brett · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author is a well-known socialite and neophyte screenwriter in Hollywood during the 1930s.

[Gino · Rating 5 out of 5]

New Favorite Book

[Ann Greyson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This tell-all name-dropping autobiography, “Here Lies the Heart,” complete with photos of family and notable friends, by my cousin Mercedes de Acosta y Hernandez de Alba (1893-1968), a pure {Spaniard and a brave and proud feminine lesbian just like me], speaks volumes to me.

Most of her life, Mercedes de Acosta dealt with the turmoil of her same-sex desires and struggles for acceptance. Evident in the passionate plays she wrote, her women characters struggled with unfulfilled marriages, divorce, and a suppressed identity.

In 1905, at an early age, Mercedes was thrown into a state of ecstasy seeing her actress friend Maude Adams perform the title role in Peter Pan on stage in New York. Years later, she began an affair with Russian-American actress Alla Nazimova. At times, Mercedes’ chalk white face, deep-set eyes, thin red lips, and jet black hair against her mannish pants and pointed shoes trimmed with buckles, gave her a vampire appearance. In 1920 after marrying (Abram Poole - divorced 1935), Mercedes became involved in a relationship with actress Eva Le Gallienne. This led to Mercedes writing two plays for Eva, "Sandro Botticelli" produced in New York and "Jehanne d’Arc" produced in Paris, France, which garnished mixed reviews and financial loss ending their relationship. Over the next decade Mercedes was involved with famous actresses Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich, modern dancer Isadora Duncan, and Russian ballerina Tamara Karsavina.

Some critics have said Mercedes’ candid revelations of her relationships with women, which barely alludes to homosexuality, were exaggerated though evidence of personal letters and photographs suggests the relationships were genuine. It was shocking for Hollywood’s Golden Age of the “Sewing Circle,” a phrase used by actresses Marlene Dietrich and Alla Nazimova to describe the group of lesbian and bisexual women (some closeted) writers and actresses and their relationships in celebrity circles. Despite having a reputation that was not appreciated by everyone, Mercedes remained kind and loyal to most everyone with whom she crossed paths.

It is a fact, Mercedes had “known a number of extraordinary and beautiful women the world over,” but her sister Rita, seemed to her “more striking, more unfailing in perfect grace and beauty than any other woman.”

Most memorable to Mercedes was the time Rita carried a fluttering black fan and wore an evening dress “cut down to the waistline at the back with only two narrow straps over the shoulder to hold it up.” As the lights came on after the first act, in the old Metropolitan Opera House in New York, Rita was sitting in an exclusive box seat, a ring called “The Diamond Horseshoe.” Her back was half turned to the audience, and a gasp was heard followed by a flutter of binoculars and lorgnettes lifted to get a glimpse of her. As early as April 1913, this type of evening dress with an exaggeratedly low back was copied by fashionable women all over the world in connection with Rita de Acosta.

Those celebrity shindigs in Los Angeles and New York. VIP seating with complimentary drinks and food in the fanciest restaurants in Los Angeles and New York City at celebrity-driven events such as book signings, fashion shows, restaurant openings and panel discussions; complimentary VIP seating to concerts of pop music artists; complimentary first row of orchestra seats of Broadway show previews and openings; complimentary tickets to cast and crew attended movie screenings at theaters in New York, and in screening rooms on the lots of the major studios in Los Angeles … Am I referring to my life or Mercedes de Acosta’s life?

I am passionate about this book, reading about a life so similar to mine in many instances, not just for being a woman who loves women as a woman. Because much of my life I have worked, not only as a dancer, but as an actress and producer in the Los Angeles and New York theater scenes, written books and have had close friendships with female dancers and actresses.

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

(2.5 estrellas)
Difícil de evaluar.
Lo empecé a leer porque llegué a ella de casualidad y las primeras páginas me atraparon. La historia de su familia es loca, interesante, aventurera, y te permite perdonar cierto tono narciso en su voz.
Luego, rápidamente, se vuelve aburrido. Mucho "name dropping" (sólo listas y listas de gente famosa que ella conoce), tanto que pensé en abandonarlo. Pasa por los eventos difíciles de su vida muy rápido y no se sienten. Seguido da la impresión de que es excesivamente indulgente consigo misma y que se deja la mitad de las cosas que ha hecho fuera porque no la elogian. Y con su "name dropping" en general lo único que hace es elogiar hiperbólicamente a sus amigues, lo que, de nuevo, rápidamente se vuelve aburrido. El supuesto aspecto LGBT es muy implícito y de no haberlo sabido de antes nunca lo hubiese adivinado.
Sin embargo, hay momentos que llaman la atención y te atrapan un poco, ciertos pasajes del libro que no dan lata, momentos de sinceridad, y es cierto que su vida era interesante, aunque su manera de contarla no lo sea necesariamente. Igual, creo que no recomendaría este libro a quién no sepa un poco de la historia de la autora, porque de por sí no me parece que tiene mucho valor.

[Lizz Otero · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe I’m too young for this book? I know many of the people in it are famous but I barely recognized any of the names. It reads like a dear diary, today I did this, went here, and had lunch with so and so. Today I went and visited this other person etc. I couldn’t really get into it for those reasons.

[Mills College Library]

818.5209 A185 1975

[Sasha Katzenjammer · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are only here for Greta Garbo, fast-forward to Chapter 32.