Who Are You Dorothy Dean?

Who Are You Dorothy Dean? is the first book devoted to the late African American writer and actress. When Dorothy Dean (1932–1987) entered the 1960s New York underground scene, she quickly became one of its key figures—starring in six of Andy Warhol’s films and inspiring the likes of Robert Mapplethorpe and Robert Creeley. Said to be the first woman ever hired as fact checker at the New Yorker, Dean held brief editorial and proofreading positions at publications such as Vogue before launching her very own bulletin of film reviews, the All-Lavender Cinema Courier, in 1976. But in histories of the era she has often been overlooked.

This book features a selection of her unpublished writing and correspondence with Edie Sedgwick, Rene Ricard, and Taylor Mead, among other friends and artists. It also includes the outline of a book which she planned to undertake with Factory actor Ondine.

Lyrical, humorous, political, and brutally honest, Who Are You Dorothy Dean? is a tribute to one of the few prominent African American women of New York City’s bohemian heyday.