It’s been polished into a glowing jewel of a book by several editors.

... the New York City of the Abstract Expressionist era explodes into a series of vivid canvases. Each paragraph offers a colorful phrase or observation that captures the moment. In her always entertaining stories, Schloss conjures up its iconic artists, composers, and poets while chiseling their legends down to human scale.

... an intricate micro-history of an unprecedentedly energized and interconnected artistic community: that of New York’s postwar loft scene, where Schloss too found herself living, working, and family-making for nearly two decades.

Schloss’s story isn’t—as a conventional autobiography would tell it—straight history. Instead, using an approach adopted by Modernist art-world memoirists like Gertrude Stein and Virginia Woolf, The Loft Generation is nonlinear and associative.

... this book was like a rush of cold air into the lungs: It ferries through spectacular moments, then moves easily on.

With Venturini’s editing, this book effectively tells the intimacies of its subject’s life.

... zestfully precise and deeply knowledgeable.

Schloss (1919–2011) brilliantly conveys her experiences as a participant in, and a keen observer of, New York’s 'loft generation'.

From assorted notes and manuscripts, Burckhardt and Venturini have assembled a vibrant memoir by artist and critic Edith Schloss.