This remarkable novel by Elaine Kraf received almost no attention when it was first published in 1979. For whatever reasons, America was not ready for this dream-like look at life inside the head of a young woman, a struggling artist, living in New York's Upper West Side and coping with the ravages of manic-depression.

Not only did Kraf take on a dark and disturbing subject, she did so in an utterly original, witty, and inventive manner--a provocative move, even in the liberated culture of the 1970s. And, while others have since expanded upon the territory that Kraf was mining, one still has to go as far back as the early down-and-out-in-Paris novels of Jean Rhys to find a writer who so boldly and honestly portrays a smart, sardonic, attractive, but deeply troubled woman fighting to survive on her own in the city.

-- Narrated in prose that is alternately concise and witty, lush and impressionistic, The Princess of 72nd Street tells the story of a struggling artist named Ellen who, subject to unexpected "radiances", becomes the free-spirited, anarchic Esmerelda, Princess of New York's Upper West Side.
-- An accomplished artist and musician as well as a novelist, Elaine Kraf has been a recipient of many awards including two National Endowment for the Arts awards ('70 and '82).
-- First published by New Directions ('79).