Bernardine in Old Shanghai

An Interview with Susan Blumberg-Kason: Part One

When I read

Katie Gee Salisbury

’s recent interview with

Susan Blumberg-Kason

over at Half-Caste Woman, their conversation rang a lost bell for me. Susan’s new biography, Bernardine’s Shanghai Salon, tells the story of Bernardine Fritz, who was like a cross between Gertrude Stein and the famous DC hostess Perle Mesta, except Bernardine was holding court in Shanghai from 1929 to 1937—the same …