Not really a biography, tho it is very biographic. Not really a study of Feminism, tho most of the women were early pioneers. Not really a study of Lesbians, tho most of the women were, at least, bisexual. What this book does, and it does it extremely well, is illustrate how these women struggled to 'define' themselves, as artists, as authors, as sexual beings, as individuals at a time when women were generally perceived as little better then simple minded children factories. From Gertrude Stein to Djuna Barnes to Natalie Barney (Rene Vivian...'a life spent looking for death')such different people but sharing a common thread of struggle (and cost). I've read a lot about this period and these women, and no book has given me a better understanding of them and emotional empathy with them, then this book.