During these years Elizabeth had a string of lovers in New York—two affairs resulted in abortions, one of which she alluded to in Sleepless Nights61—but none were serious enough for her to contemplate marriage, and some of the men were already married. (The “Alex” of the novel is likely a composite portrait.) An affair was a risky thing for a woman in those days; in addition to the fear of pregnancy, having a male guest in her apartment at night could result in her being thrown out. Elizabeth once recalled how, “if a man left your place at three in the morning you felt quite nervous in case anyone had noticed.”62 Intriguingly, the Sleepless Nights narrator says, “In those years I did not care to enjoy sex, only to have it.”63

In the same “Fiction Chronicle,” Elizabeth also delivered a harsh verdict on a story collection by the “mercilessly pretentious” Anaïs Nin. While granting her “a fierce foolishness that is not without beauty as an act,” Elizabeth snatched away this grudging praise by adding, “it is too bad her performance is never equal to her intentions.”71 The most noteworthy aspect of this review is its discussion of the way Nin’s penchant for using vague, mystical phrases to create a spurious aura of sexual revelation was typical of women writers of the era. They offer “the illusion of having opened the bedroom door without involving the performer in a recognizable scandal.” Elizabeth would have much more to say about sex in women’s novels in future decades.