Cutie: A Warm Mamma

Written with Ben Hecht and privately printed in Chicago by the Hechtshaw Press, Cutie: A Warm Mamma (1924) is a short satirical novel from Maxwell Bodenheim (1892-1954), the Mississippi-born poet who became a fixture of Greenwich Village bohemia. Its chapters first appeared in the Chicago Literary Times, the irreverent tabloid the two men edited together. The plot follows Herman Pupick, a one-eyed and loudly pious censor who falls under the spell of Cutie, a Jazz Age flapper, and the book uses his collapse to mock the vice crusaders then policing American fiction. Hecht soon left for Hollywood and screenwriting fame, while the pair’s friendship dissolved into a famous literary feud. Original copies are scarce, which makes this one of the more curious Jazz Age survivals. Free PDF download available on BDeBooks.