“She’d studied history and acting in New York and London but ditched her career when she met her ex-husband Michel. A former student of Sartre’s and nearly two decades older than her, Michel held an endowed chair in philosophy and traveled all over the world. Her acting career was a hopeless cause so she went along too. Her legs were too short, her nose was too long. Like Eleanor Aveling -daughter of Karl Marx and subject of the PhD thesis Catt could not get approved – Catt’s passion for acting was a flight from her literal, serious mind into some kind of freedom and beauty. For a long time being welcomed as the quirky young wife of the great old guy was better than being told she wasn’t right for the part. When she wasn’t so young anymore, she started writing and moved to LA alone. Since they’d never had kids this was easily done. Without a PhD, the only paying work she could find was teaching part-time at an art school and writing art catalogue essays.”

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Chris Krauss excerpt one from the forthcoming novel Summer of Hate (2010) p. 6 - 7