The Barbizon: The Manhattan hotel that allowed women to follow their dreams

With former residents that included Sylvia Plath and Liza Minelli, the women-only Barbizon Hotel in New York was a haven for those young women whose families may not otherwise have allowed them to pursue their careers

The Barbizon Hotel in 1980: it was immortalised, as the Amazon hotel in Sylvia Plath’s novel The Bell Jar. Picture: Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

HISTORY

The Barbizon: The New York Hotel That Set Women Free

By Paulina Bren

Two Roads, €17.25

In 1947, a beautiful young woman called Carolyn Schaffner left her unhappy family and her hometown of Steubenville, Ohio, and headed to New York City. When she arrived in New York, Carolyn checked in to an institution which for nearly 20 years had been the goal of thousands of ambitious creative young women: The Barbizon Hotel, a women-only ...