Works by
Michael Orlando Yaccarino
(Certified Professional Tarot Reader & Instructor, Writer)
[September 23, 1963 - ]

Fiction

• The Princess of Wax: A Cruel Tale / La Princesse de cire: Un Conte cruel  (2003) by Michael Orlando Yaccarino and Scot D. Ryersson with Anne Bachelier (Illustrator) and Guy Leclercq (Translator)

Non-fiction

• The Marchesa Casati: Portraits of a Muse (October 1, 2009 release) with Scot D. Ryersson
  "I want to be a living work of art." --The Marchesa Luisa Casati
  
  During the first half of the twentieth century, the Marchesa Luisa Casati (1881-1957) was Europe's most notorious celebrity. Her extravagant lifestyle, eccentric personality, and scandalous escapades captivated and inspired some of the most influential artists of her time. She was painted by Boldini and Augustus John, sketched by Drian and Alastair, and photographed by Man Ray and Cecil Beaton, among others. Jean Cocteau praised her strange beauty; Jack Kerouac dedicated poems to her; Fortuny, Poiret, and Erte dressed her. She continues to inspire top designers today, including John Galliano and Karl Lagerfeld.
  
  The Marchesa Casati is a visual biography, telling Casati's captivating life story alongside the art and designs she has inspired, featuring 200 images covering her lifetime and beyond. Personal family momentos, paintings, sculptures, and photographs, some never before seen, illustrate the artistic and cultural legacy she left behind. Runway images, sketches, and advertorials show her continuing impact on the present-day fashion community.

• Die göttliche Marchesa - Leben und Legende der Luisa Casati (2006, 2009, German)

• Неистовая маркиза: жизнь и легенда Луизы Казати (or The Wild Marquise: The Life and Legend of Luisa Casati) (2006, Russian)

• Infinite Variety: The Life and Legend of the Marchesa Casati (2004) with Scot D. Ryersson
  She was the most scandalous woman of her day.
  
  The Marchesa Luisa Casati was Europe's most notorious celebrity, and its most eccentric. For the first three decades of the twentieth century she astounded the continent. Nude servants gilded in gold leaf attended her. Bizarre wax mannequins sat as guests at her dining table. She wore live snakes as jewelry. And she was infamous for her evening strolls, naked beneath her furs, parading cheetahs on diamond-studded leashes. She traveled to Venice, Rome, Capri, and Paris - collecting palaces and a menagerie of exotic animals. Her outlandish homes became the setting for some of the century's most outrageous parties. Artists painted and sculpted her, poets praised her strange beauty, and fashion designers fought for her patronage. Among those she captivated were Gabriele D'Annunzio, Man Ray, Augustus John, Erte, Kees Van Dongen, Jean Cocteau, Cecil Beaton, and Jack Kerouac. Some became lovers, others awestruck admirers, but all were influenced by this extraordinary muse.
  
  Then the extravagance ended. By 1930, Casati was over twenty-five million dollars in debt. Her wealth gone, she fled to London, where she spent her last years, supported by family and friends and as eccentric as ever. Even today, nearly a half century after her death, Casati still fascinates. She has been played on stage by Vivien Leigh and on screen by Ingrid Bergman. And recently, her flamboyant memory inspired a couture collection for Christian Dior.
  
  Explored in detail for the first time, this is the story of the Marchesa Luisa Casati.
  
  Prepare to be astonished.

• La Casati : Les Multiples vies de la Marquise Luisa Casati (2003, French) with Scot D. Ryersson and Guy Leclercq (Translator)