In 1949, 25-year-old John Richardson moved onto the Château de Castille in Provence, and joined with eccentric British art expert Douglas Cooper to create a private cubist museum. Better still, Richardson got to go straight to the source, forging a lifelong friendship with Pablo Picasso that would later result in a four-volume biography of the 20th century's most influential painter. First published in 1999 and updated here with a preface by Jed Perl, this memoir traces Richardson's connection with Picasso and ill-fated but comical association with Cooper, while offering sparkling anecdotes about such acquaintances as Henri Matisse, Francis Bacon, Jean Cocteau, Dora Maar, and Peggy Guggenheim.