Diana of the Dunes: The True Story of Alice Gray

by Janet Zenke Edwards

Paperback, 2010

Status

Available

Publication

The History Press (2010), 160 pages

Description

The true story of a woman who abandoned Chicago for a secluded life in a remote shack--and became an early twentieth-century sensation.   In the fall of 1915, an educated woman named Alice Gray traded her life in bustling Chicago for a solitary journey in the remote sand hills of northwest Indiana along Lake Michigan. Living in a fisherman's shack, she measured herself against nature rather than society's rigid conventions. Her audacity so bewitched reporters and a curious public that she became a legend in her own time--she became "Diana of the Dunes."   Over a century later, the story is still a popular folktale, but questions remain. Who was Alice Gray? Why did this Phi Beta Kappa scholar leave Chicago? What happened to her soul mate, Paul Wilson? In this first-ever book about Diana of the Dunes, the mystery of Alice Gray is revealed by those who knew her and through new research. Excerpts from her dunes diary are published here for the first time since 1918. In these pages, rediscover the legend of Diana of the Dunes--and learn the truth.… (more)

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Rating

(3 ratings; 2.3)

User reviews

LibraryThing member mapg.genie
A quick, easy-to-read, true story about an obviously very intelligent woman who left the big city of Chicago to live a secluded life in the dunes and the media harassment once they discovered her existence. I was disappointed in the author's writing style; the story just didn't flow well for me.
LibraryThing member SusanBraxton
Alice Gray was a remarkable character, and I don't think this work does her justice, even with the limited primary source material available. The narrative skips around in time and gets confusing, and in some cases (at least in the printing I read) there appear to be factual errors: an introductory
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chapter refers to the births of her two children with Paul Wilson, which I think is a conflation of Gray and Paul's second wife. It's clear from diary entries published in the papers and re-published as an appendix to the work that she endured some real bullshit in academia and academic-adjacent employment--and her self doubt is painful to read. Nobody who covered her in her lifetime appears to have 'gotten' her, and I don't think this book gets her either, although it does offer some hints. It's frustrating that her manuscripts were lost/destroyed.
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Language

Original language

English

Physical description

160 p.; 6 inches

ISBN

1540224376 / 9781540224378
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