Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Riverhead Hardcover (2008), Edition: First Edition, 400 pages
Description
Famous by her sixteenth birthday in 1900, Gibson Girl Evelyn Nesbit was the most photographed woman of her era, an iconic figure who set the standard for female beauty. Women wanted to be her. Men wanted her. When her jealous millionaire husband, Harry K. Thaw, killed her lover--celebrity architect Stanford White, builder of the Washington Square Arch and much of New York City--she found herself at the center of the "crime of the century" and the scandal that marked the beginning of a national obsession with youth, beauty, celebrity, and sex. The story of Evelyn Nesbit is one of glamour, money, romance, madness, and murder, and Paula Uruburu weaves all of these elements into an elegant narrative that reads like the best fiction--only it's all true, a picture of America as it crossed from the Victorian era into the modern.--From publisher description.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member Sensory
As a teenager at the turn of the 20th century in New York, Evelyn Nesbit became the epitome of the ‘it’ girl. Her likeness was on the cover of postcards and magazines and she eventually became a ‘floradora’ girl and danced in popular shows in the city. She was well on her way to becoming a
Then she met 48 year old Stanford White. He arranged to meet Evelyn through another chorus girl in the floradora show. He took his time with Evelyn and her mother, slowing winning their trust before showing his true colours. While still under White’s ‘tutelage’ Evelyn met John Barrymore and almost had a normal relationship with someone her own age. But fate, Stanford White and her mother intervened and it was not to be. With no adult guidance and little experience with hidden agendas, the naïve Evelyn fell prey to older men who her mother allowed intentionally or not, into their lives. Finally, Evelyn was pursued and won by Harry K. Thaw, another poor choice.
Though these events took place over a 100 years ago, Evelyn’s experiences echo resoundingly across the years to mirror those of today’s young celebrities: beautiful young girl finds success as a model or actress, becomes famous, is relentlessly pursued by fans, some become friends – their real motives cleverly hidden, but once revealed result in intense pressure from media and even tragedy. Her life has become a nightmare. Sound like anyone familiar? Britney Spears perhaps? How about Lindsay Lohan? American Eve is a cautionary tale that is undoubtedly destined to be ignored by those it could help the most.
The story is told well and the research done on the subject is meticulous. The reader is given a sense of ‘place’ and ‘prejudice’ via pictures of the principals involved and buildings and the descriptions of New York at that time. Extreme poverty as well as extreme decadence through wealth is laid out in depth. It is interesting to note in the acknowledgments that the author had the support of Evelyn’s grandson and daughter-in-law in writing this story, lending it credibility and a genuineness that might have been difficult to achieve otherwise.
I was very excited to have the opportunity to review this book. Over the years I’ve read a few articles regarding Evelyn Nesbit that I’d found intriguing. This book added a lot more detail and did not disappoint. I recommend American Eve to anyone who is fascinated by recent history and the culture of celebrity and how it has always impacted our lives.
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popular figure in entertainment. Then she met 48 year old Stanford White. He arranged to meet Evelyn through another chorus girl in the floradora show. He took his time with Evelyn and her mother, slowing winning their trust before showing his true colours. While still under White’s ‘tutelage’ Evelyn met John Barrymore and almost had a normal relationship with someone her own age. But fate, Stanford White and her mother intervened and it was not to be. With no adult guidance and little experience with hidden agendas, the naïve Evelyn fell prey to older men who her mother allowed intentionally or not, into their lives. Finally, Evelyn was pursued and won by Harry K. Thaw, another poor choice.
Though these events took place over a 100 years ago, Evelyn’s experiences echo resoundingly across the years to mirror those of today’s young celebrities: beautiful young girl finds success as a model or actress, becomes famous, is relentlessly pursued by fans, some become friends – their real motives cleverly hidden, but once revealed result in intense pressure from media and even tragedy. Her life has become a nightmare. Sound like anyone familiar? Britney Spears perhaps? How about Lindsay Lohan? American Eve is a cautionary tale that is undoubtedly destined to be ignored by those it could help the most.
The story is told well and the research done on the subject is meticulous. The reader is given a sense of ‘place’ and ‘prejudice’ via pictures of the principals involved and buildings and the descriptions of New York at that time. Extreme poverty as well as extreme decadence through wealth is laid out in depth. It is interesting to note in the acknowledgments that the author had the support of Evelyn’s grandson and daughter-in-law in writing this story, lending it credibility and a genuineness that might have been difficult to achieve otherwise.
I was very excited to have the opportunity to review this book. Over the years I’ve read a few articles regarding Evelyn Nesbit that I’d found intriguing. This book added a lot more detail and did not disappoint. I recommend American Eve to anyone who is fascinated by recent history and the culture of celebrity and how it has always impacted our lives.
Show Less
LibraryThing member susanamper
Evelyn Nesbit was probably the most famous face in New York in the early years of the 20th century. Her picture was on advertising, post cards, in paintings; she served as a model for statues and pictures of angels in churches. Stanford White is considered one of the most preeminent architects of
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the 20th century. He designed the old Madison Square Garden and the Washington Square Arch and the library and Hall of Fame at Bronx Community College . The library and Hall of Fame are considered the jewels in the crown of his architectural career, and they are beautiful to behold. The book, though,is not about the architecture but about the doomed relationship between 50 year old White and 16 year old Nesbit. Evelyn Nesbit may have had luck, but it was all bad. White was a predator of underage girls, and he drugged Nesbit's champagne and raped her; then she became his mistress. She then married millionaire Harry K. Thaw who was obsessed with Stanford White. He also raped Nesbit before marrying her. He was a stark raving lunatic. I give nothing away in telling you that he also murdered Stanford White shortly after marrying Evelyn. The book makes for fascinating if unutterably sad reading. My major complaint about the book, other than what appears to be a rushed ending, is that there are too few pictures. If Evelyn Nesbit was "The Face" of the century, more pictures should have been included Show Less
LibraryThing member Kasthu
On June 25, 1906, wealthy millionaire Harry K. Thaw killed his wife’s Evelyn Nesbit’s, former lover, the famous architect Stanford White, at Madison Square Garden. Evelyn, age 20, had spent the past five or six years of her life in the public eye as a model in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and New
American Eve is primarily about Evelyn’s life, and not quite so much about the murder and subsequent trial. Evelyn was born outside of Pittsburgh in 1885. After her father’s death, her mother tried to make ends meet by hiring Evelyn out as an artists’ model (as long as the artists were female or elderly men). Because of her timeless beauty, Evelyn soon found herself modeling in Philadelphia and New York, where she met much-older Stanford White, who set himself up as her father-figure and protector. Soon, however, he became much more.
Evelyn met her future husband Harry K. Thaw “of Pittsburgh” in 1903. Thaw was known for his erratic, almost sociopathic behavior, but she married his anyways two years later. Thaw was obsessed with Evelyn, to the exclusion of everything else. He was especially obsessed with Evelyn’s old relationship with White, whom Thaw considered the original exploiter of young, impressionable, virginal girls. Then, one sultry evening in the summer of 1906, Thaw shot White point blank, in front of hundreds of witnesses in the rooftop garden at Madison Square Garden. It led to “the trial of the century,” as Thaw was tried for the murder under the plea of insanity.
Uruburu tells the story from a feminist point of view, portraying Evelyn as victim rather than architect of her own fate. Every now and then, as in the chapter which discusses the selection of the jury, Uruburu puts in a little aside like, “…and women were excluded, of course.” Another thing I didn’t like about the book was the opening chapter. The author begins with a discussion of Gilded Age society, whereas I believe she should have begun with the murder, in order to grab the reader’s interest right away. And though I liked the photographs of Evelyn, I feel that there should be more of Stanford White (there’s only one reprinted here). Also, I wish that more had been said about Evelyn’s life after the trial.
But aside from these points, I really enjoyed Evelyn’s tragic story. Since Evelyn’s life was so public, a lot was known (and speculated) about her life, and Uruburu does a wonderful job sorting out the fact and fiction. The narrative is also easy to follow, which is also another major plus. Even without Uruburu’s contribution, Evelyn, the original “Gibson Girl,” and the girl for whom the term “je ne se quais” should have been coined, remains today an interesting and compelling persona.
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York, but nothing could have prepared her for the publicity that occurred in the aftermath of the killing.American Eve is primarily about Evelyn’s life, and not quite so much about the murder and subsequent trial. Evelyn was born outside of Pittsburgh in 1885. After her father’s death, her mother tried to make ends meet by hiring Evelyn out as an artists’ model (as long as the artists were female or elderly men). Because of her timeless beauty, Evelyn soon found herself modeling in Philadelphia and New York, where she met much-older Stanford White, who set himself up as her father-figure and protector. Soon, however, he became much more.
Evelyn met her future husband Harry K. Thaw “of Pittsburgh” in 1903. Thaw was known for his erratic, almost sociopathic behavior, but she married his anyways two years later. Thaw was obsessed with Evelyn, to the exclusion of everything else. He was especially obsessed with Evelyn’s old relationship with White, whom Thaw considered the original exploiter of young, impressionable, virginal girls. Then, one sultry evening in the summer of 1906, Thaw shot White point blank, in front of hundreds of witnesses in the rooftop garden at Madison Square Garden. It led to “the trial of the century,” as Thaw was tried for the murder under the plea of insanity.
Uruburu tells the story from a feminist point of view, portraying Evelyn as victim rather than architect of her own fate. Every now and then, as in the chapter which discusses the selection of the jury, Uruburu puts in a little aside like, “…and women were excluded, of course.” Another thing I didn’t like about the book was the opening chapter. The author begins with a discussion of Gilded Age society, whereas I believe she should have begun with the murder, in order to grab the reader’s interest right away. And though I liked the photographs of Evelyn, I feel that there should be more of Stanford White (there’s only one reprinted here). Also, I wish that more had been said about Evelyn’s life after the trial.
But aside from these points, I really enjoyed Evelyn’s tragic story. Since Evelyn’s life was so public, a lot was known (and speculated) about her life, and Uruburu does a wonderful job sorting out the fact and fiction. The narrative is also easy to follow, which is also another major plus. Even without Uruburu’s contribution, Evelyn, the original “Gibson Girl,” and the girl for whom the term “je ne se quais” should have been coined, remains today an interesting and compelling persona.
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LibraryThing member jztemple
As a biography of Evelyn Nesbit this book does leave something to be desired. Her life after Harry Thaw's second trial is dealt with rather abruptly, skimming over another forty plus years of life in a few pages. To the author's credit, she does deal with Evelyn's early years quite well, as she
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does with White and Thaw. Also the author also does wander off into philosophical musings early in the book and takes some time before starting to deal with the principles of the story. Otherwise however it is a very good book, although not recommended for the casual reader, as it is rather in depth at times. Show Less
LibraryThing member maryintexas39
Interesting, but very slow.
LibraryThing member graffitimom
Interesting tale of America's first "It Girl." This book is the tale of the exploitation of a young girl by her mother, artists and society. Perhaps her fate is reflected in the lives of child stars today, as we see their lives fall apart when they become adults. Miss Nesbit seemed doomed by her
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beauty and her lack of parenting by her mother. Show Less
LibraryThing member elsyd
I thought this book fascinating but slow reading. I came away with nothing but compassion for Evelyn Nesbit. What a horrible life. I had read a lot about Stanford White and his accomplishments but had read nothing about his foibles. What a disappointment.
I was impressed with Evelyn Nesbit's
I was impressed with Evelyn Nesbit's
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quotes, and thought that for an uneducated person she was really insightful and particularly articulate. Show Less
LibraryThing member shojo_a
A biography of Evelyn Nesbit, the beauty who became the symbol of the Gilded Age. Often 'beauties of the age' don't stand the test of time, but Evelyn is just as beautiful now as she was considered to be back in 1901. At 16, Evelyn became one of the first 'super models'. At 21, Evelyn became the
White later would be vilified as a man who ruined young girls, and he certainly took advantage of Evelyn, drugging her and robbing her of her 'virtue', but Thayer, was no better, a jealous and mentally unstable man who raped and beat Evelyn after she confessed her 'loss of innocence' at White's hands.
It's a story that illustrates very harshly just how powerless a young girl could be - and indeed still can - in the hands of vicious, brilliant men, with no one to guide her and a life that offered her no concept of normalacy.
Evelyn's story was gripping - I couldn't put the book down - but at the same time it's very, very disturbing. This is Definitely not an easy read. I couldn't stop thinking about it. The whole time I was reading it, I felt like I was trapped in a nightmare. I literally lay awake at night, unable to stop thinking about it. I told Evelyn's story to everyone I talked to, trying to make sense of it, trying to lose that sense of horror.
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center of the 'crime of the century' when her husband Harry Thayer murdered the famous architect Stanford White, who had been her lover at the tender age of 16. White later would be vilified as a man who ruined young girls, and he certainly took advantage of Evelyn, drugging her and robbing her of her 'virtue', but Thayer, was no better, a jealous and mentally unstable man who raped and beat Evelyn after she confessed her 'loss of innocence' at White's hands.
It's a story that illustrates very harshly just how powerless a young girl could be - and indeed still can - in the hands of vicious, brilliant men, with no one to guide her and a life that offered her no concept of normalacy.
Evelyn's story was gripping - I couldn't put the book down - but at the same time it's very, very disturbing. This is Definitely not an easy read. I couldn't stop thinking about it. The whole time I was reading it, I felt like I was trapped in a nightmare. I literally lay awake at night, unable to stop thinking about it. I told Evelyn's story to everyone I talked to, trying to make sense of it, trying to lose that sense of horror.
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LibraryThing member BluesGal79
Paula Uruburu's riveting American Eve explores the oft-told (but never this well or thoroughly) tale of the infamous "Girl in the Red Velvet Swing," and the murder of renowned architect Stanford White at the hands of her husband, Harry K. Thaw. I was stunned by the parallels with today's celebrity
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culture, and if you think there is anything new under the sun, this book will convince you otherwise. I was fascinated to learn that the first sequestered American jury was the one that heard this case. The scandalous situation riveted the nation to such an extent that President Teddy Roosevelt implored the media to stop covering it because he believed the details that were emerging from the trial were so lurid that it was contributing to the moral decay of the country. Underneath the sensational headlines, however, was a young woman who had been ill-served by literally every adult in her life, including her mother, who recognized early on that Evelyn Nesbit's rare beauty was her own ticket out of poverty. This was a totally enthralling read. Show Less
LibraryThing member setnahkt
Two books about notorious New York murder cases: Daniel Stashower’s about Mary Rogers’ (The Beautiful Cigar Girl) and Paula Uruburu’s about Stanford White (American Eve: Evelyn Nesbit, Stanford White, The Birth of the “It” Girl, and the Crime of the Century).
Mary Rogers’ death was a
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Stanford White’s death was no mystery at all. It was a hot night in New York City and with many others he was seeking temperature relief attending the opening night of a musical comedy presented in the rooftop theater at Madison Square Garden (which he had designed). Millionaire and major loon Harry Thaw, attending the same performance, left his table, walked up behind White, and shot him three times in the back of the head. There were hundreds of witnesses, including actresses and chorus girls, theater patrons, and Thaw’s wife Evelyn. Unlike Ms. Rogers, there was no doubt who the victim was – although his face was no longer recognizable.
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Author Daniel Stashower turns Mary Rogers’ story into a history of 1840s NYC police practices, the newspaper business, and an excellent biography of Edgar Allan Poe. Those of us used to CSI will find 1840 police procedure a little disconcerting; the police were abysmally corrupt and most murder investigation was in the hands of judges and coroners. The Mary Rogers case was a godsend to the newspaper business; editorials lambasted the police, the mayor, the governor, the coroner, and each other. (William Gordon Bennett enthusiastically drubbed his competitors in the editorial pages of the New York Herald; New York Sun editor Moses Beach “had no more brains than an oyster and the New York Tribune’s Horace Greeley was less effective than “a large New England squash”). In the absence of any sort of police force, the newspapers took on the investigator role themselves and cheerfully accused just about everybody in the city, plus a good fraction of New Jersey. Poe comes into the picture because in his usual financial desperation he adapted the Mary Rogers story for the second of his C. Auguste Dupin detective mysteries, The Mystery of Marie Rogêt.
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Paula Uruburu concentrates on the title heroine, and Ms Uruburu is unhesitant in sympathizing with Ms. Nesbit (well, although I’m just a little suspicious of her veracity, I’m pretty sympathetic with Evelyn, too). Evelyn Nesbit lost her comfortable middle-class life when her father died, and quickly found herself supporting her family as an underage chorus girl and artist’s model (her mother was concerned, but took the money). Her Gibson-girl beauty attracted the attention of Stanford White, who had a reputation for this sort of thing (White is supposed to have coined the expression “Would you like to come up and see my etchings?” and invented the concept of having a girl jump out of a cake at a party (well, it was actually a pie, which in addition to four-and-twenty blackbirds contained a 14-year-old girl dressed in a blackbird hat and feathered toe rings)).
After some beating around the bush the 40ish White drugged and raped the 16-year-old Evelyn (there’s some question of how naïve Evelyn was. Uruburu glosses over it, but even in more innocent times you might expect that a girl from a theater background would realize that invitations to a much older man’s apartment to pose for lingerie art would eventually end badly). She acquiesced to the arrangement; Mom kept taking the money.
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Mary Rogers’ case was never solved. The evidence was hopelessly muddled; however, the best guess is that rather than being gang-raped and beaten to death as originally supposed, she died during a failed abortion and was beaten up and dumped in the Hudson post-mortem. The abortion theory caused major problems for Poe; he had promised that he would reveal the murderer in Marie Rogêt and had published two of three serializations when evidence for an abortion emerged. He had to quickly rewrite the final chapter.
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Stanford White eventually grew tired of Evelyn and moved on to other chorus girls. By now, however, Evelyn had attracted the attention of Harry Thaw, a Pittsburgh steel millionaire (or more correctly, the spoiled son of the widow of a Pittsburgh steel millionaire). Stanford White was a statutory rapist, but Thaw was a real piece of work. Already notorious for hiring ladies of the evening for whipping sessions (he did the whipping), he persuaded Evelyn and her mother to go on a European tour (interrupted briefly when Thaw whipped a bellboy in a London hotel). Mrs. Nesbit left her daughter in the middle of the trip and Evelyn found herself alone with Harry in (nope, not kidding, really this Gothic) a deserted German castle Harry had rented for a week. Harry persuaded Evelyn to tell her the story of her affair with White, and latter that evening forced open the door of her room, naked and carrying a riding crop. He spent several hours of admonishing Evelyn for her misbehavior, which left her so covered with lash marks that she couldn’t lie down for fear of the bedclothes sticking to the bloody cuts. Rather surprisingly, when the couple returned to the US Evelyn agreed to marry Thaw.
Thaw, however, couldn’t get over the fact that White had Evelyn first – he took Evelyn to his dentist and had all the dental work White had paid for removed and replaced. That wasn’t quite enough to satisfy him – hence the Madison Square Garden shooting. Thaw was utterly convinced that he would be found innocent – and was outraged when his family bought him a not-guilty-by-reason-of-insanity verdict. Once she had testified – pretty convincingly – that Thaw really was a nutcase, the Thaws immediately dumped Evelyn without a cent. (After getting out of the asylum the first time, Harry Thaw was picked up and committed again for another bellboy whipping incident; in fact, he spent more time in custody for whipping bellboys then did for shooting Stanford White).s She spent the rest of her life in a series of increasingly dreary nightclub and cabaret shows (although briefly regaining some notoriety as a consultant for The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing, where she’s played by Joan Collins, and, of course, posthumous recognition in Ragtime, this time played by Elizabeth McGovern).
I liked both of these – Stashower’s evocation of 1840s New York is compelling, as is the biographical material on Poe. I confess when I first picked it up I had Mary Rogers confused with Helen Jewett, another New York cause célèbre murder victim. Miss Jewett didn’t sell cigars, however). As far as Evelyn Nesbit goes, perhaps Uruburu takes a little too much of Nesbit’s testimony at face value. But it’s pretty clear that even if Evelyn stretched the truth a little what demonstrably happened to her was pretty grim. Besides, I’ve always had a weakness for Gibson girls.
Mary Rogers’ death was a
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mystery; in fact, protoconspiracy-theorists claimed that despite identification by her mother and one of her suitors the body found floating in the Hudson on July 28 1841 wasn’t Mary Rogers at all. It was a hot day in New York City and several young men seeking temperature relief by strolling along the Jersey side spotted the object, borrowed a boat, lassoed it around the neck, towed it to shore, and, being unwilling to touch the thing, tethered it to a handy rock. A floating corpse was a novelty, and the curious showed up to poke it with sticks and comment on its appearance. Someone worked up enough courage to wade into the river and drag it ashore, and someone else peered between the legs and made rude comments to his friends. Albert Crommelin had been searching for his missing romantic interest for several days and feared the worst when he spotted the tangle of bystanders; sure enough, he identified the thing as Mary Rogers.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stanford White’s death was no mystery at all. It was a hot night in New York City and with many others he was seeking temperature relief attending the opening night of a musical comedy presented in the rooftop theater at Madison Square Garden (which he had designed). Millionaire and major loon Harry Thaw, attending the same performance, left his table, walked up behind White, and shot him three times in the back of the head. There were hundreds of witnesses, including actresses and chorus girls, theater patrons, and Thaw’s wife Evelyn. Unlike Ms. Rogers, there was no doubt who the victim was – although his face was no longer recognizable.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Author Daniel Stashower turns Mary Rogers’ story into a history of 1840s NYC police practices, the newspaper business, and an excellent biography of Edgar Allan Poe. Those of us used to CSI will find 1840 police procedure a little disconcerting; the police were abysmally corrupt and most murder investigation was in the hands of judges and coroners. The Mary Rogers case was a godsend to the newspaper business; editorials lambasted the police, the mayor, the governor, the coroner, and each other. (William Gordon Bennett enthusiastically drubbed his competitors in the editorial pages of the New York Herald; New York Sun editor Moses Beach “had no more brains than an oyster and the New York Tribune’s Horace Greeley was less effective than “a large New England squash”). In the absence of any sort of police force, the newspapers took on the investigator role themselves and cheerfully accused just about everybody in the city, plus a good fraction of New Jersey. Poe comes into the picture because in his usual financial desperation he adapted the Mary Rogers story for the second of his C. Auguste Dupin detective mysteries, The Mystery of Marie Rogêt.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paula Uruburu concentrates on the title heroine, and Ms Uruburu is unhesitant in sympathizing with Ms. Nesbit (well, although I’m just a little suspicious of her veracity, I’m pretty sympathetic with Evelyn, too). Evelyn Nesbit lost her comfortable middle-class life when her father died, and quickly found herself supporting her family as an underage chorus girl and artist’s model (her mother was concerned, but took the money). Her Gibson-girl beauty attracted the attention of Stanford White, who had a reputation for this sort of thing (White is supposed to have coined the expression “Would you like to come up and see my etchings?” and invented the concept of having a girl jump out of a cake at a party (well, it was actually a pie, which in addition to four-and-twenty blackbirds contained a 14-year-old girl dressed in a blackbird hat and feathered toe rings)).
After some beating around the bush the 40ish White drugged and raped the 16-year-old Evelyn (there’s some question of how naïve Evelyn was. Uruburu glosses over it, but even in more innocent times you might expect that a girl from a theater background would realize that invitations to a much older man’s apartment to pose for lingerie art would eventually end badly). She acquiesced to the arrangement; Mom kept taking the money.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mary Rogers’ case was never solved. The evidence was hopelessly muddled; however, the best guess is that rather than being gang-raped and beaten to death as originally supposed, she died during a failed abortion and was beaten up and dumped in the Hudson post-mortem. The abortion theory caused major problems for Poe; he had promised that he would reveal the murderer in Marie Rogêt and had published two of three serializations when evidence for an abortion emerged. He had to quickly rewrite the final chapter.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stanford White eventually grew tired of Evelyn and moved on to other chorus girls. By now, however, Evelyn had attracted the attention of Harry Thaw, a Pittsburgh steel millionaire (or more correctly, the spoiled son of the widow of a Pittsburgh steel millionaire). Stanford White was a statutory rapist, but Thaw was a real piece of work. Already notorious for hiring ladies of the evening for whipping sessions (he did the whipping), he persuaded Evelyn and her mother to go on a European tour (interrupted briefly when Thaw whipped a bellboy in a London hotel). Mrs. Nesbit left her daughter in the middle of the trip and Evelyn found herself alone with Harry in (nope, not kidding, really this Gothic) a deserted German castle Harry had rented for a week. Harry persuaded Evelyn to tell her the story of her affair with White, and latter that evening forced open the door of her room, naked and carrying a riding crop. He spent several hours of admonishing Evelyn for her misbehavior, which left her so covered with lash marks that she couldn’t lie down for fear of the bedclothes sticking to the bloody cuts. Rather surprisingly, when the couple returned to the US Evelyn agreed to marry Thaw.
Thaw, however, couldn’t get over the fact that White had Evelyn first – he took Evelyn to his dentist and had all the dental work White had paid for removed and replaced. That wasn’t quite enough to satisfy him – hence the Madison Square Garden shooting. Thaw was utterly convinced that he would be found innocent – and was outraged when his family bought him a not-guilty-by-reason-of-insanity verdict. Once she had testified – pretty convincingly – that Thaw really was a nutcase, the Thaws immediately dumped Evelyn without a cent. (After getting out of the asylum the first time, Harry Thaw was picked up and committed again for another bellboy whipping incident; in fact, he spent more time in custody for whipping bellboys then did for shooting Stanford White).s She spent the rest of her life in a series of increasingly dreary nightclub and cabaret shows (although briefly regaining some notoriety as a consultant for The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing, where she’s played by Joan Collins, and, of course, posthumous recognition in Ragtime, this time played by Elizabeth McGovern).
I liked both of these – Stashower’s evocation of 1840s New York is compelling, as is the biographical material on Poe. I confess when I first picked it up I had Mary Rogers confused with Helen Jewett, another New York cause célèbre murder victim. Miss Jewett didn’t sell cigars, however). As far as Evelyn Nesbit goes, perhaps Uruburu takes a little too much of Nesbit’s testimony at face value. But it’s pretty clear that even if Evelyn stretched the truth a little what demonstrably happened to her was pretty grim. Besides, I’ve always had a weakness for Gibson girls.
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LibraryThing member ponsonby
It is unfortunate that this book is so badly written, because inside there is an interesting story struggling to get out, one which I had not heard of before - the story of an unfortunate young American woman whose beauty brought her into the orbits of two wealthy men, with highly unfortunate
The book also makes no pretence to any neutrality; it is extremely biased against some of the people involved. The only small consolation is that the last third, about the trials and aftermath, is slightly better as there are more facts to record and less need for padding.
The greatest irony is that, to judge on the basis of the extracts from Evelyn Nesbit's diaries and books quoted in this biography, she appears to have been a much better writer herself than Urubury. So it may well be worth getting hold of her works if you are interested in delving deeper.
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results. But the writing is so lamentable that one wonders whether the publisher employs any editorial staff at all. The author Paula Uruburu never uses one word when ten are available - especially if they are adjectives. And for someone who is an academic, her readiness to make assumptions about what people are feeling or thinking at any one moment, with no solid evidence, is close to unprofessional, even if this book is 'narrative history' rather than scholarly biography. The book also makes no pretence to any neutrality; it is extremely biased against some of the people involved. The only small consolation is that the last third, about the trials and aftermath, is slightly better as there are more facts to record and less need for padding.
The greatest irony is that, to judge on the basis of the extracts from Evelyn Nesbit's diaries and books quoted in this biography, she appears to have been a much better writer herself than Urubury. So it may well be worth getting hold of her works if you are interested in delving deeper.
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Original language
English
Original publication date
2008
Physical description
386 p.; 6.3 inches
ISBN
1594489939 / 9781594489938