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American Eve: Evelyn Nesbit, Stanford White: The Birth of the "It" Girl and the Crime of the Century |
Author: Paula Uruburu
Published: 2008-05-01 |
List price: $27.95
Our price: $17.61
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As of: December 04th, 2008 02:53:20 PM
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Customer comments on this selection.
 I'm hard to please and I loved this book
This is a good yarn. It's told well, and keeps you going, wanting to know what happens next. It's hard for me to find books that keep me engaged. This book is riveting. I highly recommend it.
Wow!
Like a few other reviewer's here, I'd never heard of Evelyn Nesbit, Stanford White or Harry Thaw, and only picked up this book on a fluke. What a pleasant surprise to read about one of the first "trial of the centuries" and the "girl in the red velvet swing".
Paula Uruburu has done a spendid job of making the reader feel the gilded age, the stuffy social scene and didn't bore this reader with an endless account of the trial like so many other true crime novels.
Highly recommended!
 (3.5 stars) Intriguing story of the original "It Girl"
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 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, though Evelyn is protrayed as a victim of circumstance 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.
 Sin for Sin
The pictures from the era are fantastic--The United States first super model, whose face even today could stop traffic. Fame she had, but fortune was nil until she married Henry K. Thaw. A modern day Letitia who was used by everyone around her, including her insanely jealous husband.
If you are into "peeping Tom-ism" clothed in minute detail AMERICA EVE is the title for you.
The research into the period, the individuals and their culture is superb, but the minute details recorded on every page lead to boredom. Evelyn Nesbit's story was shocking in 1900 and pathetic by the time she died in 1967.
Writing as a Small BusinessSins of the Fathers: A Brewster County Novel
fascinating true story
Neither of the names in the title were familiar to me, but I was intrigued that the Gibson Girl had been a real person.
Using up the youth of pretty young girls is not a new thing. Evelyn Nesbit lived it in 1900. The book is sometimes a bit flowery, but the story is gripping.
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