Evelyn Nesbit, Stanford White: The Birth of the "It" Girl and the Crime of the Century
March 3, 2008
Uruburu, an associate professor of English at Hofstra who has consulted for the History Channel, examines the notorious life of model and chorus girl Evelyn Nesbit (1885?–1967), whose rise to stardom was as spectacular as her subsequent fall. Born in rural Pennsylvania, Florence Evelyn Nesbit was an “exceedingly pretty infant” who by 15 had achieved success as an actress and model in New York City, where her blend of sultry sexuality and unspoiled purity attracted the eye of famed architect and playboy Stanford White. But Pittsburgh heir and sexual sadist Harry K. Thaw wanted Nesbit for himself and vowed to expose White's “immoral” conduct with underage girls. Thaw went on to brutally rape and beat Nesbit, yet she agreed to marry him. Still consumed with jealousy, Thaw shot White to death in 1906, leading to a headline-grabbing trial. Uruburu's depiction of Nesbit's early life and career is richly detailed, but the book loses steam near the end and barely addresses Nesbit's post-trial tailspin into alcoholism. Still, readers will appreciate the parallels between Nesbit's “It Girl” status and our own celebrity-obsessed culture. Photos.
June 1, 2008
Uruburu (English, Hofstra Univ.) posits that today's Lindsay-Britney-Parisobsessed media culture has its roots in the "crime of the century": the 1906 murder of renowned New York architect Stanford White on the roof of the original Madison Square Garden (which he designed) by Harry Thaw, the jealous husband of Evelyn Nesbit. Early photographs of this child-woman are both discomforting and hypnotic, and hers is indeed a sad tale. Neglected by her widowed mother, she modeled for artists and photographers to support her family, performed on stage, and was promoted by the entranced White, who allegedly raped her. At Thaw's murder trials (the first ended in a hung jury, the second in acquittal by reason of insanity), Nesbit testified to all the lurid details of her life. Uruburu was granted access to Nesbit family materials, and though she offers an interesting case study, her often sketchy book gives short shrift to the last 50 years of her subject's long life. In the end, evidently mesmerized by Nesbit's story, she offers her own lurid take on events to the exclusion of other, more nuanced explorations. Not appropriate for academic collections, this should be popular with "ripped from the headlines" biography and true-crime readers in public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 11/15/08.]Karen Sandlin Silverman, Ctr. for Applied Research, Philadelphia
Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
May 1, 2008
Americans have always been intrigued by sex and scandal. Even in seemingly more innocent eras, sexually fueled transgressions and crimes had the power to transfix the public. Uruburu recounts the salacious details of an early-twentieth-century crime that both shocked and gripped the collective public consciousness. A superstar by turn-of-the-century standards, Evelyn Nesbit, model, actress, and advertising creation, represented an idealized version of American womanhood. When her unbalanced millionaire husband shot and killed her lover, renowned New York architect and man-about-town Stanford White, the stage was set for a virtual media circus. All the decadent details revealed at the trial were devoured by a public just as hungry to see young, beautiful, and successful women crash and burn as they are today. Uruburu draws some valid comparisons between then and now in this tell-all biography of one of the first in a long line of tarnished It Girls.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)