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Product Details

From Publishers Weekly
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. (May 1)
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Review
“Paula Uruburu serves up an intriguing and meticulously researched slice of American history. Evelyn Nesbit typified the glorious excesses of the Gilded Age, and this story has everything: sex, deception, drama, and a lurid love triangle, all culminating in the crime of the century.”
--Karen Abbott, author of Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul

“By centering her book on the ever-fascinating figure of Evelyn Nesbit—the stunningly beautiful chorine whose sexual charisma still burns through the Victorian photographs that adorn the book—Uruburu has produced not only a tour de force of historical crime writing and an illuminating social history but a rollicking piece of storytelling: a work that brings to life an entire glittering era while maintaining a breathless narrative pace.”
--Harold Schecter, author of The Devil's Gentleman: Privilege, Poison, and the Trial That Ushered in the Twentieth Century

“Of all the famous beauties of a hundred years ago, Evelyn Nesbit is the only one who would still turn heads today. Paula Uruburu's triumph is to fix this very modern- looking girl in her proper time and place, and also to describe the New York of the early 1900s so vividly that we feel we, too, could be strolling towards the 21st Street apartment where the teen was seduced by Stanford White--or sitting in Madison Square Garden on the fatal evening that White was shot dead.”
--Mike Dash, author of Satan’s Circus: Murder, Vice, Police Corruption, and New York’s Trial of the Century

“Paula Uruburu has given life to the tragic American story of the poor, beautiful nymph whose fate is so often entangled with extreme wealth and the powerful man. Evelyn Nesbit is like a Dreiser heroine—Sister Carrie, Jenny Gerhardt—though hers is a true story, harrowing in this writer's hands.”
--Martha McPhee, author of L’America and Gorgeous Lies

“In American Eve, a fascinating evocation of a woman and her times, Paula Uruburu does more than just tell the story of Evelyn Nesbit. Sex, money, scandal, celebrity, doom--the whole cocktail of America’s obsessions is served up here in this intriguing, addictive book.”
--Zachary Lazar, author of Sway

“Wonderfully absorbing . . . A lurid tabloid story of yore brought to fresh life and relevance with remarkable insight, verve and wisdom. Old New York is laid bare in all its decadence and the cult of pubescent beauty traced to its source, all with worldliness, wit, humor, compassion, and suspense. The result is a real page-turner.”
--Philip Lopate, author of Waterfront: A Walk Around Manhattan and Writing New York

“Tragic now when a century ago it seemed merely scandalous, the story of Evelyn Nesbit is a gripping cautionary tale for those who believe Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan are the first of their kind. How is it that after a century of feminism, young beautiful women still crash and burn for an eager public? Using newly available family sources, Paula Uruburu tells Evelyn Nesbit’s story in all its darkness and terror.”
--Honor Moore, author of The Bishop’s Daughter

“In American Eve a beautiful young woman, a lecherous prince of New York, and an unstable husband show us how the national sport of media-fed scandal began. Before the story ends, one man is dead, another is locked away, and Paula Uruburu has given us a look at an age of excess that looks remarkably like our own. It is page turning history at its best.”
--Michael D’Antonio, author of Hershey: Milton S. Hershey's Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire, and Utopian Dreams

About the Author
Paula Uruburu is chair of the English Department at Hofstra University. Considered an expert on Evelyn Nesbit and the time period, she has been widely published and has appeared or consulted on A&E’s Biography, PBS’s History Detectives, and various series for the History Channel.

Customer Reviews

Facinating Read
I have read everything I could ever find on Evelyn Nesbit so I was very excited when "American Eve" came out. What a facinating, juicy story. I think the author relied a lot on Evelyn's memoirs. I wonder if those appendicitis attacks were really pregnancies. But Evelyn never owns up to that in her memories. This book has everything, money, sex, scandal, murder--you gotta love it. The photos in the book of Evelyn are worth the price of the book alone. I would have liked to have seen a photo of Evelyn in old age. Good read!

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!