Synopses & Reviews
The New York love story of a beautiful heiress and a wealthy young architect, captured in a famous John Singer Sargent painting In Love, Fiercely Jean Zimmerman re-creates the glittering world of Edith Minturn and Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes. Contemporaries of the Astors and Vanderbilts, they grew up together along the shores of bucolic Staten Island, linked by privilegeand#8212;her grandparents built the worldand#8217;s fastest clipper ship, his family owned most of Murray Hill. Theirs was a world filled with mansions, balls, summer homes, and extended European vacations.
Newton became a passionate preserver of New York history and published the finest collection of Manhattan maps and views in a six-volume series. Edith became the face of the age when Daniel Chester French sculpted her for Chicagoand#8217;s Columbian Exposition, a colossus intended to match the Statue of Libertyand#8217;s grandeur. Together Edith and Newton battled on behalf of New Yorkand#8217;s poor and powerless as reformers who never themselves wanted for anything. Through it all, they sustained a strong-rooted marriage.
From the splendid cottages of the Berkshires to the salons of 1890s Paris, Love, Fiercely is the real story of a world long relegated to fiction.
Review
"
Love, Fiercely is an exquisitely-rendered portrait of passion and privilege in the Gilded Age."
—Deborah Davis, author of Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X
Synopsis
The Gilded Age New York love storyand#160;of aand#160;beautiful heiress who fought forand#160; women's rights and a wealthy young architect, who were captured in the John Singer Sargent painting Mr. and Mrs. I.N. Phelps Stokes.
Synopsis
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR
LOVE, FIERCELY “Love, Fiercely is an exquisitely rendered portrait of passion and privilege in the Gilded Age”—Deborah Davis, author of Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X
FROM LOVE, FIERCELY
Edith had welcomed Newton to her family’s home. She was friendly, though not overwhelmingly so. She was not a flirt. She had a wonderful smile, but most of the time her expression was dauntingly serious.
A few days later, they again took to the road for a walk, and climbed over a low fence into a rocky pasture. The river spread out below them, a basin of cool, mirrored metal. They talked of nothing—then, suddenly, of everything. After the gush of Montmorency Falls, after two weeks of picnics and parties, after carriage rides and soulful hikes along the rocky shore, after attending the progress of McKim’s immense riverfront confection, clumsy Newton Stokes finally won over fierce Edith Minturn.
Reader, she said yes.
Synopsis
The remarkable Margaret Hardenbroeck Philipse arrived in New Amsterdam from Holland in 1659, a brash and ambitious twenty-two-year-old bent on making her way in the New World. She promptly built an empire of trading ships, furs, and real estate that included all of Westchester County. The Dutch called such women "she-merchants," and Margaret became the wealthiest in the colony, while raising five children and keeping a spotless linen closet.
Zimmerman deftly traces the astonishing rise of Margaret and the Philipse women who followed her, who would transform Margaret's storehouse on the banks of the Hudson into a veritable mansion, Philipse Manor Hall. The last Philipse to live there, Mary Philipse Morris-the "It" girl of mid-1700s New York-was even courted by George Washington. But privilege couldn't shelter the family from the Revolution, which raged on Mary's doorstep.
Mining extensive primary sources, Zimmerman brings us into the parlors, bedrooms, counting-houses, and parties of early colonial America and vividly restores a forgotten group of women to life.
About the Author
Jean Zimmerman is the author ofandnbsp;fourandnbsp;previous books, including The Women of the House: How a Colonial She-Merchant Built a Mansion, a Fortune and a Dynasty. Sheandnbsp;earned an MFA in writing from the Columbia University School of the Arts and has published her poetry widely in literary magazines. She lives with her family in Westchester County, New York.
Table of Contents
Contents
and#160;Prologue: 1685and#160;
Part One
1659and#150;1691: Margaret
and#160;1and#160;Her New Worldand#160;
and#160;2and#160;A Map of Manhattanand#160;
and#160;3and#160;Wild Diamondsand#160;
and#160;4and#160;A Wedding, a Child, and a Funeral on the Ditchand#160;
and#160;5and#160;Education of a She-Merchantand#160;
and#160;6and#160;A Marriage of Love and Tradeand#160;
and#160;7and#160;The Superior Authority Over Both Ship and Cargoand#160;
and#160;8and#160;The House Margaret Builtand#160;
and#160;9and#160;A Surfeit of Sugarand#160;
Part Two
1692and#150;1783: Catherine, Joanna, Mary
10and#160;The Church of Catherineand#160;
11and#160;Not Doubting of Her Careand#160;
12and#160;Fashion Babiesand#160;
13and#160;A Hard Winter and Helland#160;
14and#160;A Castle on the Heightsand#160;
15and#160;Fire in the Skyand#160;
and#160;Afterwordand#160;
and#160;Acknowledgmentsand#160;
and#160;Notesand#160;
and#160;Sourcesand#160;
and#160;Indexand#160;