Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
A thrilling story of true crime-and a love triangle turned deadly-from New York Times bestseller and award-winning historian Simon Baatz.
In 1901, Evelyn Nesbit, the pin-up girl and New York society darling, dined with Stanford White in his 24th St. apartment. The two drank champagne, and Evelyn was dazzled by a tour of his sumptuously decadent rooms, a tour which ended on a velvet couch in his floor-to-ceiling paneled "mirror room." Evelyn was given more champagne, lost consciousness, and woke, nearly naked, in bed next to Stanford White. White, an acclaimed architect and notorious womanizer, was 47. Evelyn Nesbit was just 16.
Four years later, Evelyn would marry Harry Thaw, a playboy millionaire rumored to be mentally disturbed. One night in 1906, a vengeful Thaw shot and killed White before hundreds of theatre-goers during a performance at Madison Square Garden--a venue designed by Stanford White himself. The murder and ensuing trial were the scandal of the century, perhaps the nation's first tabloid murder, and a pivotal moment in turn-of-the-century America.
In the tradition of books like The Devil in the White City by Erik Larsen, Sins of the Second City by Karen Abbot and The Murder of the Century by Paul Collins, this is a true crime story with a narrative as page-turning as a thriller.
Synopsis
From New York Times bestselling author Simon Baatz, the first comprehensive account of the murder that made the Gilded Age-and of the trial that shocked the world.
In 1901, Evelyn Nesbit, the pin-up girl and penniless young actress, dined with Stanford White, the legendary architect whose works defined the New York landscape, at his 24th St. apartment. Evelyn drank champagne and was dazzled by a tour of White's decadent rooms, which included a sumptuous velvet couch swing on which Evelyn played. Evelyn was given more champagne, and lost consciousness. She woke, nearly naked, in bed next to White. White was 47 years old. Evelyn Nesbit was just 16.
Four years later, tarnished by the air of impropriety that in those days surrounded a lowly career in the theater, Evelyn would marry Harry Thaw, a playboy millionaire rumored to be mentally unstable, and in whom she confided the story of her encounter with Stanford White. One night in 1906, a vengeful Thaw shot and killed White before hundreds of theater-goers during a performance at Madison Square Garden-a venue designed by none other than White himself.
The city-and the nation that looked to it-erupted with news of the murder and ensuing trial, then the most sensational scandal in history: one so sordid that President Teddy Roosevelt himself would try and stop the press from covering it. But the murder of Stanford White stood for far more than tabloid scandal. Evelyn's shocking testimony would propel her to an uneasy stardom, an uncertain fortune, and send the case before the Supreme Court.
Filled with the glamor, jealousy, and danger of the Gilded Age, The Girl on the Velvet Swing is an immersive, richly detailed look at an America dominated by men of outsize fortunes, and at the women whose lives depended on them.