Warhol's Muses: The Artists, Misfits, and Superstars Destroyed by the Factory Fame Machine

by Laurence Leamer

From the New York Times bestselling author of Capote’s Women comes an astonishing account of the revolutionary artist Andy Warhol and his scandalous relationships with the ten women he deemed his “superstars”—beginning in 1964 and culminating four years later when Warhol was shot and almost killed.

“Now and then, someone would accuse me of being evil,” Andy Warhol confessed, “of letting people destroy themselves while I watched, just so I could film them.” Obsessed with celebrity, the silver-wigged artistic icon Andy Warhol created an ever-evolving entourage of stunning women he dubbed his “superstars”—Jane Holzer, Edie Sedgwick, Nico, Ultra Violet, Viva, Brigid Berlin, Ingrid Superstar, International Velvet, Mary Woronov, and Candy Darling. He gave several of them new names and manipulated their beauty and talent for his art and social status, with little concern for their safety or dignity. Then, one after one, he cut them out of his life.

In Warhol’s Muses, New York Times bestselling biographer Laurence Leamer shines a spotlight on the complex women who inspired and starred in Warhol’s legendary underground films—The Chelsea Girls, The Nude Restaurant and Blue Movie, among others. Drawn by the siren call of Manhattan life in the sixties, they each left their protected enclaves and ventured to a new world, Warhol’s famed Factory, having no sense that they would never be able to return to their old homes and familiar ways again. Sex was casual, drugs were ubiquitous, parties were wild, and to Warhol, everyone was transient, temporary, and replaceable. It was a dangerous game he played with the women around him, and on a warm June day in 1968, someone entered the Factory and shot him, changing his life, forever. 

Warhol’s Muses explores the lives of ten endlessly intriguing women, transports us to an era that changed America forever, and uncovers the life and work of one of the most legendary artists of all time.

Genres: Nonfiction, Art, History, Biography, LGBT, Audiobook, Biography Memoir

336 pages, Hardcover

Published May 6, 2025

About the author

Laurence Leamer is an award-winning journalist and historian who has written eighteen books including five New York Times bestsellers. He has worked in a factory in France, a coal mine in West Virginia and as a Peace Corps volunteer in a remote village in Nepal two days from a road. He has written two novels and an off Broadway play but is primarily known for his nonfiction. His most recent book, Capote's Women, is being made into an eight-part series starring Naomi Watts, Diane Lane, Calista Flockhart, and Demi Moore.

Reviews

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

ARC for review. To be published May 6, 2025.

3.5 stars. I’ve enjoyed the books from Leamer that I’ve read, but this was a bit tougher to connect with.

The novel covers Warhol’s relationships with ten of his “superstars” including Edie Sedgwick, Nico, Candy Darling, Baby Jane Holzer, Brigid Berlin, Mary Woronov, International Velvet, Viva, UltraViolet and Ingrid Superstar. I don’t know that any of them escaped his orbit unscathed.

Leamer wrote a great book on Truman Capote and his swans (I highly recommend it if you are at all interested in the topic) that became the basis for the recent “Feud” miniseries. The big difference between Capote and Warhol is that while Capote certainly used the swans for status he also offered him his loyal friendship (well, til the end) and a terribly witty and welcome dinner guest and alternative to their husbands.

Warhol? He appears to be nothing but a truly awful man with no genuine feeling for anyone, an absolute, unrepentant user. His it girls were often desperate for his help, for him to be the friend they had been to him and he not only withheld, he often hoped they would commit suicide so he could film it. So quite the charmer! He also treated his lovers and everyone associated with the Factory this way.

“…what he does is morally indefensible. He is a kind of confidence man, preying on people’s vanity, ignorance, or loneliness, gaining their trust and betraying them without remorse.” So that’s Andy Warhol. Prior to reading this book I always had a generally positive opinion about him, knowing that he was from Pittsburgh and that he was not from money, but was entirely self-created, but the book has definitely colored my view, a very, very solid black.

As to the book I missed Warhol and the Factory during its heyday and though the names of some of these women are vaguely familiar to me, I lack context. Those who lived through the era may enjoy the book more, though I still liked it fine. Leamer does a good job with subjects like this and he’s quickly becoming a “must read” for me.

[Brendan (History Nerds United) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't go into this book with a positive opinion of Andy Warhol and boy, did it not get any better. Laurence Leamer's Warhol's Muses seeks to do two things. First, to firmly convince the reader that Warhol was a rather pathetic person who used vulnerable people for their his own gain and then discarded them when convenient. Second, Leamer wants to give these women their own voices and tell their stories. Ultimately, I think Leamer did the first thing so well it kind of ruined the second.

I was very back and forth on this book. I really like Leamer as a writer (his book The Lynching is fantastic), but this story felt a bit all over the place. There are so many women that it feels like you learn about one and then she drops off the map. Also, while I wholeheartedly agree that Warhol was an unfeeling jerk, almost all of these women arrived at Warhol's doorstep with horrible psychological scars and drug addictions. As a reader, it means Warhol seems like a side character who deserves to be called on his bad behavior, but not necessarily as the person who you can place all the blame. Many people failed these women before they arrived at the factory.

At a scant less than 300 pages it just felt a bit too scattered with all the people in the narrative. I would not call it bad, but it is the type of book where you hoped it would be more.

(This book was provided as a review copy by the publisher.)

[Glen · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an artist I always wanted to meet Andy Warhol. I just figured I could travel to NYC and drop into the Factory. I am not sure what I was thinking, having not read any books about him. My source was newspapers and articles about him. After reading this book, it would have been very pedestrian to go up to him and talk or even to shake his hand. I was not familiar with that famous sofa, but I did know about the 'it' girls, Warhol's muses.
Of these muses it would have been cool to meet Nico or Edie. I been to Ibiza, and I went clubbing every night, maybe Nico was partying in one of those clubs. Besides the Velvet Underground album I have a copy of her 'Chelsea Girl' album. I was always into exotic girls and she and Edie would have been right up my alley.
It is too bad that Andy was so self-absorbed and cared little about those whom he used. I know one shouldn't speak ill of the dead. I haven't stopped thinking about this book and the human costs of those Andy collected. Maybe it just as well that I didn't get to meet him.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this as digital galley from NetGalley.

Well after reading Gopnik's 976 p. biography of Warhol and this book by Leamer on Warhol's 'muses' my opinion on Andy Warhol has been firmly cemented as an awful person who ruined people's lives!

Leamer does a good job of giving each of Warhol's muses a portrait and personality of their own and I enjoyed reading about the ones that I did not know as much about (Baby Jane Holzer, Ultra Violet) as well as others that I have read lots about (mainly Edie).

Has someone written about how so many 60s counterculture stars experienced wildly conservative turns in their older age? There's something there.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting read. I had always loved Warhol’s art but not really much more about him. This really gave me a deep dive into his life and more about him. I loved hearing about the women he ‘worked with,’ which really isn’t the right term. He used them more than anything. The beginning of this book was a little hard to get through with all the different people, which I had no context to. My view of Warhol changed and this was a good read for that.

[Adam Messinger · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are certain cultural figures worthy of criticism that in order to gain any credibility in your argument must also come from a place of admiration. It’s why Didion & Babitz functioned less as a successful takedown of Joan and more as a portrait of Lili Anolik—who I stan as someone who also is serving insane gay guy vibes. Warhol’s Muses unfortunately does not succeed as criticism or as an incidental portrait of the writer marred by their fingerprints.

I’m so obsessed by people who think they’re gonna gag all the simpletons by being like “Warhol is overrated he didn’t even paint his own paintings” like omggggg Buzzfeed in 2015 would’ve LOVED you, babe. This book attempts to pull off the thesis of Warhol as a puppet master, using and losing these women when they no longer serve him. It paints him as a soulless, unmoving wannabe, who can’t be bothered to mourn anyone in his life—not even his mother. And yet it makes no attempt to examine why that would be. And even worse it doesn’t even really come from a place of haterade. Like this is not the time to be a pussy about this shit.

The thing about most of the Warhol Superstars is that they were so goddamn annoying and more often than not, pretty unextraordinary. The reason I bristle when someone compares some new cohort of young bohemian layabouts in the media as Factory-esque is because, unfortunately, they are right. They are right in that the Superstar formula is one that can be replicated by the masses to great effect. Untalented, kinda sorta beautiful people, famous for nothing. We just have the displeasure of living through a time where they aren’t captured in black n white 16mm and the original is just straight fire. So to posit that Warhol sucked the life out of these women and casted them aside for his personal gain is one that gives these women more credit than they deserve. The Superstars (aside from Edie and Candy) could have been any bitch looking for an escape from their trust fund and ran into Warhol. This cosmic figure was destined to form just like there was bound to be some gay guy who filled the cultural role of Andy Warhol. That doesn’t mean that together they didn’t change the culture and—okay I’ll say it—the world, forever. I just don’t know if it means that these women were cast aside purely on Warhol’s own terms and in doing so has left us with a hole in the culture.

You’re Wrong About stopped being good in 2020. So I feel as if the author missed the boat on reclaiming women from the past a bit here because he really thinks he gagged us with his little afterword intended to show the wear and tear of Warhol, and unintentionally reveals the most interesting parts of these women’s lives. How did Brigid Berlin, a nightmare terror and the blueprint for fat girl heroin chic, go from all this to being a Fox News junkie? How does anyone come down from the high of the Factory and return to society? Because it sounds like most of them had a real rough go of it. The author crams these small blips at the end of the book after a canned final paragraph about how Warhol never painted his Superstars. The author instead opts to fill the book with a snoooooze of a jaunt through each examined superstars life pre-Warhol as some kind of testament to respecting the personhood of a victim (that should have gone away with the true crime boom of the late 2010s) and then discussing each person’s experience with Warhol to show that they were some victim and then BOOM epilogue.

The parts about Edie and Candy were fine but that’s because they just make interesting subjects and thank god have incredible respective books about them. For a better read go check out Edie: American Girl by Jean Stein and Candy Darling: Dreamer, Icon, Superstar by Cynthia Carr.

I sound soooo fired up but also I didn’t hate it. Idk

[Hatseflats · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the third in depth profile I've read by Laurence Leamer, who is a marvelous chronicler of modern American culture. In Warhol's Muses, Leamer does a great job of focusing on the muses and not Warhol. However, I will say that you do discover along the way, through Warhol's treatment of these women, how manipulative and pathologically ambitious Warhol was in his climbing the social ladder and gaining entré into the high society who would become his patrons and high-priced commisions. I have always loved Andy Warhol's art, but after reading multiple biographies about him, I have grown to really loathe the man as a human being. It's one of those situations where you feel a bit uncomfortable in admiring the art of a person who is less than admirable in his lack of moral integrity. Anyway, definitely a fascinating read! A recommend!

[Rickee1368 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Warhol’s Muses, by Laurence Leamer, is a meticulously researched book that is a quick read; however, it made me feel so sad. All the wasted lives of his muses, like Edie Sedgwick and Candy Darling, and all the wasted potential just made me melancholy. I have always had a passing curiosity about Warhol and his Factory, but Leamer’s book does not paint him in a very flattering light. This is perfect for a book that ostensibly focuses on the women in his orbit rather than Warhol himself. I really enjoy Leamer’s books and this one is just as stunning as his previous efforts. Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for an advance reading copy.

[Lauryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.75 ⭐️ Oof - I went into this knowing almost nothing about the details of Warhol’s life at the Factory but I was hoping for fun stories about a wild party scene. Instead, it’s clear Warhol was not a good person and used and abused all sort of (mostly women) throughout his time in the public eye. Everyone in his orbit was addicted to drugs, fame and willing to do outrageous things for his approval which he never gave out. Women he was super close with he completely threw away before or even after their deaths (including his own mother!). Just not a good guy no matter how much he impacted modern art.

[Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

The stories of the various women who inspired Andy Warhol. Many of them were sixties icons, but led drug fueled, self-indulgent lives. Kind of a sad book, ending with one if them committing suicide.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had eagerly anticipated this title since I am a student of all things Warhol and Basquiat. I had also read Leamer's excellent book, "Capote's Women," which served as the source material for the award-worthy "Capote vs. The Swans." While Leamer's strong writing and well-documented research were evident, I was disappointed that the book's text concluded at 79%. The remaining 21% consisted of Acknowledgments, Notes, and Photo Credits.

Leamer primarily focused on the "Muses" during the Factory years, known as the "Warhol Superstars." This period lasted a brief seven years, from 1964 to 1971. The aftermath for these muses is significant, with many leaving the Factory scarred in various ways. Those who survived often faced other challenges, such as poverty, drug addiction, and irreparable damage to their careers and reputations.

Leamer acknowledges Warhol's role as a Svengali and a manipulative figure, preying on the vulnerable for his profit and fame, much like Charles Manson. Many of his "Superstars" were young women from abusive backgrounds, seeking attention and a sense of belonging. As Janet Malcolm wrote: "Every journalist who is not too stupid or full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible. He is a kind of confidence man, preying on people's vanity, ignorance, or loneliness, gaining their trust and betraying them without remorse."

While many see Warhol as the most brilliant artist of the Twentieth Century, Brigid Berlin understood that he was a shrewd businessman, his primary concern always being money. As she said, "I think Andy is a business genius. I don't think he's an artist. He's in another field all of its own."

Edie Sedgwick has become the most visible symbol of Warhol's use them and throw them away mentality. Edie has become synonymous with the die young, leaving a pretty corpse ideal. As Leamer states, these women deserved more "to be remembered for the women they were, fascinating figures in a daring age."

I wish Leamer had continued and spoken of Warhol's "muses" of the 1980's, such as Basquiat and Haring. Jean Michel Basquiat came into Warhol's life when he was at a commercial low. Drella used him up and came out on top again before he died in 1987.

While Leamer's book catalogs the injustices that Warhol doled out to the beauties of the 1960s, there are no real surprises for those who are schooled in Warhol and the Factory.

Thank you to Net Galley and G.P. Putnam's Sons for the ARC!

[averypaletree · Rating 3 out of 5]

This felt like a really well researched portrait of Warhol's Superstars. I went in knowing nothing about Warhol or his world but I found this book to be incredibly interesting, while also showcasing a reality that was quite sad. I appreciate that the women and their struggles felt real in the writing.

[Desirae · Rating 5 out of 5]

Laurence Leamer’s Warhol’s Muses: The Artists, Misfits, and Superstars Destroyed by the Factory Fame Machine is a vivid and sobering chronicle of Andy Warhol’s rise to cultural superstardom through the remarkable — and often tragic — women who orbited his famous Factory in 1960s New York. Rather than a traditional biography of Warhol himself, Leamer refracts the artist’s life and legacy through the experiences of ten women he labeled his “Superstars” — figures who played outsized roles in his underground films, social notoriety, and artistic mythos.

Set against the backdrop of the pop art revolution, the Factory was more than a studio: it was the epicenter of a cultural upheaval that collided commercial imagery, avant-garde experimentation, nightlife, and the beginnings of celebrity culture. Warhol’s iconic use of everyday objects — soup cans, Brillo boxes, celebrities’ portraits, bright silkscreens — transformed the art world’s understanding of art’s role in post-war America. Pop art, in this sense, was as much a social statement as an aesthetic one — collapsing distinctions between high and low art and thrusting consumer culture into the gallery space. Though Leamer’s book centers on the people rather than the art itself, that cultural setting infuses every chapter, framing the tension between authenticity and spectacle that defined both Warhol and his muses.

But this tale is as much about psychology as it is about aesthetics. Warhol emerges as a remarkably complex figure: shy yet obsessed with fame; detached yet deeply attuned to surface and image; pioneering yet emotionally remote. He treated celebrity as both artistic medium and product, manufacturing it around himself and those he surrounded himself with. As Leamer details, Warhol’s psychological presence in the art world was tied to this ambiguous interplay of intimacy and distance — he drew people into his orbit for the energy and glamour they offered, yet often watched as their lives spiraled without intervening.

Edie Sedgwick: The Ultimate Factory Queen
Of all Warhol’s muses, none shines — or suffers — as brightly as Edie Sedgwick. Leamer paints her as a tragic figure whose life embodied the promise and peril of the 1960s pop art scene. Sedgwick was an aristocratic youth with striking looks and an enigmatic presence who captured Warhol’s attention almost instantly in 1965. Their relationship — creative, combustible, and ultimately destructive — became one of the defining narratives of the Factory years.

Edie embodied the era’s contradictions: she was glamorous yet deeply insecure; admired for her beauty yet wracked by inner turmoil. Under Warhol’s direction, she starred in films like Poor Little Rich Girl and Beauty No. 2, her presence marked by a haunting vulnerability that became emblematic of the avant-garde’s fascination with surface and interiority alike.

Yet her story is also one of exploitation and loss. Sedgwick’s descent into drug addiction and her increasing detachment from both Warhol and the Factory world illustrate the darker side of fame — a spectacle that celebrated her image while ignoring her pain. Leamer reveals how her relationship with Warhol both elevated her to pop culture icon status and left her untethered once he moved on to other faces.

Edie and Bob Dylan: A Mysterious Connection
Part of Edie’s mystique lies in her connection to Bob Dylan. While their exact relationship has been the subject of myth and speculation, reliable sources suggest that Sedgwick developed a crush on Dylan, and believed they shared a romantic connection — a belief that may have been one-sided. Dylan has denied a deep romantic involvement, though he acknowledged knowing her. Sedgwick may have been misled by his friends and entourage about his intentions, and Dylan’s sudden marriage to Sara Lownds in late 1965 was reportedly a shock to her.

This emotional entanglement adds a poignant layer to her story: Sedgwick, enveloped in pop-culture glamour, was seeking emotional connection in a world defined by image and illusion. Her interpretation of her relationship with Dylan, whether founded on reality or not, underscores how personal desires intersected with the commodified worlds of fame and celebrity that Warhol and his milieu created.

Sedgwick’s legacy in Leamer’s book is not just as a muse or an icon, but as a cautionary tale about vulnerability within a culture that prizes surface over substance.

Nico: Music, Model, and Multidimensional Muse
Nico (Christa Päffgen) was another standout figure in Warhol’s orbit. A German model and singer, she brought a cool, distant aesthetic to the Factory scene. Warhol’s fascination with her spanned from visual art to experimental film and music, even leading to her association with The Velvet Underground — a band that Warhol managed and for which she sang on the seminal debut album. Her presence represented a different facet of pop art’s intersection with music and fashion, expanding Warhol’s cultural reach.

Nico’s persona was shaped by her worldliness and artistic ambition, yet she also navigated turbulent relationships and a life marked by complexity beyond her Factory years. Her story — like Sedgwick’s — underscores how Warhol’s sphere was more than a studio; it was a crossroads of creative forms and personalities.

Ultra Violet: Fairytale Bohemia
Ultra Violet (Isabelle Collin Dufresne) embodied a kind of surreal, bohemian glamour. With her background in European avant-garde circles and her rumored connection to Salvador Dalí, she brought a theatrical, otherworldly tone to the Factory. Warhol’s fascination with Ultra Violet revolved around her striking look and her fearless embrace of eccentricity. In Leamer’s narrative, she showcases how the Factory’s bohemian ethos could also create lasting creative identities beyond mere image.

Viva: Intellect and Provocation
Viva was perhaps one of the more intellectually provocative muses. Known for her sharp wit and unapologetic self-expression, she co-starred in many Factory films. Her presence demonstrated that Warhol’s world, while often superficial at surface level, could also attract voices with genuine artistic and intellectual energy — even if that energy was later subsumed under the Factory’s chaotic lifestyle.

Brigid Berlin and Ingrid Superstar: Subculture Rebels
Brigid Berlin (a.k.a. Brigid Polk) and Ingrid Superstar both represented the raw, rebellious undercurrents of the Factory. Berlin, a Fifth Avenue heiress, became notorious for her embrace of amphetamine culture and her outrageous personality. Ingrid Superstar, a working-class girl from New Jersey, embodied a grit and irreverence that challenged both social norms and Warhol’s own predilections. Their stories reflect the gritty side of Factory life — the subcultural energy, the DIY aesthetic, and often the personal cost of living on the edges of artistic experimentation.

International Velvet and Mary Woronov: Style and Survival
International Velvet (Susan Bottomly) brought sleek, mod style to the Factory scene, representing the collision of fashion and art that defined the 1960s style revolution. Mary Woronov, on the other hand, stood out for refusing Warhol’s attempt to rename her — a symbolic assertion of identity in a space where Warhol frequently rebranded others. Both women illustrate how personalities navigated — and sometimes resisted — the Factory’s cult of image.

Candy Darling: Glamour and Defiance
Finally, Candy Darling, Warhol’s last major muse, emerged as a figure of dazzling persistence. A transgender icon long before mainstream recognition, Darling pursued fame with an intensity that set her apart. While the Factory’s other muses often courted celebrity as part of an aesthetic experiment, Darling lived her dream of stardom — even as societal barriers made that pursuit fraught. Warhol’s surprising support of her transition (he funded hormone treatments) reveals a rare glimpse of empathy in his otherwise detached persona.

Conclusion: Pop Art and Its Paradox
Warhol’s Muses is a compelling exploration of one of the most transformative cultural movements of the 20th century. Through Leamer’s meticulous research and narrative drive, readers gain not only a portrait of Warhol’s enduring influence on art and celebrity but a deeper understanding of the psychological terrain he navigated. Warhol appears less as a solitary genius and more as a nexus — a magnet for talent, beauty, vulnerability, and chaos.

Each muse’s story enriches our understanding of pop art’s revolutionary impact — not just on visual culture, but on society’s relationship with fame, identity, and performance. But the book is also an indictment of the cost of that revolution: for many muses, the Factory provided a stage but not a sanctuary. In telling these women’s stories with empathy and nuance, Leamer reframes Andy Warhol’s legacy as a complex, often unsettling interplay between art, celebrity, and the human heart.

[Dani Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

*I received a copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for this opportunity*

Warhol's Muses is a sad and detailed look into the lives of the “superstars” who were brought to fame by and with the Andy Warhol. Specifically those he worked with through the 1960s into the early 70s.

As someone who considered myself a fan of Warhol art I didn’t realize how little I actually knew of his character and this book definitely tainted that. That being said I would most definitely recommend this to any Warhol fan, but brace yourself for tragedy. It is well written and seems to be well researched and gives many a detailed account of life in and around the factory through the 1960s.
Upon reading this book I would say the subheading “The Artists, Misfits, and Superstars Destroyed by the Factory Fame Machine” is quite appropriate.

To say that Warhol worked WITH these people (predominantly women) isn’t really the right worked. Andy Warhol used them. Whether for his own social climbing or through manipulation of their desperate place in life getting them to do incredibly destructive things for drugs and attention.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are two big issues with this book as I see it. First, the author clearly loathes Warhol. Warhol is not even given the distinction of an artist in his eyes; he is at best a plagiarist, a trendy influencer, and a cheap pornographer. And secondly, the women discussed don’t, therefore, qualify as muses (creative inspiration). They are at best Warhol’s ticket to the parties he wants to crash or the window dressing for his bizarre movie industry. The women are interesting, deeply flawed, and come loaded with trauma. (Who knew Gaby Hoffman’s mother was a sixties superstar?) But Leamer fails to weave a coherent narrative arc here because he clearly doesn’t understand or like Warhol. Each woman appears and then drops out of sight and significance. No real tale emerges. Quel domage.

[L. J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

TBA

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for an advance copy of this look at the artist Andy Warhol and the scene that he created from whole cloth, inventing a new way to look at celebrity, the time their fame can last, and how quickly they can be replaced in both the public eye and by the creator, artist himself.

To paraphrase Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice 'It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in search of a good fortune, must be in want of a entourage.' I can't think of anything more true about celebrities, from real stars, to self-created influencers who appear and disappear at the drop of an app. My friend has done some ghost writing and he always discusses the scene around the artist he is to write about as "a mix between the worst prep school in fiction, and the worst prison in America. There is constant fighting for position, gossip, rumors, even fights to get close to the star, the creator of the scene. People appear and disappear regularly, some leaving because the scene is too much, or the scene has crushed them either mentally, health wise, or worse. Andy Warhol was a scene maker, a scene traveller and a artist with POP. His factory gave birth to silk screen works, the Velvet Underground and numerous women with names Warhol provided. Some went on to better things, some decayed in Warhol's orbit. Many fell to Earth and never recovered. This book tells their story. Warhol's Muses: The Artists, Misfits, and Superstars Destroyed by the Factory Fame Machine by historian and journalist Laurence Leamer is a look at what the gears of the Factory were lubricated with, the fame made, and the lives destroyed in the pursuit of Andy Warhol's 15 minutes of fame.

Andy Warhol was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and never wanted to talk about it. Warhol actually was not much of a talker, but an observer. fascinated by people, the way they acted, and the good life that many had. A good life that Warhol craved. Moving to New York Warhol made his first accomplishments in fashion, drawing shoes that were acclaimed throughout the industry. Warhol wanted more, and knew that they world or art was where he could make it. Warhol found sponsors to get his art to the dealers who could make his career, and among the rich he found people he could use. Baby Jane Holzer was his first 'Superstar' an idle rich woman with British taste, looks and the first to be labeled an It Girl. Warhol appeared in public with here, a symbiotic relationship that got both press and more. Soon there were others Edie Sedgwick, Nico, Mary Woronov, Vita, Candy Darling and others. Some Warhol named, most he filmed in his movies, many he discarded when he grew bored, or their fame didn't equate to what he wanted. Within a few short years Warhol was the Artist he wanted to be, until another scenester tried to take it all away.

A book that really surprised me, one that I thought I had an idea of what life was like in the Warhol circle, but surprised me how much a circle of Hell it must have been. Warhol was not a good person, as this book shows. Warhol would discard people, feel nothing about their deaths, pay his actors and hanger-ons nothing. In many ways this is both a cautionary tale about fame, and a book about not joining cults, as neither one can end well. Leamer is a very good writer, capturing the scene, the drugs, the art, and the sadness of many of the characters. There are a tremendous amount of people, but Leamer is good about describing them, even the famous ones so one is never lost. I learned quite a bit, and enjoyed this book quite a lot, though I feel very bad for many of the people featured here.

In the afterword Leamer discusses how much of this information printed has not been released, using many transcripts of tapes from the Warhol estate, as Andy Warhol taped almost every conversation he had. Learner has really done his work and has written a very important book about the Factory scene, one that still interests many people. And a book that we can learn quite a lot from.

[laurakellylitfit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Laurence Leamer’s Warhol’s Muses is a penetrating exploration of the constellation of women who gravitated toward Andy Warhol’s Factory and became integral to both his myth and his machinery. These figures—including Edie Sedgwick, Candy Darling, Ultra Violet, and Viva—were artists, outsiders, and dreamers who embodied the blurred boundary between creation and consumption. Leamer unveils the magnetism of Warhol’s persona and the corrosive allure of his celebrity culture, detailing how each muse was elevated, manipulated, and often discarded by the very system that promised them immortality. The Factory wasn’t just a studio—it was a crucible of fame and fragility, where identity was performance and cameras didn’t just document but devoured.

Warhol himself is cast as a paradox: a man obsessed with surfaces yet deeply attuned to psychological nuance, especially in the people he drew close. Leamer shows that Warhol’s genius lay not just in his visual art but in his instinct for people as media—crafting personas, directing lives, and using fame as both canvas and brush. Yet this genius came at a chilling cost. Many of his muses faced early deaths, addictions, or public unravelings, underscoring the haunting echo of exploitation beneath the glitter. Leamer’s book doesn’t just chronicle Warhol’s influence—it indicts it, suggesting that the fame machine he engineered destroyed the very people who made it hum. It’s a portrait of art, ego, and devastation, as sharp as a silk screen and twice as lasting. Such an interesting read.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons for this ARC!

[Michael Ritchie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've always been mildly interested in Andy Warhol and his milieu, but I've never been a fan of his art. Mostly, I think he was a successful huckster who, nevertheless, was an important part of pop culture during his lifetime. From the subtitle of this book, you know that he's going to be blamed for the sad outcomes of most of his circle of followers, and indeed, he comes off here as a pretty terrible person. But the "muses" who get destroyed were largely on their way to self-destruction before they got involved in Warhol's scene. (A hidden theme here might be that rich people are terrible parents, as most of the muses come from money.) Leamer implies that Warhol might have saved some of these people from their fates if he had done more to intervene in their lives, but that was never clear to me here. Despite the subtitles, they weren't artists or superstars, but they were misfits, which, I realize, many artists are.

Most of these people who wanted fame as performers were not talented or ambitious enough to have had lasting careers, with or without Warhol, with the exception of Lou Reed, John Cale, and Mary Woronov, all of whom left Warhol's circle fairly early on. The book is a fast read, paced well, though stylistically it's drab, like a listlessly edited magazine article. I remember liking Leamer's book on Capote's "swans" from a few years ago but this feels a bit half-hearted. Also, depressing, which isn't Leamer's fault. I also think the term "muses" is not right--Warhol didn't seem to have been inspired by these people, he just plunked them down in front of cameras and filmed them, or attached them to his arm in social situations.

[Susan Lenz · Rating 2 out of 5]

My husband and I purchased this book at the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. Before going to the museum, we had a fair knowledge of Andy Warhol's life, artwork, and fame. We knew a little about the women whose lives were ruined through their association with The Factory. The book seemed like a good way to learn more, dig deeper into the wild side of NYC's bohemian world in the 1960s, and see another viewpoint from the more positive one on exhibit in the museum. Unfortunately, the book is written in ways that appear rumbled and even boring. I expected to be disgusted (like many other reviewers mentioned) but the paragraphs written weren't particularly nauseating. Empathy was also lacking. It is clear, especially from the many pages of "notes" and "acknowledgments", that plenty of research happened, but that information was not put together into a cohesive telling. For a book about unique individuals and a world famous artist, there was little color or dazzling descriptors. My mind even wandered while reading. Often, I wondered if an editor was involved or whether the author was given free reign due to earlier, successful non-fiction titles. Apparently an entire staff was involved; so I wondered if the text was rushed to press. I cannot recommend this book but gave it two stars because I've read worse.

[Olivia Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

“They didn’t just orbit Warhol. They burned.”

Warhol’s Muses isn’t just a biography, it’s a resurrection. Laurence Leamer peels back the glamour, the glitter, and the Factory mystique to reveal something far more haunting: the emotional wreckage left behind by an artist who watched rather than intervened.

Each chapter feels like a séance. Edie. Nico. Viva. Candy. Names I’d heard before but never felt until now. Leamer doesn’t just document their lives, he reanimates them, giving voice to women who were often aestheticized, fetishized, and ultimately forgotten.

And while Warhol remains elusive, both subject and shadow, it’s the women who take center stage. Vulnerable, electric, and often tragic, they are the true stars of this book. I found myself pausing mid-chapter to look up old photos and videos, just to hold on to them a little longer.

What hits hardest is the emotional toll beneath the art: the disintegration of identity, the seduction of fame, the loneliness behind the camera lens. Leamer writes like someone who knows the cost of being seen and the deeper cost of being discarded.

If Capote’s Women showed the elegance behind the fall, Warhol’s Muses shows the fall behind the elegance.

This isn’t just a book. It’s a reckoning.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an extremely fast read. Mainly because a lot of the book is just credits a footnotes. I mean a lot of the book.

I have read a few books on Warhol. I did enjoy his diaries…. Even if they were a bit monotonous, but he was a name dropper… as was Capote and I’m always up for some good tea to drop.

But this book was a let down. It had a few errors in writing and such…. And it was not horribly written…. But it did make me realize that Andy Warhol just used women…. Women who had already been used and abused and he just wrung out what was left of them and tossed them out in the street without a second thought.

He was a very unfeeling person. He used everybody, but his “Muses” were nothing more to him than left over French fries at the bottom of a fast food container. Good enough until he had his fill of them and then their time was over.

Poor souls. I’m sorry any of them ever came across him and his Factory of Misogyny. But even that word did not fit what he thought of them. It was like they were not even humans to him.

To be honest…I’m disgusted by him.
What a waste of time. I suggest readers skip this book. It’s depressing.

[Raquel]

I wrote about this book for the NY Post

“Warhol’s Muses” is the latest entry in a long line of books and movies about the artist and his band of misfits. Like many, it portrays Warhol as a leech who used and manipulated others for the sake of his art and celebrity.

But here, Leamer focuses on Warhol’s women: the ever-evolving coterie of glamazons who accompanied him to parties, appeared in his films, and “helped turn the Pittsburgh-born son of Eastern European immigrants into international artist Andy Warhol.”

Warhol called these women his “superstars.” Leamer calls them Warhol's muses.

It's disempowering word. And while the book claims to give these women the credit they deserve for catapulting Warhol into the stratosphere, it just victimizes them and does little to highlight their own artistic contributions.

[Tavia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book chronicles many of Andy Warhol’s muses including Edie Sedgwick, Viva, Candy Darling, Nico, Ultra Violet and more. The author explains how these people became a part of Warhol’s life and which of his films they starred in. It also goes over their day-to-day lives in relation to Andy Warhol’s Factory.

First off, I learned a ton about Andy Warhol. My opinion of him is greatly reduced after this book. He is a user and abuser a pretty much everyone around him and he has no feelings about it at all. Drugs were a major part of the Factory, and it seemed like amphetamines were the drug of choice. I feel like this book is really a sad chronicle of lives, wasted in relation to Andy Warhol. Still a very good book, and I enjoyed the content and writing style of the author.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for a copy of this book.

[Jen Thiel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve always had a fascination with Andy Warhol, The Factory, and the many tragic stories that came out of that era. I really enjoyed the fact that the point of this book was to focus on the women who made Andy as famous as he became through their various contributions to his art and his connections in the world of the rich and famous. I truly found each woman more fascinating than the next. My criticism would be that the author may have bitten off more than he could chew because I felt like the reader kept being confused by when we’re done hearing about one woman’s story and why we jumped into the next without finishing the prior woman’s tale, but then by the end we got to hear how everything turned out for everyone. So while I truly did enjoy this book, I just think it might have benefited from some more organization and editing.

[Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Andy Warhol's Factory and its hangers-on read like a catalog of dysfunction. Drug abuse. Mind games. Empty promises. Glamour and glitz with nothing underneath. Somehow Andy Warhol managed to attract a collection of (mostly) damaged young women, who would flutter around him like moths around a candle. The lives of some of these have been documented elsewhere (Edie Sedgwick, Nico, Ultraviolet's autobiography). The main interest of the book, for me, that it gave a little background on some of the other Superstars like Brigid Polk, International Velvet, Viva, Mary Woronov.

But there was nothing edifying in this book. Andy Warhol used these women to further his fame and the women used him to ?? forge an identity? Make money? It' s not clear to me who got what out of these awful forms of symbiosis.

[Trasie Dawson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Last week I saw a random YouTube documentary on Valerie Solano’s, watched it and suddenly became enthralled in the factory and the people surrounding Andy Warhol. I knew nothing about it but it intrigued me. I picked up this book trying to find any info out about the factory and the superstars. This was a fast read, I loved how this book goes in a time line instead of breaking up each section for one girl it shows how intertwined and fast paced the lifestyle was. It made it a great story while also giving you all the details. The only thing is I feel like it dances around a little bit of just saying Warhol had a part in a lot of these women’s downfalls and totally just used them so I wish it would do that more but seeing as though the acknowledgments kinda seems like the foundation didn’t want some stuff out there in the open.

[Tammy · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are familiar with Warhol’s Superstars there really isn’t much new information here. Warhol used and discarded people without a backward glance in his pursuit for fame. His favorite marks were troubled, young women from wealthy backgrounds who could open doors that would otherwise be closed to him. He also attracted those with alternative lifestyles and had no compunction about taking advantage of their fragility, proclivities, and drug use. And, he watched as they destroyed themselves. Okay, so Warhol was a despicable human being and con man. What was most bothersome about this account was the noticeable distance between the author and his subject matter which struck a discordant note.

[Amy Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a pretty comprehensive look at the many muses of Andy Warhol. Let me say at the outset that I find him to be a miserable, selfish person who was more a merchandiser than an artist, and this book did nothing to dispel that opinon. I picked this up because I was interested in how these people came to be associated with him, and what happened to them after their time in the Factory with him. I liked how this book spoke to a lot of people who were there at the time, and especially the update at the end of the book as to what happened to them later in life. It was a quick read, and entertaining.

[Alecia · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up for keeping me moderately interested. What a crew! I remember the names but this book tells us more about his muses or "hangers-on" such as Baby Jane Holzer, Viva, Edie Sedgewick, Candy Darling and more. And it goes into the murder attempt on Andy by the unhinged Valerie Solonas. It's hard to say what was going on in Andy's weird world, but he did attract some very exotic and strange people to hang in his orbit. The use of drugs by these people was very plentiful and dangerous. And that's really all this book goes into. But there is enough period 1960's outrageous behavior to make a book.