Tragic Beauty: The Lost 1914 Memoirs of Evelyn Nesbit

by Evelyn Nesbit

The 1914 memoirs of Evelyn Nesbit, the beautiful chorus girl and model whose association with architect Stanford White would later lead to his sensational murder at Madison Square Garden. In June 1906, Pittsburgh playboy Harry K. Thaw shot and murdered Stanford White, one of America's most famous architects, over a deadly dispute involving White's seduction of Thaw's wife, Evelyn Nesbit. Known as "the girl on the red velvet swing," Evelyn earned this moniker when she described swinging naked on a red velvet swing in Stanford White's New York studio apartment. Stanford White had supposedly drugged and raped the sixteen-year-old Evelyn in the autumn of 1901. The scandal rocked the nation with its lurid details of sex, power, drugs, and insanity. The newspapers and tabloids had a field day with the story and labeled the murder "The Crime of the Century."

Genres: True Crime

180 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1914

About the author

Florence Evelyn Nesbit (December 25, 1884 – January 17, 1967), known professionally as Evelyn Nesbit, was a popular American chorus girl and artists’ model whose liaison with renowned architect Stanford White immortalized her as "The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing."

In the early part of the 20th century, the figure and face of Evelyn Nesbit was everywhere, appearing in mass circulation newspaper and magazine advertisements, on souvenir items and calendars, making her a cultural celebrity. Her career began in her early teens in Philadelphia and continued in New York, where she posed for a cadre of respected artists of the era, James Carroll Beckwith, Frederick S. Church, and notably Charles Dana Gibson, who idealized her as a “Gibson Girl.” She had the distinction of being an early “live model,” in an era when fashion photography as an advertising medium was just beginning its ascendancy.

As a stage performer, and while still a teenager, she attracted the attention of the then 47-year-old architect and New York socialite Stanford White, who became her lover and dedicated benefactor. Nesbit achieved world-wide notoriety when her jealous husband, multi-millionaire Harry Kendall Thaw, shot and murdered Stanford White on the rooftop theatre of Madison Square Garden on the evening of June 25, 1906, leading to what the press would call “The Trial of the Century.”

Source: Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Leif Bodnarchuk · Rating 4 out of 5]

By chance one day I caught my first glimpse of Evelyn Nesbit while researching "Victorian women". You might say she was of the Edwardian time, but she was American, so I don't feel it applies as readily to THAT side of the pond. Anyway I was instantly hooked — 'Who is this woman, she's gorgeous!' I thought. A sort of twentieth century Cleopatra; don't let the shoddy cover fool you.

I loved Evelyn's story. But the editing... Oh dear the editing in this book is not very good. Deborah Dorian Paul had a bit of a task in piecing together, from bits, Evelyn's hundred-year-old words. Despite Ms Paul's efforts, the end result is confusing, and at times, I'm sorry to say, borders on amateur.

The chronology is patchy; dates go back and forth for no obvious reason. Quotes are left open, and some mysteriously close having never been opened. Paragraphs seem to take on lives of their own and numerous typos leave the reader wondering if Ms Paul ever read her own work back to herself.

As I know nothing of the editor herself I can say little of her circumstances in compiling the book, so I shall cease the unkind critique. On a positive note, as Evelyn's original (1914) works seemed all but lost, I am grateful Ms Paul made the effort to compile them. Evelyn Nesbit (I can only assume at this time she wrote her own words and didn't hire a ghost writer) is a fantastic writer — most of the time.

I love Evelyn's spirit — I would love to have met this woman. She speaks candidly, soberly, poignantly, and often I felt she was ahead of her time. Her observations of people would fit into conversations today, except her wide vocabulary might make fools of us all.

I mentioned she was a fantastic writer most of the time. Perhaps her 1914 editors didn't do a great job either; perhaps Evelyn was adamant her work shouldn't be edited, I don't know. It's hard to say without seeing the originals alongside this book. She was a celebrity in her time (although she seems to have never wanted the amount of fame she received) so it's easy to imagine a lazy editor thinking her words would sell no matter what.

All said, I'm still glad I read the book. It provided a look into another time, of theatre, parties, debauchery, and of course, a murder trial. Evelyn says herself that pretty much anyone and everyone has a story to tell, and her own, editing bumps and all, is worth hearing. If you know nothing of Evelyn Nesbit, perhaps this is a good place to start.

"Some folks spell 'love' with a capital L, and some with a small letter; it is a question of age. I have reached the period of life where I draw a line underneath—just as you do with any other foreign word."
— Evelyn Nesbit, c.1914

[Rachel Pollock · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting enough, but because this book is self-published, it suffers from the lack of an editorial eye. Misspellings and homophone errors pepper the text, and the truly disappointing thing is its lack of any bibliography or source citations. No list of archives or publications used to compile the text, no way to check its veracity or consult primary sources. Fine for an idle read, but not if you have a scholarly interest in researching more about the subject yourself.

[King · Rating 3 out of 5]

A noble vanity press effort to reconstruct the 1914 manuscript of Evelyn Nesbit's first autobiography. Book reveals an admirably perceptive and shrewd woman who seems quite ahead of her time. However, I was disappointed by the lack of detail; Ms. Nesbit seems to focus more on offering biographical facts and impressions than on painting a vivid picture of life at the turn of the century (I would have loved to have heard more details about life in the theater in 1901, or the experience of dining out at Rector's). Some of the narrative is a bit jumbled in the telling, some of the more interesting (and horrifying) aspects of her life have been omitted, and Ms. Nesbit has an odd propensity to switch from past into present tense whenever the mood suits her. Amusement can be found throughout, however--especially in a section wherein she gives very good advice about how best to face courtroom cross examination. Ending is particularly moving and well conceived; recent biographer Paula Uruburu seems to have stolen the basic idea for use as the conclusion of the final proper chapter of her American Eve. But American Eve, thanks to its fuller treatment of the subject and the surrounding history, makes for a far more entertaining introduction to the subject of Nesbit, White, and Thaw.