The Stone of Heaven: Unearthing the Secret History of Imperial Green Jade, by Adrian Levy & Cathy Scott-Clark

“Bud” closes out Lost in the Stacks Week with this treasure of a post:

One of the rarest, most valuable gemstones in the world is Jadeite. Smooth to the touch with a lovely luster, it’s sturdy and capable of being carved into shapes and objects. Green is the best known color but it also comes in shades of lavender, yellow, white and black. Being a favored gemstone in China for 3000 years, a wealth of superstition and folklore has developed around it. The best jadeite, “Imperial Jade” has long been coveted by Chinese royalty. The fascinating history of Imperial Green Jade is nicely recounted in the non-fiction book, The Stone of Heaven by Adrian Levy & Cathy Scott.

Levy and Scott, who are both investigative journalists, combed through ancient texts in archives throughout Asia to uncover many wondrous tales of jade and the people who loved it including:

Emperor Qianlong – This powerful 18^th century Chinese emperor engaged in a bloody and financially crippling war with the country of Mien-Tien in order to exact tribute from them, and the tribute he specifically wanted was Imperial Green Jade.

Griffith and Bayfield – At the instigation of the British East India Company, two men, Dr. William Griffith, “a ‘hardy and active’ scientist with a passion for exotic tea bushes” and Dr. George Bayfield a British Diplomat, endure a harrowing jungle trek in search of the legendary serpentine jadeite mines. These mines were rumored to be located somewhere in the Kachin Hills region of Burma, in the “Valley of Death” beneath the shadow of the “Great Golden Mountain.”

Empress Cixi – A young court concubine, Lady Yehenara, through luck, pluck and sheer ruthlessness becomes the dowager empress of China. She was also a rabid collector of Jade:

“Cixi’s satin robes were now Imperial yellow and her head-dress bore ‘a beautiful phoenix in the centre made of purest jade’ … Her shoulders were covered by a ‘transparent cape of 3500 pearls the size of canary bird eggs’, fringed by 40 jadeite drops and held at the throat by jadeite clasps, that a lady–in-waiting would later describe as ‘the most magnificent and costly thing I ever saw.’  Cixi wore six Imperial Green Jade Bangles carved into candy twists, triple-hoop jadeite ear-rings and a 108-bead court necklace made from Qianlong’s stone of heaven.”

These are just a few examples of the many colorful stories to be found in the book, which is compulsively readable.  In the last section, the authors furtively slip into Burma (present day Myanmar) to investigate working conditions at the jade mines in the 1990s. What they find is horrific, with brutal working conditions and exploited people.  Well researched and written, The Stone of Heaven is a fascinating exploration of a renowned gemstone and its role in history.

Check the WRL catalog for The Stone of Heaven: Unearthing the Secret History of Imperial Green Jade

Read Full Post »

Little Gloria…Happy at Last, by Barbara Goldsmith

Here’s post number four for our “Lost in the Stacks” week from Bud:

The millennial generation knows Anderson Cooper as a CNN news anchor. Their baby boomer parents know that Cooper’s mother is Gloria Vanderbilt and that she was a famous fashion designer in the 1970s.  But the parents of the baby boomers knew Gloria before she was the queen of designer jeans. This older generation will remember her as little Gloria, the poor-little- rich-girl pawn in a scandalous celebrity custody trial, a trial that is scrupulously detailed in the entertaining, true-life social history, Little Gloria…Happy at Last, by Barbara Goldsmith.

Little Gloria’s father was Reginald Vanderbilt, an alcoholic, playboy wastrel,  and her mother was the beautiful “Glorious” Gloria Morgan. Gloria and her twin sister Thelma, who was the mistress of the Prince of Wales, were known in the society columns of the 1920s as “the Magnificent Morgans.”  Raised to be “a prize for a rich, socially impeccable man” by her overbearing mother Laura, Gloria married the much older Reggie but soon discovered that he had gambled away his inheritance and was living on credit. When little Gloria came along in 1924, a Vanderbilt trust fund was established for her. Upon Reggie’s death in 1925, big Gloria was given access to that trust fund until her daughter came of age and used it to live large on two continents as a scintillating member of cafe society.

Poor little Gloria was left in the care of her doting but neurotic nurse Dodo and crazy, controlling grandma Laura. Concerned about little Gloria’s well being (and her inheritance) Laura and Dodo sought out Reggie’s sister, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, and intimated that big Gloria was leading an immoral life that was harming her child. This set the stage for an epic custody trial that was played out in all its tawdry glory before the tabloid press.

The cast of characters is eclectic and eccentric. Although the tale itself is gossipy fun with details about the glamorous lifestyles of the rich and famous, courtroom histrionics and dramatic denouements, ultimately the story is quite sad. At the heart of it is a frightened child surrounded by selfish or indifferent adults who just didn’t understand or were incapable of giving her the love and emotional support that she needed.

The fact that little Gloria Vanderbilt was able to overcome her problematic childhood and become an artist, actress, writer and the socialite wife of men such as conductor Leopold Stokowski and director Sidney Lumet is a testament to her remarkable resilience. Well researched and clearly written, this book is an enjoyable read for anyone interested in social history or courtroom tales.

Check the WRL catalog for Little Gloria… Happy at Last

Read Full Post »

Really the Blues, by Mezz Mezzrow and Buzz White

It’s “Lost in the Stacks” week, and Bud is back with another post:

“Poppa, have you got any idea how a man took to jazz in the early days? Do you know how he spent years watching the droopy chicks in cathouses, listening to his cellmates moaning low behind the bars, digging the riffs the wheels were knocking out when he rode the rods – and then all of a sudden picked up a horn and began to tell the whole story in music? I’m going to explain that.”

So says Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow in the opening chapter of his strange but fascinating autobiography,  Really the Blues. Mezzrow, a white Jewish kid, was born in 1899. A wild child from the beginning, he landed in reform school at the age of 15 where he discovered and became completely enamored of black culture in general and New Orleans jazz in particular. He learned how to play the clarinet and immersed himself in the jazz world of the 1920s, a world that, for him, revolved around three big Ms – musicians, mobsters and marijuana. As the story unfolds we learn a lot about all three.

Really the Blues will appeal to music lovers because Mezzrow knew just about every famous jazz artist of the period. He jammed with Sidney Bechet, Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, Bessie Smith, Joe Oliver, Baby Dodds, Gene Krupa and many others. His unadulterated portraits of these talented people and their colorful milieu are fascinating.

The Mob also played a prominent role in Mezz’s life. He worked in some of Al Capone’s road houses, was turned onto opium by a member of Detroit’s vicious Purple Gang, and had Dutch Schulz try to muscle in on his marijuana distribution business.

And, yes, there is marijuana, lots of, as it was referred to in the ‘20s, muta, tea, reefer or muggles (the word pre-dates Harry Potter). In fact, Mezzrow was such a heavy user (a viper) and dealer that in his circle of acquaintances it became known by another slang term–the mezz–and was referenced as such in the song, “If You’re a Viper” by Stuff Smith. The book contains gritty descriptions of the joys and subsequent lows of drug addiction. His four-year stint as an opium addict is particularly grim.

The stories are great, whether or not they’re all true is questionable, but what makes this book distinctive is the style in which it’s written.  As you can tell by the paragraph quoted above, the prose tends to flow like musical cadences and is rife with jazzy slang. This can make for disconcerting reading at first but it soon seems natural and appropriate to the author and what he’s describing.  If you have difficulty with the slang, the back pages contain a helpful glossary.

This is not a book for everyone. It’s a strange, often lurid tale, told in a distinctly unusual manner by an arch iconoclast. If you’re looking for something warm and fuzzy this ain’t it.  But if you have an interest in the history of music or the Chicago underworld or are just in the mood for something really unusual then give Really the Blues a try.  It’s a book you won’t forget.

Check the WRL catalog for Really the Blues

Read Full Post »

Night of the Grizzlies, by Jack Olsen

Here’s the second of the books that “Bud” found lost in the stacks. Track it down today!

On the night of August 13, 1967 two young women, Julie Helgeson and Michele Koons, were killed by grizzly bears in Glacier National Park, Montana. The girls were not mauled by the same bear; the attacks took place in separate areas of the park miles away from each other. The story of this unprecedented incident ( it was the first time in Glacier’s history that anyone had died by bear attack) is related in the terrific, nonfiction book,  Night of the Grizzlies  by Jack Olsen.

The story starts in the early summer months of 1967 with a series of unsettling run-ins between bears and campers. One grizzly in particular was behaving aggressively towards people, and the bears in general seemed to be losing their fear of humans. The Park Service was not overly concerned with the situation because, after all, no one had ever been killed by a bear in Glacier National Park. In fact, they inadvertently increased the interaction between people and animals by not incinerating all of the garbage that accumulated around the camp sites. At night the bears came to feed off the trash and the campers loved to watch them. Unfortunately, this complacency would lead to disaster on that hot night in August.  The attacks and subsequent hunt for the man-eaters are related in fast-paced, gripping detail.

The story itself is compelling and the author, Jack Olsen, who primarily wrote about true-crime, has a knack for pacing and suspense. The tension just builds and builds to the point where  (yes, I’m going to use the old cliché) you can’t put the book down.  It’s a thrilling read. The attacks are described in all their gruesome detail but the gore is not emphasized. In fact, you come away with a sense of sadness and compassion for both man and animal.

In addition, to the book, the WRL also has a documentary about the bear attacks entitled, Glacier Park’s Night of the Grizzlies created by the Montana PBS.  It’s an interesting follow-up to the book because you get to hear from many of the people involved in the incident and see the actual locations.  Particularly poignant are the Polaroid snapshots taken of the girls the day they died. Both book and documentary are highly recommended with a caveat. If you read it before going on a camping trip in the woods, you’re not going to sleep well.

NOTE:  This story was originally published as a three part article for Sports Illustrated in 1969.  When it was redrafted as a book a 37 page prologue was added that details the history of Glacier National Park and provides some natural history information about Grizzly bears. It’s interesting but not required reading. Starting with Chapter One will get you right into the story.

Check the WRL catalog for Night of the Grizzlies

Read Full Post »

“King Lehr” and the Gilded Age, by Baroness Elizabeth Wharton Drexel Beresford Decies

“Bud” shares this as the first “Lost in the Stacks” week post:

Picture this scene:

A beautiful young woman sits in her boudoir.  Married that morning, she anxiously awaits her new husband.  In he comes and makes the following statement, “There are some things I must say to you, and it is better that I should say them now at the very beginning so that there can be no misunderstanding between us.”  “In public I shall be to you everything that a most devoted husband should be to his wife… I will give you courtesy, respect and apparently devotion. But you must expect nothing more from me. When we are alone I do not intend to keep up the miserable pretense, the farce of love and sentiment. Our marriage will never be a marriage in anything but name. I do not love you, I can never love you …The less we see of one another except in the presence of others the better.”  The shocked girl asks him why he married her? With a bitter laugh he replies, “Since you force me to do so I must tell you the unflattering truth that your money is your only asset in my eyes.”

Wow.

Although this sounds like something  from a hackneyed romance novel, it’s not. This really happened to Elizabeth Drexel Lehr, and the story of her life with Harry Lehr, the gold digging cad that she was unfortunate enough to marry,  is recounted in the rather astonishing autobiography, King Lehr and the Gilded Age, by Lady Decies (formerly Elizabeth Drexel Lehr).

Elizabeth was a child of wealth and grew up happy and comfortable in late 19^th century New York City. Harry Lehr was also born into money,  but when his father died he was left penniless, embittered and determined to make his way back into the privileged world of the wealthy. His plan was twofold, first he ingratiated  himself to society matrons by being ever so engaging, witty and fun. He survived on their largesse and kickbacks from suppliers whose goods he encouraged his benefactors to purchase. Secondly, he kept an eye out for a wealthy and pliable heiress to marry. Poor Elizabeth was gullible enough to fall for his smarmy charms.

What may be surprising to modern readers is that she didn’t divorce Harry the day after the shocking  wedding night declaration. Fear of shaming her mother and alienating herself from her society friends kept her bound to Lehr for decades despite the fact that he emotionally abused her and lavishly indulged all his whims with her money.

The narrative follows their unhappy life together as they travel amongst the rich and powerful in the U.S. and Europe during the early years of the 20^th century.  We get a decidedly jaundiced view of the American “Downton Abbey” crowd, although many of the grandees mentioned will probably be unknown to people nowadays.

Elizabeth’s story is an interesting expose of a lost world and its dubious mores and manners. The book was considered quite shocking when it was originally published in 1938.  It’s an  engrossing page-turner for people who enjoy social history, women’s lives or scandal among the rich and famous.

NOTE: There’s a famous photo of Lady Decies taken by Weegee. Here you see Elizabeth going to the opera in 1943. The image makes a startling  contrast to the beautiful painted portrait of her on the cover of the book.

Check the WRL catalog for “King Lehr” and the Gilded Age

Read Full Post »

Midnight in Peking, by Paul French

Another true crime review written by Bud:

On the morning of January 8, 1937, the corpse of a young woman named Pamela Werner was found lying in a ditch beneath the supposedly haunted Fox Tower on the outskirts of Peking, China. Brutally murdered and savagely mutilated, the girl was only identifiable by her diamond-studded platinum wrist watch and the singular grey color of the iris in one of her slashed eyes.  The story of this murder and its ensuing police investigation are related in the terrific true-crime thriller, Midnight in Peking by Paul French.

Peking in the 1930s was a fascinating mixture of clashing cultures. The British lived quite comfortably inside a large walled section of the city known as the Legation Quarter. Outside of this area resided the Chinese nationals and a combustible mix of expats of all nationalities. Overshadowing everything was the impending threat of the Japanese Army, which had invaded China and was slowly making its way towards the city.

Amidst this turmoil the death of one girl seemed of little importance. But Pamela was the daughter of a former British consul, and had apparently been killed in Chinese territory, which could potentially make the case a political hot potato. To diplomatically resolve the problem, two detectives, one Chinese, Col. Han Shih-ching, and one British, a former Scotland Yard officer named Richard Dennis, were assigned to work the murder together.

Their queries took them from the debauched soirees of the insular Brits to the depraved dives of the lowest Chinese slums, but current events, hidden agendas and meddling superiors stymied the investigation and prevented them from bringing the case to a satisfactory resolution. Furious at this turn of events, Pamela’s grieving father took up the case and relentlessly pursued it. He hounded officials at home and abroad and drove himself into poverty trying to identify her killer and bring him to justice. The details of what he was eventually able to uncover about his daughter’s murder are heinous and heartbreaking.

Midnight in Peking is both an intriguing mystery and a colorful evocation of a famous city at a pivotal point in time. The author, Paul French, lives in Shanghai and is an expert in Chinese culture. This fast-paced, engrossing tale is recommended for true crime buffs and people with an interest in pre-war China.

Check the WRL catalog for Midnight in Peking

Read Full Post »

Dangerous Curves atop Hollywood Heels: the Lives, Careers and Misfortunes of 14 Hard-Luck Girls of the Silent Screen, by Michael G. Ankerich

Bud gets this Halloween week started with a post that goes back to the dark side of the silent film days:

A small-town girl comes to Hollywood looking for stardom. She hits the big-time in her first starring role and fame and fortune are hers forevermore. It’s the old Hollywood fable. But there is another old Hollywood story, one that is far more common. In this scenario, the ingenue hits town, maybe has some success, maybe not, but there is no happy ending to her tinsel town tale. Booze, drugs, poor choices in men, personal problems or simple bad luck sends her on the downward slide to obscurity where the ending is almost always tragic.

Dangerous Curves Atop Hollywood Heels by Michael Ankerich explores this dark side of the film industry with short biographies of fourteen silent movie actresses who found moderate success in the 1920s only to hit hard times in the ‘30s. For these poor souls, the Depression years really were depressing. Among the ladies detailed are:

Agnes Ayres: This once popular actress is best known for co-starring with Rudolph Valentino in The Sheik. But she put on weight, lost her looks and was prone to diva behavior and nervous breakdowns so the film industry gave her the heave-ho. She died alone at the age of 48, physically and emotionally depleted from years of struggling to regain the spotlight.

Barbara La Marr: La Marr, who played seductive vamps onscreen, was known as The Girl Who Was Too Beautiful. In her brief, scandal-plagued life she burned through five husbands, numerous lovers and a vast quantity of drugs and alcohol. She died at 30 from some mysterious wasting disease leaving behind a child and an unmatched reputation for living hard and fast.

Mary Nolan:  Mary had a hard knock life, much of which she brought on herself with her predilection for stimulants, drama and bad, bad men. After a brief stint as a Ziegfeld Girl she went on to become an international film star. But Mary had masochistic tendencies and her rendezvous with sadistic men did not lead to 50 Shades of Grey love affairs.  Instead, unsurprisingly, they resulted in scandal, severe physical injuries and continual pain that she numbed with narcotics. Poor Mary wrecked her career, lost her money and ended up singing in cheap saloons before the inevitable sad fade out at the age of 42.

Despite–or perhaps because of–the dark nature of these stories they are compulsively readable, poignant scandal sheets from the early years of the film industry.  The depressing nature of the stories is mitigated somewhat by the writing which is not mean-spirited or salacious. The author Ankerich is clearly sympathetic to these ill-fated starlets.

Each section is sourced, includes the actresses’ filmography and there are plenty of illustrations.  Recommended for film buffs or anyone with an interest in women’s history or celebrity scandals.

Check the WRL catalog for Dangerous Curves atop Hollywood Heels

Read Full Post »

The Murder of the Century, by Paul Collins

The American press has always loved a good scandal or murder mystery. In 1897, they got both when a headless torso was found floating by a pier on the lower East Side of New York City. At first the police dismissed it as a ghoulish prank perpetrated by medical students. But when the severed limbs turned up in a ditch on the other side of town and stab wounds were found on the trunk, they realized this was not a prank but murder. Murder of the Century by Paul Collins tells the story of this ghoulish crime and its resulting trial.

In the 1890s, New York City’s major newspapers were involved in a brutal circulation war. Joseph Pulitzer’s old guard New York World and William Randolph Hearst’s up-and-coming New York Journal would do anything to out scoop the other. A headless body was manna from heaven for them and they went wild with it.

Reporters took the investigative lead over the police and identified both the victim, one William Guldensuppe, and the probable perpetrators, Martin Thorn and Augusta Nack.  Augusta was ready made for the tabloid press. A cold-blooded femme fatale, she ran an abortion service out of her apartment, was married and had not one but two lovers, the dead man Guldensuppe and the accused killer Thorn. With both murder and a sexual scandal on display the resulting courtroom trial had the whole country watching.

The author Paul Collins does a terrific job in relating this juicy tale that is flush with colorful characters and twisty plot turns. In addition, we get some interesting historical information about the turn-of–the-century newspaper business, police operations and courtroom procedures.  Well written, fast-paced and entertaining, Murder of the Century is a good choice for true crime fans.

Check the WRL catalog for The Murder of the Century.

Read Full Post »

Flawless: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History, by Scott Selby and Greg Campbell

On the morning of February 15, 2003, the caretaker of the Antwerp Diamond Center went to open the building’s vault and made a horrible discovery. Instead of being locked up tight, the vault was wide open. The Diamond Center had been robbed and the thieves had made off with at least 130 million dollars in stolen gemstones. The true story of this amazing theft is told in Flawless: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History.

Just who carried out this audacious robbery is not a mystery. Leonardo Notarbartolo, an Italian businessman and occasional jewel thief, is introduced in the first chapter. The story follows him as he conceives the robbery and recruits accomplices from a close knit group of professional thieves known as “The School of Turin.”  The book provides intriguing insight into how high-level professional thieves operate in Europe as Notarbartolo and crew spend two years casing the Diamond Center and planning the robbery.

We also learn about the diamond industry in Belgium.  The elaborate efforts that go into safeguarding gems include police protection, huge safes, complicated electronic security sensors and surveillance cameras. The clever way that Notarbartolo and his associates overcome all these obstacles and pull off the crime makes for engrossing reading. It’s like a real world version of the movie Ocean’s 11. The aftermath of the robbery is also covered including the international police investigation and the fatal mistake that led to the crew’s discovery.

The authors know their material. Scott Selby is an expert on diamonds and the jewel trade and Greg Campbell an award-winning journalist. The text is informative, clearly written and fast-paced. Flawless is a good choice for people who enjoy the non-violent side of true crime.

Check the WRL catalog for Flawless.

Read Full Post »

See No Evil: The Story of the Moors Murders (2008) and Longford (2007)

Between the years 1963-65, Ian Brady and his girlfriend Myra Hindley kidnapped, tortured and murdered five children, burying their remains on the Saddleworth Moor near the Manchester area of England. Known in the UK as the Moors Murders, these sadistic crimes and their aftermath are brought vividly to life in the BBC mini-series, See No Evil: The Story of the Moors Murders, and in the HBO movie, Longford.

Part police procedural and part family drama, See No Evil is unusual for a crime tale in that it doesn’t actually show the crimes. In fact, it doesn’t dwell on the murders much at all, except for a couple of brief but horrific flashbacks. Rather it focuses on the savage pair’s everyday activities and family relations. It emphasizes the tragic effect the killings had on the victims’ loved ones and, in particular, on Myra’s sister, Maureen (Joanne Froggatt, who played Anna on Downton Abbey), and her husband David Smith (Michael McNulty). It was David, with Maureen’s encouragement, who broke the case open by reporting to the police that he had seen Ian brutally murder a teenager with a hatchet.

Despite the lack of criminal activity the movie is engrossing. Sean Harris as Ian and Maxine Peake as Myra do a fine job in displaying the subtle but distinctly cold and creepy attributes of this pair of psychopaths. The location filming on the windswept Moors and the haunting musical score ratchet up the tension.

Longford, also based on the Moors Murders case, takes place years after Ian and Myra have both been convicted and imprisoned. Myra is trying to get paroled by claiming that she has found God and repented her acts, which she only did because Ian made her do it, not to mention all the pre-trial prejudice due to her bad mug shot. (The mug shot really is creepy; google “Myra Hindley mug shot” to see it.)

In an effort to boost her chance for parole, she contacts British aristocrat Frank Aungier Pakenham, the Earl of Longford. Longford was a deeply religious Catholic, social activist and longtime advocate of prisoner’s rights. Opinion of him varied, with some approving of his work while others considered him to be a gullible, upper-class twit. Longford (Jim Broadbent) enthusiastically takes up Myra’s cause much to his personal and professional detriment.

This movie is intriguing right up to the end because of the sociopathic personalities of Brady and Hindley. Has she really repented her crimes and, even if she has, does that entitle her to be set free? Her partner in crime, Brady, disputes her conversion and tells Longford that she is just using him. Who is telling the truth? What about the victim’s families, who are outraged at the thought of this murderess being released? Themes of guilt, redemption, punishment and even sexism are touched on.

Both films are well done forays into true crime at its darkest. One criticism I could make is that the filmmakers presuppose a basic knowledge of the crimes that many Americans may not have. Nevertheless, both films are recommended. They are unrated but not suitable for children.

Check the WRL catalog for See No Evil.

Check the WRL catalog for Longford.

Read Full Post »

The Adventuress, by Virginia McConnell

In 1885, Minnie Wallace was accused of murdering her husband, the mayor of Emporia, Kansas. He was wealthy, she was 16 years old and they had only been married for about a month. Thus began Minnie’s long career as a con artist and husband killer, a career that is detailed in the true crime book, The Adventuress.

Minnie was born in New Orleans in 1869 and was raised to be, if not a courtesan, at least the consort of a wealthy man. Considered to be a real beauty, she was vain, selfish, coldblooded and quite a conniver. The first half of the book relates her murder trial, which became a cause célèbre throughout the country. The author provides a meticulous description of the legal wrangling using courtroom transcripts and newspaper articles from the period and provides some insightful portraits of the many people involved in the case.

The second half of the book recounts Minnie’s adventures later in life when she ran with a villainous crowd of grifters and con artists and made a career of seducing vulnerable men, leaving them financially ruined, dead or both.

Ms. McConnell, who has written several true crime books, does a nice job in recounting this little-known story of a 19th-century Black Widow. Recommended for historical true crime buffs or people interested in courtroom tales.

Check the WRL catalog for The Adventuress.

Read Full Post »

Murder and Mayhem in Jefferson County, by Cheri Farnsworth

Murder and Mayhem in Jefferson County is the understated title of a respectable collection of true crime tales set in Jefferson County, New York. In the 19th century, Jefferson County was a rugged locale occupied by hardworking farmers, upstanding citizens and just a few vicious murderers. The depraved deeds of this criminal minority are related in this short but entertaining book.

Among the crimes covered are:

• “George Powell’s Problem with Women” (1876) – The mysterious drowning of Julia Powell, whose husband was suspiciously apathetic about her demise.
• “The Ax Murders of Slaughter Hill” (1828) – wherein a disgruntled renter takes violent issue with three men trying to evict him from the premises.
• “The Spineless Shooting of Mary Ward” (1893) – A woman’s greed makes her lover very, very angry.
• “The Mary Crouch-Mary Daly Double Homicide” (1897) – In which a bigamist finds himself with one woman too many and comes up with a brutal solution.
• “The Gruesome “Watertown Trunk Murder”” (1908) – A woman covets her neighbor’s property and hatches a cold-blooded scheme to gain possession of it.

Most of the tales are interesting and the gruesome nature of the crimes is leavened a bit by the author’s wry asides, such as “after the initial shock of being found out wore off and a smidgeon of reasoning (disturbed as it was) returned, Mrs. Farmer attempted to lay blame for the murder on her husband.”

The author also quotes generously from newspapers of the period, which are colorful in their descriptions of the perpetrators, “…a brute in the shape of a human being” and the crimes, “This is one of the most atrocious murders ever known, and we only regret that the cold-blooded villain still breathes but will not tell the truth about his horrible crime.”

This is a fine book for fans of historical true crime looking for a quick read.

Check the WRL catalog for Murder and Mayhem in Jefferson County.

Read Full Post »

Valentina: American Couture and the Cult of Celebrity, by Kohle Yohannon

Bud continues BFGB Fashion Week with this review: 

From the 1920s through the 1950s, Valentina Schlee was one of the most famous and successful fashion designers in the world. Valentina: American Couture and the Cult of Celebrity, by Kohle Yohannan, details the life and career of this now forgotten woman in a fine book that’s an interesting amalgam of fashion history and gossipy biography.

Born in Russia in 1899, Valentina’s early years are rather mysterious. Throughout her life, she told conflicting tales about herself in order to engender an aura of mystery, but by 1919 she was working as an actress in a theatre in the Crimea. It was here that she met George Schlee, the man who would be her lifelong companion and business partner.  Fleeing Soviet Russia, the Schlees emigrated to the U.S. and in 1928, she opened Valentina Gowns, Inc. on Madison Avenue in New York City. Immediately successful, the business was financially profitable right up till the salon closed in 1957.

From the start, Valentina fashions targeted the upper echelons of society. No crass, ready-made for her. It was café society, Broadway, and motion picture actresses and the glitterati only. Within a few years she only designed for clients she approved of, cavalierly dismissing all others with the simple phrase, “I’m afraid my gowns would not please you, Madame.”

How did a dress designer achieve this kind of clout?

Primarily by being an expert at self-promotion and as much a celebrity as the movie stars and socialites for whom she designed. She created a public persona that was exotic, mysterious, imperious, and intriguing. A globe-trotting sybarite, she socialized with the right people, went to the right clubs, and routinely dropped colorful quotes. Her innate sense of glamour, style, and drama drew publicity, making her a favorite of the gossip columnists and fashion pages. She further cultivated her image by being the primary model for her design line in advertising layouts.

Of course, the clothes themselves also played a role in her success. Valentina’s couture emphasized clean, simple lines and had a timeless quality. They were chic, void of elaborate embellishments, and always comfortable to wear. She despised fashion trends and did not follow them. Her inspirations were often drawn from classical Greek gowns, nun’s habits, and simple peasant styles. She was skilled at using bias cuts to achieve lovely draping effects. Each outfit was designed specifically for the individual client to suit their particular figure, coloring, and lifestyle, minimizing flaws and emphasizing their best features. Examples of her fashions are found throughout the book, which has many large, lovely photos.

Even if you have no real interest in couture, this book is still worth perusing for the many colorful anecdotes about Valentina’s uber-sophisticated private life, including details of  the long term ménage a trois she and George were rumored to have engaged in with actress Greta Garbo.

Author Kohle Yohannan, an art and design historian, has done a wonderful job in resurrecting a forgotten fashion diva. His book will be enjoyed by anyone interested in 20th century social history, fashio, or stories of remarkable women.

Check the WRL catalog for Valentina.

Read Full Post »

The 70s: The Decade that Style Forgot, by Tracey Turner

Bud continues BFGB Fashion Week with this review: 

One of the challenges on television’s Project Runway last fall was to create a dress inspired by fashions of the 1970s. There were some comments about “timeless 70s style” or something along those lines.

Timeless 1970s style?  Really?!

I lived through the 1970s, and I speak from experience when I say that the only style that came from that period was bad style. I’m talking polyester shirts, skintight jeans with elephant bell legs, gaudy horse-blanket plaid suits kind of bad style.

If you don’t believe me, just watch any episode of the Brady Bunch… or peruse an ABBA music video… or flip through the pages of a little book entitled The 70s: The Decade That Style Forgot. Truer words were never spoken.

This book is a collection of British fashion advertisements from the period, punctuated by pithy comments. Acid-washed denim safari suits for men, shapeless shirtdresses in some hideous brown flowery, swirly, paisley kind of pattern. Oh, the horror, the horror.

This book is not a heavy intellectual tome. For those of us who survived that fashion-failure decade, it’s an amusing look back at a time that should never have a fashion revival… EVER!

Check the WRL catalog for The 70s: The Decade that Style Forgot.

Read Full Post »

The Golden Age of Couture: Paris and London 1947-57, edited by Claire Wilcox

Bud continues BFGB Fashion Week with this review: 

In 1947, fashion designer Christian Dior opened his couture fashion house in Paris and unleashed his “New Look” designs on a female populace tired of wartime deprivations. The style paired highly structured, form-fitting tops with very full skirts, emphasizing a curvaceous feminine figure.

The “New Look” provoked both acclaim and scorn in the world of fashion, but despite mixed reviews it proved hugely influential, re-defining the mode in women’s fashion and reestablishing Paris as the couture capitol of the world.

The Golden Age of Couture details the world of high fashion in the decade after the Second World War. It reveals the role that fashion played both socially and economically in Paris and London and spotlights several well known designers of the period, including Dior, Cristobal Balenciaga, Pierre Balmain, Hubert de Givenchy, Jacques Fath, and Yves Saint Laurent.

The text is scholarly and interesting with intriguing little details. One paragraph on wedding gowns reveals, “It was a couture workshop tradition to leave a blue bow, a pin, a silver coin and a spot of blood from a virgin in the workroom inside a wedding dress.” And for those who think fashion is just fluff and vanity, the book reveals that for France, haute couture “…was also an important business that, before the Second World War, accounted for over 300 million francs in French exports.”

Of course, as befits a fashion book, the photography is beautiful, with many pictures of the gorgeous suits and dresses. Assembled and written by staff members of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, The Golden Age of Couture is an enjoyable read for fashion fans.

Check the WRL catalog for The Golden Age of Couture.

Read Full Post »

Gowns by Adrian, by Howard Gutner, and Adrian: Silver Screen to Custom Label, by Christian Esquevin

Welcome to BFGB Fashion Week! Our weeklong tribute to books for the best-dressed comes to you courtesy of Bud, our resident red-carpet critic.

To me, costume design for the movies reached its apex in the 1930s. Hollywood’s golden age of filmmaking was considerably burnished by the talents of such designers as Travis Banton, Dolly Tree, Orry-Kelly, and Edith Head.

One of the best known and most talented costume designers was Gilbert Adrian. Better known simply as Adrian, his famous film credit line, “Gowns by Adrian,” is always a welcome sight for fashionistas lusting after gloriously glamorous and outrageously outré costumes. Mata Hari, Grand Hotel, Dinner at Eight, The Women, and Marie Antoinette are just a few of the films that he worked on.

Gowns by Adrian: the MGM Years 1928-1941, by Howard Gutner, covers Adrian’s 13-year reign as head costume designer for MGM studios. It’s packed with glossy photos (only a few in color, unfortunately) and interesting behind-the-scene stories of the many movies that Adrian worked on and the stars he worked with. Special emphasis is given to three of the best-known actresses whose on-screen images he meticulously embellished. Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, and Norma Shearer each get a chapter of their own, but Adrian’s early movies and the wonderful spectacle films, like Madam Satan, where his imagination really ran wild, are not slighted.

Adrian retired from MGM studios in 1941 and opened his own couture house in Beverly Hills. This period of his career is covered in Adrian: Silver Screen to Custom Label, by Christian Esquevin.

The book explains Adrian’s design aesthetic and provides detailed descriptions and photographs of his couture collections from 1942 until his untimely death at the age of 56 in 1959. Also detailed are his early years at MGM, his personal life, including his marriage to actress Janet Gaynor, and the lasting influence that he has had on American style and fashion.

Both books provide lovely tributes to a uniquely talented American designer. If you like movies and/or couture you’ll enjoy them both.

Check the WRL catalog for Gowns by Adrian: the MGM Years 1928-1941. 

Check the WRL catalog for Adrian: Silver Screen to Custom Label.

Read Full Post »

The Lost King of France, by Deborah Cadbury

Many years ago I read an extravagantly lurid little book called Strange Tales of Immortal Crimes by Harry Ashton-Wolfe.  This book contained nineteenth-century “true-crime” stories ostensibly taken from the files of the French police.

One of the tales concerned the famous detective Vidocq and his search for a boy rumored to be the missing child of Marie Antoinette. The story contained a delusional, grave-robbing artist, a government conspiracy and the audacious rescue of the captive Dauphin from his cutthroat captors.

Granted, Strange Tales made for exciting reading, but the true account of Louis XVII is stranger and far more interesting than anything fiction could conjure up. Deborah Cadbury recounts this striking story in The Lost King of France: A True Story of Revolution, Revenge and DNA.

Cadbury’s narrative begins in the 1990s with the DNA testing of a small, desiccated human heart. This heart was stored in a crystal urn in the crypt of the French Bourbon kings at the Basilica of Saint-Denis. Purportedly, it belonged to the titular Lost King of France, Louis-Charles, Duc de Normandie, son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

Poor little Louis-Charles is one of the tragic figures of history. He was eight years old when imprisoned with his family at the start of the French Revolution. Despised as a royal by his fanatical sans-culotte captors, the boy was physically and emotionally brutalized for two years before finally succumbing to disease and maltreatment in 1795.

Or did he?

There have always been rumors that the young Dauphin didn’t die in Temple Prison. That he escaped or was smuggled out. In the early nineteenth century, pretenders cropped up all over the world claiming to be the long lost Louis XVII. Were all of these men imposters?

The first half of The Lost King follows the French royal family from the start of the Revolution through their period of captivity and the execution of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. I’ll give a small warning here for sensitive souls. The sections detailing the brutal treatment of the royal family, especially the children, are distressing to read.

In 1795, the revolutionary council announced that Louis-Charles had died in captivity. For reasons unknown, a physician who attended the autopsy of the boy who died in Temple prison cut out and kept the child’s heart, preserving it in alcohol.

The second half of the book details the astonishing adventures of this tiny relic through 200 years of history along with the heartache faced by Louis’ surviving sister, Marie-Therese, in the period following the revolution. The stories of some of the more famous pretenders to the throne are also scrutinized.

Deborah Cadbury, a journalist and former producer of scientific programs for the BBC, does a fine job in relating this real life tale of adventure. The story is intriguing, the book well written and the final denouement when the results of the DNA test come through are moving.

For people interested in this topic the library also has the similarly-themed book, Marie-Therese, Child of Terror: The Fate of Marie Antoinette’s Daughter, by Susan Nagel.

Check the WRL catalog for The Lost King of France.

Read Full Post »

The Queen’s Necklace, by Frances Mossiker

A country on the brink of revolution, a gullible Catholic cardinal, a forger, a prostitute, a mysterious alchemist with a dark reputation, the Queen of France, a scheming femme fatale and a priceless diamond necklace… all the elements of a great thriller, but The Queen’s Necklace by Frances Mossiker is not a work of fiction. It’s the true story of how one woman’s greed and ambition destroyed everyone around her and resulted in an incident that became “…to the French Revolution what the Boston Tea Party was to our own.”

The woman at the heart of this tangled tale was one Jeanne de Saint-Remy de Valois, better known as the Countess de La Motte. Descended from the mistress of a French king, the Countess (well, she called herself a Countess) was proud but impoverished. Her determination to reclaim the wealth her family had lost through dissipation led to the infamous L’affaire du Collier, the Diamond Necklace Affair.

It all began with the Countess attending the court of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette to request a monetary stipend. While there she heard about a magnificent diamond necklace. This one-of-a-kind treasure, comprised of 647 high-quality diamonds, was valued at almost two million French francs in the 1780s.

The Queen refused to purchase the elaborate piece citing its cost but the Countess conceived a cunning plan. She and her husband recruited a forger and created documents that duped her friend, Cardinal Prince Rohan, First Prelate of the Church of France, into believing that the Queen did want to buy the necklace. However, she wanted it done surreptitiously with the Cardinal acting as her go-between with the jeweler.

Cardinal Rohan, desperate to curry favor with the Queen for political reasons, fell for the scam hook, line and sinker. Also dragged into the convoluted scheme were the Count Cagliostro, a charlatan with professed psychic abilities, a prostitute who just happened to resemble the queen and the hapless jewelers who designed the diamond necklace. The outcome for all involved was grim, with the French royal family taking a particularly hard blow as their prestige and reputation were tarnished beyond repair.

All in all, it’s a remarkable tale told primarily through the first person documents of the people involved on the case. Many of the principals, including the Countess de La Motte, wrote memoirs, and there’s an interesting Rashomon effect in reading several different versions of the same incident.

Ms. Mossiker offers comments on the text, doing her best to sift the truth from the lies, but tries not to pass judgment or direct your opinion. The reader is allowed to make up their own mind as to who did what to whom and why. The book is long, 612 pages, and the writing style is formal, detailed and fairly scholarly, but don’t let that put you off. The story is engrossing and will be of interest to anyone who likes history and/or true crime.

Check the WRL catalog for The Queen’s Necklace.

Read Full Post »