EDIE - Softcover

Stein, Jean; Plimpton, George

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1845950631 ISBN 13: 9781845950637

Publisher: Pimlico, 2006

Synopsis

The short life of Edie Sedgwick and her rise to become one of the Warhol superstars, as viewed by her family and personalities including Capote, Vidal, and Warhol

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

When Edie was first published in 1982 it quickly became an international best-seller and then took its place among the classic books about the 1960s. Edie Sedgwick exploded into the public eye like a comet. She seemed to have it all: she was aristocratic and glamorous, vivacious and young, Andy Warhol's superstar. But within a few years she flared out as quickly as she had appeared, and before she turned twenty-nine she was dead from a drug overdose.

In a dazzling tapestry of voices--family, friends, lovers, rivals--the entire meteoric trajectory of Edie Sedgwick's life is brilliantly captured. And so is the Pop Art world of the '60s: the sex, drugs, fashion, music--the mad rush for pleasure and fame. All glitter and flash on the outside, it was hollow and desperate within--like Edie herself, and like her mentor, Andy Warhol. Alternately mesmerizing, tragic, and horrifying, this book shattered many myths about the '60s experience in America.

"This is the book of the Sixties that we have been waiting for."--Norman Mailer

"Through a kaleidoscope of seemingly fragmented voices, patterns form, giving brilliant definition to the very American tragedy of Edie Sedgwick, a woman...not likely to be forgotten after this haunting portrait."--Publishers Weekly

"Extraordinary...a fascinating narrative that is both meticulously reported and expertly orchestrated."--The New York Times

"An exceptionally seductive biography.... You can't put it down.... It has novelistic excitement."--Los Angeles Times Book Review

"What makes this book so unusual, unique almost, is the picture it paints of the New York counterculture. No one has ever done it better."--The Atlanta Journal & Constitution

Jean Stein has worked as an editor for a number of magazines, including The Paris Review and Esquire, when it was under the direction of the near-legendary magazine editor Clay Felker. In the 1960s, she moved to Washington, D.C. where, through her husband, attorney William Vanden Heuvel, she became interested in the political career of Robert F. Kennedy. Following his assassination, she completed her first book, an oral history of his life entitled American Journey. In 1990, she became the editor of the literary journal Grand Street. She has two daughters: Wendy, an actress, and Katrina, the editor-in-chief of The Nation.

Review:

This is the book of the Sixties that we have been waiting for.” Norman Mailer

Extraordinary . . . a fascinating narrative that is both meticulously reported and expertly orchestrated.” Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

The ultimate oral history and still the most objectively cool book I’ve ever read. It’s perfectly structured and the most important book about America in the 1960s.”—Sloane Crosley, T: The New York Times Style Magazine

An exceptionally seductive biography. . . . You can’t put it down. . . . It has novelistic excitement.” Los Angeles Times Book Review

Jean Stein’s 1982 book Edie: American Girl, edited with George Plimpton . . . gave oral history the particular shimmer that comes when lofty literary aims happen to coincide with sheer entertainment value . . . Edie gave an almost mythic quality to its subject’s persona and her brief rise and fall, yet in its telling you could also follow clear lines connecting disparate pieces of 20th-century American life: the hollow cult of celebrity; the fragile prospect of greater opportunity for women; the intoxicating dream of the West for certain Easterners; the peculiar pathologies of the very rich.” Maria Russo, New York Times Book Review

Through a kaleidoscope of seemingly fragmented voices, patterns form, giving brilliant definition to the very American tragedy of Edie Sedgwick, a woman . . . not likely to be forgotten after this haunting portrait.” Publishers Weekly

What makes this book so unusual, unique almost, is the picture it paints of the New York counterculture. No one has ever done it better.” Atlanta Journal & Constitution

Is anyone capable of picking up . . . Edie and putting it down before the very last page?” Pamela Paul, New York Times Book Review

There is no more classic summertime read.” New York Magazine

About this edition

• Publisher: Pimlico
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1845950631
• ISBN 13: 9781845950637
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 464