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Edie: Girl on Fire
Now in paperbackthis is the real story of Edie Sedgwick: model, film star, socialite, friend, lover, and addict; first "it" girl of Andy Warhol's Factory and later muse to Bob Dylan. David Weisman filmed Edie for the last years of her life in his cult film Ciao! Manhattan. After uncovering lost footage, he was inspired to create Edie: Girl on Fire, a book and a documentary film that explore Edie's true story, in the process unearthing hundreds of unpublished photos and interviewing many of Edie's surviving intimates. A rebuttal to Hollywood's highly fictionalized Factory Girl, this is an insightful and startling portrait of a woman that nobody quite knew.
192 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
May 3, 2016
I remember Roger Ebert once saying that today's actors, for all their superior skills, cannot for the life of them hold a cigarette convincingly on screen. Cigarettes were from another era. I only bring this up because there are a lot of pictures in this book of Edie Sedgwick smoking, and she holds the cigarette like a boss. Even when she posed, it never looked forced. Same with the way she dangled a smoke.
Same with the way she did everything, really -- even if what she did did not appear to be a whole hell of a lot. I'm reminded of an episode of Seinfeld where George tries to get at the enigma of Kramer by remarking, "So how about that Kramer, the way he just ... says stuff?" That was the essence of Edie Segwick's stardom. She just did stuff. She just said stuff. She just smiled, or danced off the cuff. She showed up (sometimes). And she disappeared. And the crowds ate it up.
Ironically, though, Segwick sometimes didn't hold her cigarettes at all well. During one of her drug-addled hazes, she dropped one and burned up her Chelsea Hotel room and a good part of an arm. The title of this book does not literally mean Edie burned by fire, but means figuratively, a girl on fire, as in a flame who burned brightly and flashed out at 28, just eking it out past the 27 Club.
Before I write anything more about her, I want to provide a very basic critique of the book, because the book is not really very good (mainly pictures and a large number of banal and repetitive quotes in lieu of proper captions). And yet, like Edie, the book is hard not to look at or put down. The book is not thick enough to qualify as a coffee table book, at less than 200 pages, but its dimensions are. The ample photos of Edie, including some of the famous ones taken by Jerry Schatzberg, are mesmerizing. The camera loved Edie, and she it, and apparently she was just as stunning in real life. Edie never had to "strike" a pose. She was almost the Platonic ideal; the forms were there and she just occupied them. They were meant to be.
Edie was a Zuleika Dobson without the malice; every man at Harvard wanted her, and she couldn't have cared less. She wanted love, but was in no hurry for it. She had no plan except for living in the moment. She had artistic talent as a sculptor and illustrator -- especially in depicting the horses she loved so much and had ridden all her privileged life -- but she was unfocused, and once the party set found her, and she it, the rest of her short life was fated. She found that she could go anywhere, and anywhere would welcome her. It was her world and everyone else was just living in it.
That led her to New York and into the Andy Warhol Factory scene. She had freedom, a rich papa, a trust fund, and ready access to drugs and fair-weather friends. It was, in short, a recipe for disaster.
It didn't help that she had confusions about her parents, especially her megalomaniacal father, several bouts of forced institutionalization, massive insecurities, and episodes of bulimia. When she hit the streets, the clubs, the galleries, the dives and the world in general, very few saw any of that. They just saw a star. A star of a new and different variety. A star who had never really been in anything -- except little-seen underground movies. When Edie entered the room, everything in the margins, that is, everything else, receded.
Edie became Andy Warhol's greatest "star," a mockery of old Hollywood glamor, and for a time trotted about as his female androgynous twin. Observers of the scene were captivated by it all.
I've never been shy of stating my skepticism about Andy Warhol and his clique, which I refer to as Warhol's Factory Fonies, but that cadre's effect on art and culture and its habitation of the zeigeist cannot be ignored and is undeniably fascinating, as is anything having to do with New York bohemianism, especially in the 1960s when so many other sub-cultural movements and commercial imperatives were intersecting it.
Edie seemed like a perfect match for that scene, a make-believe star, with no vitae. Some might call her a cipher upon which people projected their own stories, wishes, desires, fantasies; she was a make-it-yourself star. A paper doll you dressed yourself. She's whatever you want her to be, regardless of who she really was. As one of the testifiers in this book points out, "Edie was a facilitator." And she grabbed the female gaze as much or more than the male's. By looking at her, we are looking at what we think we want to be. But then, we have to consider the reality.
It's interesting to ponder how Edie would fare in today's social media world. Her way of living and being portended it. She was, in essence, famous for being attractive and doing nothing, but unlike, say, Kim Kardashian, Sedgwick did not force herself onto the world or use the media self-consciously. Edie didn't have to.
As much as I am inclined to write Edie off as a mere pretty airhead, with nothing to show for her minimal exertions, I find myself drawn to her humanity. Edie was a rebel, in her way, and I love this quote by her, as printed in the book: "It's not that I'm rebelling. It's that I'm just trying to find another way."
In a world where all the avenues are so proscribed, I respect anyone who yearns for "another way."
There are other, more substantial and analytical books on Edie out there, and I intend to try them at some point. If you want to be dazzled by her animated spirit in pictorial form, though, this book does the trick.
(KevinR@Ky 2016)
Same with the way she did everything, really -- even if what she did did not appear to be a whole hell of a lot. I'm reminded of an episode of Seinfeld where George tries to get at the enigma of Kramer by remarking, "So how about that Kramer, the way he just ... says stuff?" That was the essence of Edie Segwick's stardom. She just did stuff. She just said stuff. She just smiled, or danced off the cuff. She showed up (sometimes). And she disappeared. And the crowds ate it up.
Ironically, though, Segwick sometimes didn't hold her cigarettes at all well. During one of her drug-addled hazes, she dropped one and burned up her Chelsea Hotel room and a good part of an arm. The title of this book does not literally mean Edie burned by fire, but means figuratively, a girl on fire, as in a flame who burned brightly and flashed out at 28, just eking it out past the 27 Club.
Before I write anything more about her, I want to provide a very basic critique of the book, because the book is not really very good (mainly pictures and a large number of banal and repetitive quotes in lieu of proper captions). And yet, like Edie, the book is hard not to look at or put down. The book is not thick enough to qualify as a coffee table book, at less than 200 pages, but its dimensions are. The ample photos of Edie, including some of the famous ones taken by Jerry Schatzberg, are mesmerizing. The camera loved Edie, and she it, and apparently she was just as stunning in real life. Edie never had to "strike" a pose. She was almost the Platonic ideal; the forms were there and she just occupied them. They were meant to be.
Edie was a Zuleika Dobson without the malice; every man at Harvard wanted her, and she couldn't have cared less. She wanted love, but was in no hurry for it. She had no plan except for living in the moment. She had artistic talent as a sculptor and illustrator -- especially in depicting the horses she loved so much and had ridden all her privileged life -- but she was unfocused, and once the party set found her, and she it, the rest of her short life was fated. She found that she could go anywhere, and anywhere would welcome her. It was her world and everyone else was just living in it.
That led her to New York and into the Andy Warhol Factory scene. She had freedom, a rich papa, a trust fund, and ready access to drugs and fair-weather friends. It was, in short, a recipe for disaster.
It didn't help that she had confusions about her parents, especially her megalomaniacal father, several bouts of forced institutionalization, massive insecurities, and episodes of bulimia. When she hit the streets, the clubs, the galleries, the dives and the world in general, very few saw any of that. They just saw a star. A star of a new and different variety. A star who had never really been in anything -- except little-seen underground movies. When Edie entered the room, everything in the margins, that is, everything else, receded.
Edie became Andy Warhol's greatest "star," a mockery of old Hollywood glamor, and for a time trotted about as his female androgynous twin. Observers of the scene were captivated by it all.
I've never been shy of stating my skepticism about Andy Warhol and his clique, which I refer to as Warhol's Factory Fonies, but that cadre's effect on art and culture and its habitation of the zeigeist cannot be ignored and is undeniably fascinating, as is anything having to do with New York bohemianism, especially in the 1960s when so many other sub-cultural movements and commercial imperatives were intersecting it.
Edie seemed like a perfect match for that scene, a make-believe star, with no vitae. Some might call her a cipher upon which people projected their own stories, wishes, desires, fantasies; she was a make-it-yourself star. A paper doll you dressed yourself. She's whatever you want her to be, regardless of who she really was. As one of the testifiers in this book points out, "Edie was a facilitator." And she grabbed the female gaze as much or more than the male's. By looking at her, we are looking at what we think we want to be. But then, we have to consider the reality.
It's interesting to ponder how Edie would fare in today's social media world. Her way of living and being portended it. She was, in essence, famous for being attractive and doing nothing, but unlike, say, Kim Kardashian, Sedgwick did not force herself onto the world or use the media self-consciously. Edie didn't have to.
As much as I am inclined to write Edie off as a mere pretty airhead, with nothing to show for her minimal exertions, I find myself drawn to her humanity. Edie was a rebel, in her way, and I love this quote by her, as printed in the book: "It's not that I'm rebelling. It's that I'm just trying to find another way."
In a world where all the avenues are so proscribed, I respect anyone who yearns for "another way."
There are other, more substantial and analytical books on Edie out there, and I intend to try them at some point. If you want to be dazzled by her animated spirit in pictorial form, though, this book does the trick.
(KevinR@Ky 2016)
July 19, 2011
Forgot we had this till it somehow ended up in my room last night. Wonderfully stunning collection of photographs of Edie. More a coffee table book - plus a collection of quotes and thoughts about her by people that knew her. Not a biography although it attempts to be by photos and quotes being arranged in chronological order of her short sad but glittering life. The CD is quite short - some thoughts she apparently taped at some point. Her accent reminds me of Jane Fonda for some reason, although during the last track Edie sounds stoned, slurred words (to a point) and very depressing considering that she died not that long after it was made.
I was overwhelmed with melancholy reading some of the quotes. Pondering youth wasted vs youth lost. Why is it that so many who seem to have it all laid before them, beauty, talent, money, security and a fairly bright future somehow screw it up, not able to bear the world or the pain inside their heads. There's a very moving quote which I should have written down because I can't find it just now) about her being like a moth, a beautiful moth. (But it only implied the flame part) - corny & trite? yes but when I read it I just cried like a baby. Edie said she stepped off the edge and there was no one there. Even though she was surrounded by people, fame and excitement of New York, the Factory crowd & recently married - somehow it didn't calm her inner beasts and I can relate to that.. It makes you wonder if she'd not died what her future would have been if she'd just stepped off but outta that scene to an ordinary married life. You know that might have killed her anyway. Living that high and that bright then coming down to earth has killed many - scorched their souls and dried up the life slower. Painful to watch, painful to live.
"I tried to bake a sweet potato and the oven exploded"- Edie
Patti Smith said Edie was the real heroine of Blonde on Blonde. Now that is an interesting thought.
For fuller biography I also recommend Edie: An American Biography
by Jean Stein, George Plimpton
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15...
I was overwhelmed with melancholy reading some of the quotes. Pondering youth wasted vs youth lost. Why is it that so many who seem to have it all laid before them, beauty, talent, money, security and a fairly bright future somehow screw it up, not able to bear the world or the pain inside their heads. There's a very moving quote which I should have written down because I can't find it just now) about her being like a moth, a beautiful moth. (But it only implied the flame part) - corny & trite? yes but when I read it I just cried like a baby. Edie said she stepped off the edge and there was no one there. Even though she was surrounded by people, fame and excitement of New York, the Factory crowd & recently married - somehow it didn't calm her inner beasts and I can relate to that.. It makes you wonder if she'd not died what her future would have been if she'd just stepped off but outta that scene to an ordinary married life. You know that might have killed her anyway. Living that high and that bright then coming down to earth has killed many - scorched their souls and dried up the life slower. Painful to watch, painful to live.
"I tried to bake a sweet potato and the oven exploded"- Edie
Patti Smith said Edie was the real heroine of Blonde on Blonde. Now that is an interesting thought.
For fuller biography I also recommend Edie: An American Biography
by Jean Stein, George Plimpton
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15...
June 1, 2018
Beautifully curated book featuring revealing quotes and magnificent photographs.
To learn more about Edie check out Muses & Stuff
To learn more about Edie check out Muses & Stuff
November 8, 2016
What a lovely book. I received this book as a gift and to say I was over the moon is an understatement. I've loved Edie since I was a young girl. I came across the Jean Stein biography in the bookstore when I was quite young and I was immediately struck. I did not know who Edie was, I just knew I was fascinated. I bought the book and read it several times through my teen years. Interestingly, I am not a Warhol fan. At all. I appreciate some of his art but in general it's not my cup of tea. His films interest me even less. I've attempted on multiple sit downs to watch them and frankly they are interminable. I can't stand to be bored and for the most part, his films bore me. He does not interest me as a person either. I studied about him in college (art history major--had to) and I find him to be a creepy, self absorbed voyeur. This made Edie sparkle for me even more. She seemed one of the rare people in his orbit who was alive and vibrant and not too cool to exist.
This book is such a great tribute. Edie was famous for being famous before that was a thing. However, unlike many of Warhol's other "stars", Edie actually had talent. She was an artist and sculptor and had she been stable enough, I think she would have made it in the arts. The dark and strange childhood she experienced and the family's rampant mental illness fated her to a short and fast life. She's one of the classic "too fast to live, too young to die" set--Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse...really too many to name.
This book is both text and photos and honestly you have to read it twice to do it justice--once for the text and once for the photos (though I know I will read it many more times for the pictures alone). Edie is art, just posing for pictures or speaking (the book has a cd) in her bell like voice. Despite being part of one of the more vapid art movements in history, she was intelligent and sensitive and always compelling. Her beauty is overwhelming--giant doe eyes, deep, charming dimples and a smile that could knock you out. She looks like a confident and sexy model in many photos but there is always a beautiful child shining out of her eyes that makes her more than a pretty face. Her style is legendary and still relevant, although no one can even come close to comparing despite the many little clones. They don't have the soul or true light that she does no matter how much bleach they apply or black tights they wear. There was only one Edie.
The book is not as in depth as the Stein bio, but it's a really good way to get a sense of Edie. Friends and family speak on the different periods of her short life and quotes from Edie herself dot the book generously. A lot of people who were in Edie's orbit come out looking really bad--enablers, users, pushers--she attracted them all. She even attracted a few decent folks who tried to help her. Sadly, I think the awful, Gothic level horrors she endured as a child and the inherited mental illness had set her on a dark path that would have been hard to avoid no matter what and drugs were the oil that greased that skid to early death to hyperspeed. I don't know if anything could have fixed what was broken inside her but I really wish that she had lived in a time of better mental health care and maybe had a stable relationship with a partner as well as friends who could see what terrible trouble she was in and helped her avoid it. It was not to be. That sense of tragedy colors everything --but looking at the gorgeous photos of Edie laughing, dancing, modeling and doing art is some consolation. She wanted to express herself and help to change the world and I think she wanted to deeply to be understood. This book is an honest but dazzling tribute to her mercurial character and sparkle. Once you see her, you will never forget her and this book is a fitting way to encapsulate that.
This book is such a great tribute. Edie was famous for being famous before that was a thing. However, unlike many of Warhol's other "stars", Edie actually had talent. She was an artist and sculptor and had she been stable enough, I think she would have made it in the arts. The dark and strange childhood she experienced and the family's rampant mental illness fated her to a short and fast life. She's one of the classic "too fast to live, too young to die" set--Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse...really too many to name.
This book is both text and photos and honestly you have to read it twice to do it justice--once for the text and once for the photos (though I know I will read it many more times for the pictures alone). Edie is art, just posing for pictures or speaking (the book has a cd) in her bell like voice. Despite being part of one of the more vapid art movements in history, she was intelligent and sensitive and always compelling. Her beauty is overwhelming--giant doe eyes, deep, charming dimples and a smile that could knock you out. She looks like a confident and sexy model in many photos but there is always a beautiful child shining out of her eyes that makes her more than a pretty face. Her style is legendary and still relevant, although no one can even come close to comparing despite the many little clones. They don't have the soul or true light that she does no matter how much bleach they apply or black tights they wear. There was only one Edie.
The book is not as in depth as the Stein bio, but it's a really good way to get a sense of Edie. Friends and family speak on the different periods of her short life and quotes from Edie herself dot the book generously. A lot of people who were in Edie's orbit come out looking really bad--enablers, users, pushers--she attracted them all. She even attracted a few decent folks who tried to help her. Sadly, I think the awful, Gothic level horrors she endured as a child and the inherited mental illness had set her on a dark path that would have been hard to avoid no matter what and drugs were the oil that greased that skid to early death to hyperspeed. I don't know if anything could have fixed what was broken inside her but I really wish that she had lived in a time of better mental health care and maybe had a stable relationship with a partner as well as friends who could see what terrible trouble she was in and helped her avoid it. It was not to be. That sense of tragedy colors everything --but looking at the gorgeous photos of Edie laughing, dancing, modeling and doing art is some consolation. She wanted to express herself and help to change the world and I think she wanted to deeply to be understood. This book is an honest but dazzling tribute to her mercurial character and sparkle. Once you see her, you will never forget her and this book is a fitting way to encapsulate that.
August 16, 2007
this is a great coffee table book. Filled with lots of pictures I had previously never seen and great quotes. If you love Edie and Warhol, this is essential to your collection.
(the cd it comes from of taped interviews with Edie is mildly disturbing because she is so very drugged out.)
(the cd it comes from of taped interviews with Edie is mildly disturbing because she is so very drugged out.)
March 6, 2018
3.5, rounded down.
The main value to this coffee table compendium of photographs of 1964's 'It Girl' and Warhol muse cum oral history/biography are the many rare and previously unseen pictures of Ms. Sedgewick, along with all of the iconic well-known ones. Most of the quotes are a direct lift from the superior Stein & Plimpton definitive biography, which should be anyone's first stop for the full story. My (library) copy of the book did not contain the accompanying CD, but most of those recordings can also be found in the short documentary, also by Mr. Weisman, which can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nciz....
Edie's story continues to fascinate and perplex more than 45 years since her demise, and it is a cautionary tale of both the price of excess, and the fleeting comfort of fame.
The main value to this coffee table compendium of photographs of 1964's 'It Girl' and Warhol muse cum oral history/biography are the many rare and previously unseen pictures of Ms. Sedgewick, along with all of the iconic well-known ones. Most of the quotes are a direct lift from the superior Stein & Plimpton definitive biography, which should be anyone's first stop for the full story. My (library) copy of the book did not contain the accompanying CD, but most of those recordings can also be found in the short documentary, also by Mr. Weisman, which can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nciz....
Edie's story continues to fascinate and perplex more than 45 years since her demise, and it is a cautionary tale of both the price of excess, and the fleeting comfort of fame.
July 1, 2017
❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
September 24, 2014
I really love this book. For anyone who has ever seen, even just one, in passing, a photo of Edie Sedgwick and been floored, seduced, puzzled, and a little aching, this collection is a must. I would have preferred less commentary (and some, physically, is a difficult read- small print, dark background, and my eyes), because her face tells the stories. The remembrances, while excessive, are interesting, in part by lifting the curtain just a smidgeon to the 60's New York art scene and the early Factory days. But the main thing that strikes me about the quotes is the air of uncertainty in describing Edie, as if she cartwheels just out of reach of everyone, and they all know it. The only quote that rings disingenuous is Dylan's. And the great lurking character through all of this is the big H. Edie Sedgwick's face has been cartwheeling through my mind for fifty years. This book ensures the cartwheeling will continue.
March 17, 2016
Photographs were stunning, some I haven't seen before, the text was less intriguing. Prior to "Girl on Fire," I read "Edie: An American Girl," which is much more cohesive in terms of her story, but set in kind of the same way: short interviews and such. I have to say Edie's story is fascinating because (and this is sad to say) nobody really knew her so the idea of her being this enigma really is powerful. In certain terms she could have been more famous than Andy Warhol and it is so obvious (at least to me) that he knew that...
January 8, 2009
Although it has a less than promising beginning, mainly due to bad writing on the part Weisman, Edie finds it's own rhythms in the oral history tradition and is a tragic delight. Still luminous, ever enchanted, this is Edie, the Holy Fool.
April 23, 2008
I've been searching for a good book on Edie for quite a while.
She and I share our birthday, so I bought this on our birthday as a present for myself.
Although it is super expensive, it's really amazing and doesn't disappoint.
She and I share our birthday, so I bought this on our birthday as a present for myself.
Although it is super expensive, it's really amazing and doesn't disappoint.
October 21, 2007
great coffee table book. gorgeous photos of gorgeous Edie.
January 4, 2008
Thank you JP I love Edie.
January 14, 2014
Words seriously can't describe how much I love this book! I got it as a Christmas gift last year and fell in love with all the photos in it, Most I've never seen before!
April 29, 2015
Biography of Andy Warhol's muse!
Read
June 13, 2016Loved it!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Want to read
June 25, 2016The real story of Edie Sedgwick: model, film star, socialite, friend, lover, and addict; first "it" girl of Andy Warhol's Factory and later muse to Bob Dylan. #memoir
December 20, 2017
During my grad school phase of Edie-Segwick-obsession, I devoured this book. With interviews from intimate friends and large beautiful photographs, this book invites you to step into the Factory and the crazy erratic world of Edie and Andy. Having reinvented herself many times over at a still very young age, Edie's story is ultimately compelling and tragic.
December 6, 2018
I love this book is beautiful.
March 29, 2008
I enjoy reading books that have commentary on artist/muse themes. this book does.
November 12, 2015
read it a long time ago. really liked it
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews