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Edie: American Girl
Revised, with a new cover
When Edie was first published, 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.
When Edie was first published, 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.
564 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
About the author
Jean Stein
55 books23 followersJean Stein (1934 – April 30, 2017) was an American author and editor.
Librarian’s note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Librarian’s note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 375 reviews
September 11, 2016
Shattering. Edie's story is a tragedy. Wait until you meet her family. Her father should have been taken out at dawn, blindfolded and shot. Moreover, if you want insight into the 1960s New York art world and contemporary culture as a whole, this is your book. It's redolent of America in the '60s. Fascinating.
October 25, 2011
Place Holder
This is the type of book that, when I see a copy on the shelf of a second-hand book store, I buy it, so that I can give it to someone.
I don't even have to have someone in mind at the time. I can work that out later.
The point is that a book this good has to find a home on the shelf of someone who loves life, people and writing (well, interviewing) at its best.
This was my first experience of a biography assembled from direct quotes from hundreds of interviews, without any bridging text to get in the way of the story.
I have never seen this technique used better than here.
This is the type of book that, when I see a copy on the shelf of a second-hand book store, I buy it, so that I can give it to someone.
I don't even have to have someone in mind at the time. I can work that out later.
The point is that a book this good has to find a home on the shelf of someone who loves life, people and writing (well, interviewing) at its best.
This was my first experience of a biography assembled from direct quotes from hundreds of interviews, without any bridging text to get in the way of the story.
I have never seen this technique used better than here.
January 17, 2023
I heard about this during one of my dives into 1970’s music memoirs, and the impression I got was that Edie: American Girl is consistently held up as one of the best oral history-style biographies ever written.
There’s definitely plenty of material. One advantage of centering your story around someone who was an integral part of Andy Warhol’s Factory is that all of these people were obsessed with themselves, so they a) love talking about themselves b) love gossiping about other people and c) recorded just about everything they did anyway. The authors of Edie, in addition to the hours of taped interviews they amassed, are also aided by countless photos and video footage that exists from Edie’s time hanging around Andy Warhol and his crowd. This includes separate taped interviews – it’s truly chilling the first time you turn a page in this book to see a transcript from an interview with Edie Sedgwick herself, recorded while she was filming one of the dozens of movies she did with Andy Warhol during her time at the Factory.
It’s also, understandably, a devastating portrait of a woman who was used and discarded by a man who claimed (at least for a little while) that she was his personal muse. Edie Sedgwick seems to have been set up to fail right from the beginning, being born into a family that was the classic combo of obscenely wealthy and haunted by tragedy. Edie herself struck me as one of those people who is always searching for an identity for herself, and a place where she feels like she belongs, and she’s never able to find it.
Even though the book consists of nothing but snippets of interviews (even a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it paragraph from Warhol himself), with no narrator or omniscient third-person perspective tying everything together, Edie grabs your attention and doesn’t let go. It’s simultaneously a deeply intimate portrait of a troubled women who never found what she was looking for, and also a series of interviews from people realizing that, for all the time they’ve spent talking about Edie Sedgwick, they never really knew her at all.
There’s definitely plenty of material. One advantage of centering your story around someone who was an integral part of Andy Warhol’s Factory is that all of these people were obsessed with themselves, so they a) love talking about themselves b) love gossiping about other people and c) recorded just about everything they did anyway. The authors of Edie, in addition to the hours of taped interviews they amassed, are also aided by countless photos and video footage that exists from Edie’s time hanging around Andy Warhol and his crowd. This includes separate taped interviews – it’s truly chilling the first time you turn a page in this book to see a transcript from an interview with Edie Sedgwick herself, recorded while she was filming one of the dozens of movies she did with Andy Warhol during her time at the Factory.
It’s also, understandably, a devastating portrait of a woman who was used and discarded by a man who claimed (at least for a little while) that she was his personal muse. Edie Sedgwick seems to have been set up to fail right from the beginning, being born into a family that was the classic combo of obscenely wealthy and haunted by tragedy. Edie herself struck me as one of those people who is always searching for an identity for herself, and a place where she feels like she belongs, and she’s never able to find it.
Even though the book consists of nothing but snippets of interviews (even a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it paragraph from Warhol himself), with no narrator or omniscient third-person perspective tying everything together, Edie grabs your attention and doesn’t let go. It’s simultaneously a deeply intimate portrait of a troubled women who never found what she was looking for, and also a series of interviews from people realizing that, for all the time they’ve spent talking about Edie Sedgwick, they never really knew her at all.
September 2, 2007
Poor, poor Edie. if you only know the sleep i lost because i couldn't quit reading your life story told by people who envied, despised, laid, loved and destroyed you. This book, discovered from a footnote of a footnote, says a lot about desire and protection. Her end story is a story that is now well known and rather ridiculous in the way it plays out, but her beginnings, like many tragic figures, is what kickstarts this oral history with an almost storybook like cast of characters, from her east coast ties to old money and her greek-like father Francis Fuzzy, who has the right mind to raise his children on a picturesque ranch but all the while ripping them to shreds (many of the children end up committing suicide or dying of other circumstances way before EDIE goes the way of the buffalo). Who's to say what would have become of EDIE had she'd been raised instead in the wilderness of the big city which eventually supported her preferred lifestyle and led her to her downfall, as one gets the impression she was a caught bobcat left in a cage of the open-range wilderness, where big dreams are tied directly to the openess of the sky, until someone came along and set her free on the highway....
Best oral history I've ever read, and would love to find a book someday that equals or tops its scope in relation to the continuing American saga.....
Best oral history I've ever read, and would love to find a book someday that equals or tops its scope in relation to the continuing American saga.....
February 4, 2015
The first biography I'd ever read completely constructed of reported memories of the subject from people who'd been in his or her circle or encountered him or her in some way.
Edie Sedgwick was the Sixties' version of poor little rich girl, descended on both sides from men who founded the Colonies, families which remained prominent throughout American history. (A gander at http://www.geni.com/people/Edie-Sedgw... will give you some idea.)
Her father was a Western artist of the heroic mold, a black sheep who raised his own family isolated on a vast ranch near Santa Barbara. (Edie, seventh of eight, was schooled on the property with her siblings and some of the ranch hands.) It was Olympus, and just as dysfunctional. Mental illness, suicide, etc. were just the beginning.
Edie went East as a teenager for hospitalization at Silver Hill, an iconic Massachusetts mental hospital, and after that, to cut a streak through East Coast coolness--first making a splash on Brattle Street in Cambridge,, then heading down to new YOrk. She was beautiful, fragile, unworldly/outrageous in a very Zelda Fitzgerald kind of way, she became a Vogue/Vreeland-designated 'Youthquaker'--symbolizing the zaniness and freedom and beauty of the Sixties. She was the girl everyone wanted to be. She was crazier than you, cooler than you, more beautiful than you could dream of being, a style setter backed up by this legendary family, and everybody wanted to know her, to be seen with her. But she was also tremendously self-destructive, and when she became Andy Warhol's Superstar, the fat was in the fire. A disastrous affair with Dylan was the capper--she was fragile and egoless and drug addicted, and to be treated like shit by that famous a--hole broke this unicorn's back. Gaitskill's Veronica I think is a speculation, 'What if Edie Sedgwick lived?'
I came to Edie in the '80s, when she was once again a symbol of a certain kind of edgy beauty, charm, Haute Cool bohemianism that had us all entranced. As much a portrait of a time and a place, as well as a girl--I've read this book every four or five years.
Edie Sedgwick was the Sixties' version of poor little rich girl, descended on both sides from men who founded the Colonies, families which remained prominent throughout American history. (A gander at http://www.geni.com/people/Edie-Sedgw... will give you some idea.)
Her father was a Western artist of the heroic mold, a black sheep who raised his own family isolated on a vast ranch near Santa Barbara. (Edie, seventh of eight, was schooled on the property with her siblings and some of the ranch hands.) It was Olympus, and just as dysfunctional. Mental illness, suicide, etc. were just the beginning.
Edie went East as a teenager for hospitalization at Silver Hill, an iconic Massachusetts mental hospital, and after that, to cut a streak through East Coast coolness--first making a splash on Brattle Street in Cambridge,, then heading down to new YOrk. She was beautiful, fragile, unworldly/outrageous in a very Zelda Fitzgerald kind of way, she became a Vogue/Vreeland-designated 'Youthquaker'--symbolizing the zaniness and freedom and beauty of the Sixties. She was the girl everyone wanted to be. She was crazier than you, cooler than you, more beautiful than you could dream of being, a style setter backed up by this legendary family, and everybody wanted to know her, to be seen with her. But she was also tremendously self-destructive, and when she became Andy Warhol's Superstar, the fat was in the fire. A disastrous affair with Dylan was the capper--she was fragile and egoless and drug addicted, and to be treated like shit by that famous a--hole broke this unicorn's back. Gaitskill's Veronica I think is a speculation, 'What if Edie Sedgwick lived?'
I came to Edie in the '80s, when she was once again a symbol of a certain kind of edgy beauty, charm, Haute Cool bohemianism that had us all entranced. As much a portrait of a time and a place, as well as a girl--I've read this book every four or five years.
June 1, 2018
“She was a catalyst. By being in contact with her, the edges were sharper. An evening with Edie would only end when Edie had got to the point of exhaustion, which would be at the end of 2 or 3 days. There’s that old Yogi axiom: the higher you go, the further you fall. We all know that. She liked walking very close to extinction, always.”
From the moment Edith Minturn Sedgwick was born she was destined for both greatness and hardship. Desperate to break free from the clutches of her overbearing, abusive father, Edie (along with a number of her siblings) would be in and out of multiple psychiatric hospitals by the time she turned 20. It wasn’t until she began attending Cambridge as an art student miles away from the family ranch in Santa Barbara that the world opened up for her. Adored by all those around her Edie got her first real taste of freedom and fame. Within a year she had conquered the Harvard/Cambridge scene and set her sights for something bigger, New York City. Word travels fast and within a couple months Edie was Manhattan’s new “It Girl” with people like Bob Dylan, Bob Neuwirth and Lester Persky knocking on her door.
In March of 1965 Edie was introduced to Andy Warhol who knew a star when he saw one and together they became a sensation. In a mere 6 months Edie had starred in multiple Warhol productions, traveled to Europe with him to promote their films and was being mobbed at art galleries by adoring fans. The press had dubbed her “Girl of the Year” and there seemed to be no limit to the possibilities that lie ahead. But Edie’s mind was elsewhere, mourning the deaths of two of her brothers and forever in fear of her father putting her away again. Edie lived like everyday would be her last with mass excess in every aspect. After spending her entire $80,000 inheritance in that first 6 months all Edie had left was her fame and a massive drug addiction. As quickly as she rose came a hard fall. By the end of the year Edie and Andy’s relationship was on the rocks, the modelling and acting gigs began to disappear and her family cut her off completely. Edie would continue to fight, desperately trying to out-run the Sedgwick curse that claimed her dear brothers. For those who only know of Edie through her beautiful photographs, or the very loosely based biopic Factory Girl, this is her TRUE story.
Easily one of the most magnificent Oral History books ever published.
To learn more about Edie check out Muses & Stuff
From the moment Edith Minturn Sedgwick was born she was destined for both greatness and hardship. Desperate to break free from the clutches of her overbearing, abusive father, Edie (along with a number of her siblings) would be in and out of multiple psychiatric hospitals by the time she turned 20. It wasn’t until she began attending Cambridge as an art student miles away from the family ranch in Santa Barbara that the world opened up for her. Adored by all those around her Edie got her first real taste of freedom and fame. Within a year she had conquered the Harvard/Cambridge scene and set her sights for something bigger, New York City. Word travels fast and within a couple months Edie was Manhattan’s new “It Girl” with people like Bob Dylan, Bob Neuwirth and Lester Persky knocking on her door.
In March of 1965 Edie was introduced to Andy Warhol who knew a star when he saw one and together they became a sensation. In a mere 6 months Edie had starred in multiple Warhol productions, traveled to Europe with him to promote their films and was being mobbed at art galleries by adoring fans. The press had dubbed her “Girl of the Year” and there seemed to be no limit to the possibilities that lie ahead. But Edie’s mind was elsewhere, mourning the deaths of two of her brothers and forever in fear of her father putting her away again. Edie lived like everyday would be her last with mass excess in every aspect. After spending her entire $80,000 inheritance in that first 6 months all Edie had left was her fame and a massive drug addiction. As quickly as she rose came a hard fall. By the end of the year Edie and Andy’s relationship was on the rocks, the modelling and acting gigs began to disappear and her family cut her off completely. Edie would continue to fight, desperately trying to out-run the Sedgwick curse that claimed her dear brothers. For those who only know of Edie through her beautiful photographs, or the very loosely based biopic Factory Girl, this is her TRUE story.
Easily one of the most magnificent Oral History books ever published.
To learn more about Edie check out Muses & Stuff
January 2, 2013
This book helped me hate Andy Warhol just a little less, because it is clear he was not responsible for the denigration and demise of Edie Sedgwick. Edie was going to end up dead of an overdose or a suicide attempt one way or the other, and while Andy was a parasite, the blame for his death cannot be laid at his doorstep.
Mostly this book was interesting in a voyeuristic manner. I felt a similar sense of looking into the lives of a certain sort of elite when reading about John Cheever's life. This book stands as a direct refutation to the old canard that the rich are not like us - they are better. Fuzzy Sedgwick, Edie's father, was a living emblem of how money can lead one to believe one is almost a God. His arrogance destroyed his children and his weak wife stood by and let it happen. Two sons committed suicide, Edie died of a drug overdose, the eldest daughter cut off ties with most of her family and it was all a direct result of having a lecherous, nasty, arrogant, self-absorbed narcissist for a father.
In a way, this book, told via the remembrances of those who knew Edie and her family, is a third party examination of how women with borderline personality are created. Because from the perspective of armchair psychology, Edie was definitely a borderline.
There were a couple of moments wherein I literally cringed when reading of Edie's behavior. After she had left The Factory, Edie fell in with a group of bikers. She had no sense of the danger she was courting, as she was genuinely convinced of her charm. According to a man called Preacher Ewing, Edie would flirt and tease the bikers at bars and, had it not been for a couple of male friends who prevented it, she was opening herself up to a gang rape. She was so accustomed to being the most beautiful and sought-after girl in the room, and having dealt with the dregs that were often attracted to Andy Warhol, she had an over-inflated sense of her desirability and the civility her money and quasi-fame bought her.
This was a terribly sad book in so many ways. But, like most tales of how the mighty have fallen, it was a fast, gripping read.
Mostly this book was interesting in a voyeuristic manner. I felt a similar sense of looking into the lives of a certain sort of elite when reading about John Cheever's life. This book stands as a direct refutation to the old canard that the rich are not like us - they are better. Fuzzy Sedgwick, Edie's father, was a living emblem of how money can lead one to believe one is almost a God. His arrogance destroyed his children and his weak wife stood by and let it happen. Two sons committed suicide, Edie died of a drug overdose, the eldest daughter cut off ties with most of her family and it was all a direct result of having a lecherous, nasty, arrogant, self-absorbed narcissist for a father.
In a way, this book, told via the remembrances of those who knew Edie and her family, is a third party examination of how women with borderline personality are created. Because from the perspective of armchair psychology, Edie was definitely a borderline.
There were a couple of moments wherein I literally cringed when reading of Edie's behavior. After she had left The Factory, Edie fell in with a group of bikers. She had no sense of the danger she was courting, as she was genuinely convinced of her charm. According to a man called Preacher Ewing, Edie would flirt and tease the bikers at bars and, had it not been for a couple of male friends who prevented it, she was opening herself up to a gang rape. She was so accustomed to being the most beautiful and sought-after girl in the room, and having dealt with the dregs that were often attracted to Andy Warhol, she had an over-inflated sense of her desirability and the civility her money and quasi-fame bought her.
This was a terribly sad book in so many ways. But, like most tales of how the mighty have fallen, it was a fast, gripping read.
December 8, 2008
Edited by Jean Stein and George Plimpton, this massive oral biography does well the formidable job of presenting a tragic life, the Warhol scene, and even the old families of New England. Edie Sedgwick died at age 28 after becoming famous as the first Factory girl, an Oscar Wilde/Paris Hilton fame of being oneself first, and then pursuing projects afterward. The interview subjects range from Truman Capote to Andy Warhol to Gregory Corso to various family members, and are presented without background information in short, numbered chapters. Even on the base level of organization this biography is impressive: how do you edit thousands and thousands of interviews with over 250 people into a compelling, thorough narrative?
I highly, highly recommend this one. Edie herself is a mysterious character you feel only lived for other people, failing at living at all for herself. She had no interior, simply something distracted by cameras, alcohol, and massive drug use. Fitting that this life then is shown through the voices of other people. You get the sense, tragically, that nobody really knew her because there was no real "her" to know: she merely existed as a media moment, something beautiful—not 10 pages pass without someone reminiscing of their first sight and coup de foudre of Edie—that in order to be famous couldn't exist in the normal world. The book performs the basic task of relating her life from birth to death, but also works as a critique of how modern fame functions in America. Nobody comes out better on the other side: casualties are listed throughout, even touching Warhol through his near-fatal shooting by Valerie Solanas and his subsequent reclusion. Everything is presented plainly, in a quietly devastating style. An excellent book.
I highly, highly recommend this one. Edie herself is a mysterious character you feel only lived for other people, failing at living at all for herself. She had no interior, simply something distracted by cameras, alcohol, and massive drug use. Fitting that this life then is shown through the voices of other people. You get the sense, tragically, that nobody really knew her because there was no real "her" to know: she merely existed as a media moment, something beautiful—not 10 pages pass without someone reminiscing of their first sight and coup de foudre of Edie—that in order to be famous couldn't exist in the normal world. The book performs the basic task of relating her life from birth to death, but also works as a critique of how modern fame functions in America. Nobody comes out better on the other side: casualties are listed throughout, even touching Warhol through his near-fatal shooting by Valerie Solanas and his subsequent reclusion. Everything is presented plainly, in a quietly devastating style. An excellent book.
October 6, 2012
This is a laboriously researched and edited oral history. It introduced me to both oral histories (which I LOVE) and an era in American pop culture. I have a vivid memory of seeing this book in the bookstore (one of my favorite places as a kid) when it came out in 1982 and wanting to read it because I liked the cover. 15 years later it became a personal favorite.
The book jacket describes the Pop Art scene of the 60s as "All glitter and flash on the outside, it was hollow and desperate within—like Edie herself, and like her mentor, Andy Warhol." That's a good description. I don't think Edie, Warhol or the 60s pop world were *only* "hollow and desperate," but all certainly were hollow and desperate. The book does a good job of illustrating an era when people were still very naive about the downside of heavy drug use and the ability of young people on drugs to "change the world." It also illustrates a very American blending and clashing of cultures and generations. There's some interesting class stuff between Warhol (who came from a working class immigrant family) and people like Edie (who was a true American blue blood with a long, impressive pedigree), too. Being an oral history, the book shows more than tells you these things, using a huge variety of authentic voices (from Edie's aristocratic relatives, to people from the pop art and fashion worlds, to the bikers and street characters Edie hung out with in her last years). Highly recommended to anyone with an interest in the era. "Ciao Manhattan," the film made with and about Edie from 1965-70 (not easy to watch) is a great companion to the book.
The book jacket describes the Pop Art scene of the 60s as "All glitter and flash on the outside, it was hollow and desperate within—like Edie herself, and like her mentor, Andy Warhol." That's a good description. I don't think Edie, Warhol or the 60s pop world were *only* "hollow and desperate," but all certainly were hollow and desperate. The book does a good job of illustrating an era when people were still very naive about the downside of heavy drug use and the ability of young people on drugs to "change the world." It also illustrates a very American blending and clashing of cultures and generations. There's some interesting class stuff between Warhol (who came from a working class immigrant family) and people like Edie (who was a true American blue blood with a long, impressive pedigree), too. Being an oral history, the book shows more than tells you these things, using a huge variety of authentic voices (from Edie's aristocratic relatives, to people from the pop art and fashion worlds, to the bikers and street characters Edie hung out with in her last years). Highly recommended to anyone with an interest in the era. "Ciao Manhattan," the film made with and about Edie from 1965-70 (not easy to watch) is a great companion to the book.
April 26, 2020
Plimpton: Drunk. Closeted. Slob. Gov stoolie. Jean Stein: She wanted to be a WASP. ~~ A self-righteous tome focused on a girl who came from a disturbed family that makes schmucks feel godly. The authors want to blame Warhol for her downfall, but it won't wash. The authors are repressed juvenile bores. "Blame it on their youth."
September 9, 2008
Just pulled this off of the book shelf from the past because I needed a beach read over the long weekend. First half is like Jane Goodall watching mountain gorillas - except that instead of mountain gorillas it's a detailed look into a certain segment of the New England upper class (and, the sub-section of that group that is truly nuts), and the New York very social scene in the 60's especially around Andy Warhol (and, the sub-section of that group that was truly nuts). Second part of the book is concentrated on various drugs being injected into people's bodies - very detailed accounts of this to the point where I felt like - oh, gosh, not another injection. First half was interesting and the second half was sad. Less a story about one person than the scenes she was into. All told in short pieces of interviews - very reportage-y and I liked the style of that sometimes more than the content. Definitely beach material.
June 1, 2011
Reading this book is like running a marathon in a way: sometimes you have to take a breather to slow down so you don't run yourself into the ground. This book is slow and dreamlike in parts, whilst fast-paced and relentless in others. Reading is an experience in itself - I found myself getting to the point where I felt like I was actually there in that era, in the Factory and all the other places mentioned in the book with them. And not just that, it's horribly sad.
Most people probably have some kind of idea about what Edie Sedgwick's life was like before even picking up this book; I know I did. Warhol and Factory superstar socialite whose light fizzled out far too quickly. What most of us don't know however is the story of her family and her upbringing, something extremely interesting but also extremely shocking to read. I felt disgusted reading about her father's actions towards Edie and the rest of his children, and saddened by the loss and the troubles that Edie experienced at such an early age.
This is by no means a happy book, though it was never meant to be. The way the book has been put together is admirable, compiled of interviews from around 250 people who knew or knew of Edie. In this way, the portrayal we get of Sedgwick is flawed - where some adored her, others couldn't stand her. I think this is effective in portraying Edie as a person however, as her personality seemed to be made up of so many different facets that it's hard to get to the core and discover the girl who she really was, sans the drugs and psychological problems.
I've given this 3 stars not because I thought it wasn't a very good book, but specifically because although it is extremely insightful, vivid and a great read, I couldn't pick it up again for quite a while. Very harrowing.
Most people probably have some kind of idea about what Edie Sedgwick's life was like before even picking up this book; I know I did. Warhol and Factory superstar socialite whose light fizzled out far too quickly. What most of us don't know however is the story of her family and her upbringing, something extremely interesting but also extremely shocking to read. I felt disgusted reading about her father's actions towards Edie and the rest of his children, and saddened by the loss and the troubles that Edie experienced at such an early age.
This is by no means a happy book, though it was never meant to be. The way the book has been put together is admirable, compiled of interviews from around 250 people who knew or knew of Edie. In this way, the portrayal we get of Sedgwick is flawed - where some adored her, others couldn't stand her. I think this is effective in portraying Edie as a person however, as her personality seemed to be made up of so many different facets that it's hard to get to the core and discover the girl who she really was, sans the drugs and psychological problems.
I've given this 3 stars not because I thought it wasn't a very good book, but specifically because although it is extremely insightful, vivid and a great read, I couldn't pick it up again for quite a while. Very harrowing.
November 24, 2007
This book was a huge stylistic influence on me in college- I even made over my roomate to look like her ( I would have done so for myself, but I made a much better Funny Girl era Streisand) Such a good look she had!
Around that same time my friends and I stood in line for hours to meet Andy Warhol and get his autograph- I didn't think about it as a faux pas at the time, I was still a teenager after all, but I took this book and a few xeroxes of him and Edie that I had colored in crayon!!!! Horrors- But this style of "art"-HAH! was in fashion at the time!!! Needless to say that went over like a turd in a punch bowl and the end of his signature is a long dark line that started as he read the title of what he was signing- I remember him doing a pause as his pen dragged off the page- It was wierd.
Around that same time my friends and I stood in line for hours to meet Andy Warhol and get his autograph- I didn't think about it as a faux pas at the time, I was still a teenager after all, but I took this book and a few xeroxes of him and Edie that I had colored in crayon!!!! Horrors- But this style of "art"-HAH! was in fashion at the time!!! Needless to say that went over like a turd in a punch bowl and the end of his signature is a long dark line that started as he read the title of what he was signing- I remember him doing a pause as his pen dragged off the page- It was wierd.
March 23, 2021
This oral history of Edie Sedgwick is fascinating and disturbing. The book is composed of memories of people who knew Edie - well or briefly. Andy Warhol, Nico, Patti Smith, Bob Neuwirth... This kind of biography disconcerted me in the beginning, but once I was used to the rhythm, I found the story vivid and more interesting than a conventional biography.
August 7, 2024
3 1/2 stars. I definitely learned a lot more about Edie Sedgwick’s tragic life. I didn’t love the writing style. Picture a documentary movie that cuts back and forth between various people’s recollections of a person or subject, only in book form. I can see this working as a movie. In written form I think I would’ve preferred more traditional structure.
March 23, 2016
Fascinating, Compelling, Unforgettable & Haunting! An Incredible Read! I Loved It!
October 22, 2021
Edie was definitely part of the ‘live fast die young’ true club.
Probably only half of the book is really about her, the rest it’s pretty much what was going on around her and there are some people who just wanted to talk about themselves instead of Edie and others who just completely were amazed by her, it does give a picture and background of her demise though.
If you’re into the New York 60’s underground scene you’ll love this but be warned that it starts super boring with all the family background.
Probably only half of the book is really about her, the rest it’s pretty much what was going on around her and there are some people who just wanted to talk about themselves instead of Edie and others who just completely were amazed by her, it does give a picture and background of her demise though.
If you’re into the New York 60’s underground scene you’ll love this but be warned that it starts super boring with all the family background.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 5, 2018
3.5 but maybe a 4, depending on my mood I guess. A page turner at the start but still kept me going until the end despite a thought or two of just having had enough of the 'scene' at times.
I read about Edie and Warhol when I was much younger, late teens/early 20s...back in the late 80s/90s... and remember being pretty much wowed by them and so very fascinated. In reading about them now, many years later, I was more disturbed than wowed. Edie's early life with her family was terribly tragic and it seemed to help create this destructive, damaged being. She truly was a tragic, self-destructive time bomb. I started the book totally engrossed and fascinated by her early years and family life, it was a page turner. Once she got heavily into the NY 60s scene it just became a tragedy and it was like watching (reading) a train wreck. With time and life experience, my perspective has changed so that what might have seemed cool at the time now only came off as so sad.
The format of the book, which is full of interview snippets, allowed for many perspectives of Edie but these views surely must be taken with a grain of salt as many of these comments seemed not only self-indulgent but peppered with these people's own feelings about Edie. I think we get a good take on her tragic life though with this format as we really do get a glimpse into her train-wreck of a life. I finished this book with a sense of sadness at the loss of a damaged soul.
I read about Edie and Warhol when I was much younger, late teens/early 20s...back in the late 80s/90s... and remember being pretty much wowed by them and so very fascinated. In reading about them now, many years later, I was more disturbed than wowed. Edie's early life with her family was terribly tragic and it seemed to help create this destructive, damaged being. She truly was a tragic, self-destructive time bomb. I started the book totally engrossed and fascinated by her early years and family life, it was a page turner. Once she got heavily into the NY 60s scene it just became a tragedy and it was like watching (reading) a train wreck. With time and life experience, my perspective has changed so that what might have seemed cool at the time now only came off as so sad.
The format of the book, which is full of interview snippets, allowed for many perspectives of Edie but these views surely must be taken with a grain of salt as many of these comments seemed not only self-indulgent but peppered with these people's own feelings about Edie. I think we get a good take on her tragic life though with this format as we really do get a glimpse into her train-wreck of a life. I finished this book with a sense of sadness at the loss of a damaged soul.
January 11, 2023
Clearly a really great journalist feat, painting all the angles that make someone while also showing how we can never truly know someone. At the same time, this book did not age well. That Patti Smith section about dancing for example… good lord. I mean this is obviously a book about a privileged white woman with lots of trauma but sometimes I can’t help but think about how the values of the time stand so glaringly against the values we hold today. The story about her maid for example is despicable. Just rambling thoughts
March 10, 2015
This well-researched and un-romanticized bio of a beautiful, fun, druggy, but ultimately inconsequential heiress, is a must read for students of Andy Warhol, who is easily one of the 20 greatest humans who ever lived.
December 3, 2018
Un-putdown-able intersection of WASP aristocracy, mental illness, Warholian excesses, and speed. Quite a bit of speed. Like an overlong, but fascinating piece from Vanity Fair.
June 26, 2016
Like any good biography, this was the story of a number of people, and of a generation too. The book starts off with a description of the well-heeled Sedgwick clan. There are stories of their roots in Stockbridge, Mass., summers in Murray Bay, Canada, drinking syllabub, and getting educated at Groton and Harvard. The narrative settles on one Francis Sedgwick, a brash, macho character who marries well and settles in a beautiful ranch in Santa Barbara to raise a large brood. This is classic, and very enjoyable, wealthy family reading - the batty relatives, the fooling around, the drinking, the sojourns to posh mental institutions, the suicides. Everyone loves this kind of story - is it a kind of vengeful streak in people? Or is it the sense of relief one gets upon discovering that the high and mighty must struggle with emotional pain like the rest of us? Or is it the fascination with bizarre behavior which most of us would not even think of doing ourselves? Probably some combination of the above.
The true focus of the story is of course Edie Sedgwick, Warhol "superstar", party girl extraordinaire, and sixties icon, the seventh child of Francis Sedgwick and the fabulousy wealthy Alice de Forest. She was not the first of her clan to get into trouble, although her troubles became the most notorious. The premature deaths of a couple of siblings had a big impact on her, as did her parents' hospitalizing her for a year or two following an eating disorder. She eventually made her way to New York, where she became a well-known girl about town, hanging out with Warhol's factory set, appearing in his movies, and developing a full-fledged drug habit - speed and downers and just about anything else she could get her hands on. This crowd makes for an intriguing tableau: a far out (far gone?) group, on the cutting edge of art and drugs and sex and society and self-destruction. But Edie was too spoiled and impulsive to make the transition from Warhol's happenings to a real acting career. Things began to spin out of control - a trip to Dr. Charles Roberts's methedrine and vitamin clinic could easily to turn into a spontaneous orgy, she fought with lovers and family, and ended up in psychiatric care. Later, she married a penniless hippie, and they had an apparently pleasant existence up until the accidental overdose that did her in.
I did not find Edie to be the most fascinating figure I have ever read about. However, the book is in an oral history format, and a number of the contributors were very interesting, as was the milieux described.
The true focus of the story is of course Edie Sedgwick, Warhol "superstar", party girl extraordinaire, and sixties icon, the seventh child of Francis Sedgwick and the fabulousy wealthy Alice de Forest. She was not the first of her clan to get into trouble, although her troubles became the most notorious. The premature deaths of a couple of siblings had a big impact on her, as did her parents' hospitalizing her for a year or two following an eating disorder. She eventually made her way to New York, where she became a well-known girl about town, hanging out with Warhol's factory set, appearing in his movies, and developing a full-fledged drug habit - speed and downers and just about anything else she could get her hands on. This crowd makes for an intriguing tableau: a far out (far gone?) group, on the cutting edge of art and drugs and sex and society and self-destruction. But Edie was too spoiled and impulsive to make the transition from Warhol's happenings to a real acting career. Things began to spin out of control - a trip to Dr. Charles Roberts's methedrine and vitamin clinic could easily to turn into a spontaneous orgy, she fought with lovers and family, and ended up in psychiatric care. Later, she married a penniless hippie, and they had an apparently pleasant existence up until the accidental overdose that did her in.
I did not find Edie to be the most fascinating figure I have ever read about. However, the book is in an oral history format, and a number of the contributors were very interesting, as was the milieux described.
July 5, 2013
J'ai lu cette biographie après avoir fugitivement plongé dans l'univers du New-York Warholien de la fin des années 60 par le biais de "Just Kids", le bouquin de Patti Smith. Une silhouette se dessinait en filigrane des lieux et univers cités, de la Factory à Max's en passant par le Chelsea Hotel ; celle, longiligne et platinée, déjantée, adorable, d'Edie. Une personnalité qui semblait fasciner autant que déchaîner les pires inimités. En tous les cas, elle semblait ne laisser personne indifférent.
Ce livre est le fruit de la collecte de tous les témoignages des acteurs de la courte vie de la Superstar ; sa famille, ses brefs amis de défonce, ses mentors, son éphémère mari, ses rivales et consoeurs (Nico, Vita), les spectateurs de sa fulgurante ascension (Patti Smith, Truman Capote) ; des témoignages également d'Edie elle-même, tirées de la bande-son de son dernier film Ciao! Manhattan, ainsi que quelques vestiges des pensées d'Andy Warhol himself. En prime, de nombreuses photos de la jeune femme, témoignages glaçants de ses excès, de ses mutations, néanmoins toujours illuminées de son immortel sourire.
Au final, quand on referme le bouquin, le mystère demeure ; qui était Edie ? Pourquoi cette course échevelée vers l'autodestruction ? Comment démêler le vrai du faux dans ses affirmations et celles de son entourage, quelle part de mensonge et de sincérité dans ses appels à l'aide gorgés d'amphé ou de vodka ? Il en reste que ce livre est le miroir d'une époque, le témoin d'une génération et d'un style de vie qu'incarnait la mystérieuse et fascinante Edie. Drogues, alcool, baises désespérées et effrénées, argent dilapidé, superstars sans lendemain manipulées et balancées sur le devant de la scène par un Andy Warhol ambigu et détestable, les rejetant ensuite sans sourciller dans les limbes d'une vie ratée entièrement dévolue à la rancœur et la défonce.
A nous finalement d'en tirer nos propres conclusions.
Ce livre est le fruit de la collecte de tous les témoignages des acteurs de la courte vie de la Superstar ; sa famille, ses brefs amis de défonce, ses mentors, son éphémère mari, ses rivales et consoeurs (Nico, Vita), les spectateurs de sa fulgurante ascension (Patti Smith, Truman Capote) ; des témoignages également d'Edie elle-même, tirées de la bande-son de son dernier film Ciao! Manhattan, ainsi que quelques vestiges des pensées d'Andy Warhol himself. En prime, de nombreuses photos de la jeune femme, témoignages glaçants de ses excès, de ses mutations, néanmoins toujours illuminées de son immortel sourire.
Au final, quand on referme le bouquin, le mystère demeure ; qui était Edie ? Pourquoi cette course échevelée vers l'autodestruction ? Comment démêler le vrai du faux dans ses affirmations et celles de son entourage, quelle part de mensonge et de sincérité dans ses appels à l'aide gorgés d'amphé ou de vodka ? Il en reste que ce livre est le miroir d'une époque, le témoin d'une génération et d'un style de vie qu'incarnait la mystérieuse et fascinante Edie. Drogues, alcool, baises désespérées et effrénées, argent dilapidé, superstars sans lendemain manipulées et balancées sur le devant de la scène par un Andy Warhol ambigu et détestable, les rejetant ensuite sans sourciller dans les limbes d'une vie ratée entièrement dévolue à la rancœur et la défonce.
A nous finalement d'en tirer nos propres conclusions.
April 8, 2012
Six different people have recommended this book to me over the last year. Jean Stein's narrative format is borrowed heavily from Studs Terkel, but still effective here. Wikipedia says that she had an affair with Faulkner and then offered an interview with him to the Paris Review as long as they would give her an editor position, which they did. Wikipedia also said that Sinbad, the comedian, was dead for a while, so YMMV but you gotta love anyone that uses a really great moment of intimacy as a bargaining chip for gainful employment. I lament that this would not work at the Pizza Hut or any of my fer sure future employers.
Yeah, it's a good read, but wow, yet another memoir of the 1950s/1960s/1970s that can be summed up with: Hey - Men Are Scum. Also, it would have been nice if Jean Stein interviewed at least one person who found Sedgwick completely unattractive. Also, imagine this woman's life story if she had been born with no money or was overweight. Yeah. Uh huh? Hmm. Stuff White People LIke dot com!
Yeah, it's a good read, but wow, yet another memoir of the 1950s/1960s/1970s that can be summed up with: Hey - Men Are Scum. Also, it would have been nice if Jean Stein interviewed at least one person who found Sedgwick completely unattractive. Also, imagine this woman's life story if she had been born with no money or was overweight. Yeah. Uh huh? Hmm. Stuff White People LIke dot com!
December 23, 2017
I love how Jean Stein uses oral histories to tell Edie Sedgwick's story; I love how she begins with Edie's ancestors. Edie is like quicksilver dancing between the various anecdotes that convey her moody, maddening, charismatic, contradictory character. The 1960s New York pop art scene depicted in these pages defies belief, and Warhol is not a sympathetic character. When I started the book, all I could think about was how short Edie's life was, how tragic to die at twenty-nine. After I finished it, having survived the endless blow-by-blow of Edie's outrageous antics, all I could think is, how the hell did Edie live so long?
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November 7, 2007Don't speed, fashion, poor little rich girl incest victims and modern art make such a wonderful gumbo? Ugh, I cursed myself for getting to NYC after Andy died. It all sounded like so much fun. Now what can we do?
September 1, 2021
Often I can recall buying books from my twenties, to the point of which bookshop and who I was with, but I can't pinpoint this. Judging from the faint pencil inside ($5), my copy came from a second hand book shop in Providence or Cambridge. Long before "flash fiction" was a familiar genre, I tried to cobble together some Edie-inspired flash (Thomas Nashe was dragged into this endeavor as well, because I was smitten with what Jayne Anne Phillips did in Black Tickets and the Nashe line "brightness falls from the sky"). Edie was probably the first oral history narrative that I read, and perhaps one of the earliest to reach mainstream readership-- someone more knowledgeable than me will know if that's true.
In any event, Edie is as much the story of a family and a social class as it is of Edie herself. Jean Stein and George Plimpton do a masterful job of world-building by piecing together interviews with dozens, if not hundreds, of people who knew Edie. As a young woman, I found Edie's self destructiveness mesmerizing and glamorous. From the vantage point of midlife, I can remember how that felt although predictably reading her story now feels very different. It's like obsessively reading about the Titanic or some other iconic disaster: no matter how familiar the tragedy, or how many details you have, there's a mystery of HOW DID THIS HAPPEN that you still can't fathom. I imagine I knew how terrible her family was, but that may not have understood that as deeply as I do now. EDIE absolutely cemented my distrust of Warhol from an early age, and the account of his role in Edie's demise is as damning as I recall. In fact while re-reading this I was struck by the similarities in the Warhol/Edie dynamic and the destructive way he interacted with Basquiat. The difference is that Basquiat was a artist. Edie was a beauty with zeitgeist mojo, recalled by her circle as a compelling and unforgettable presence in search of something more. As powerful as this account is, I'm not sure Edie's ideals or Edie herself is really conjured here. You get a sense of the impression she made on people, of the scale of her addiction and other mental health issues. But do you really experience Edie as all those in her circle did? Edie's drive and ambition are clear, but she seems so broken by addiction, mental illness and family dysfunction that it's never evident if she had a vision she could transform into art. At various points, interviewees remark that Edie was part of a generation and a caste that saw her purpose as marrying well, and that obviously played a role in her lack of clear objectives. It's a hard book to put down and I would be curious what contemporary scholars might have to say about Edie and her world.
In any event, Edie is as much the story of a family and a social class as it is of Edie herself. Jean Stein and George Plimpton do a masterful job of world-building by piecing together interviews with dozens, if not hundreds, of people who knew Edie. As a young woman, I found Edie's self destructiveness mesmerizing and glamorous. From the vantage point of midlife, I can remember how that felt although predictably reading her story now feels very different. It's like obsessively reading about the Titanic or some other iconic disaster: no matter how familiar the tragedy, or how many details you have, there's a mystery of HOW DID THIS HAPPEN that you still can't fathom. I imagine I knew how terrible her family was, but that may not have understood that as deeply as I do now. EDIE absolutely cemented my distrust of Warhol from an early age, and the account of his role in Edie's demise is as damning as I recall. In fact while re-reading this I was struck by the similarities in the Warhol/Edie dynamic and the destructive way he interacted with Basquiat. The difference is that Basquiat was a artist. Edie was a beauty with zeitgeist mojo, recalled by her circle as a compelling and unforgettable presence in search of something more. As powerful as this account is, I'm not sure Edie's ideals or Edie herself is really conjured here. You get a sense of the impression she made on people, of the scale of her addiction and other mental health issues. But do you really experience Edie as all those in her circle did? Edie's drive and ambition are clear, but she seems so broken by addiction, mental illness and family dysfunction that it's never evident if she had a vision she could transform into art. At various points, interviewees remark that Edie was part of a generation and a caste that saw her purpose as marrying well, and that obviously played a role in her lack of clear objectives. It's a hard book to put down and I would be curious what contemporary scholars might have to say about Edie and her world.
September 13, 2022
Very bittersweet. We think our families are dysfunctional-this one definitely was. After all the different people saying how wonderful she was I began to go between HS where there was always one bright star who won everything while being beautiful, smart, a leader and nice, damn it. The other side was- did the editor paint the picture they wanted of her?all the drugs and sex made me sick at the end. A bright star flaming out. And the portrait of Andy Warhol? A voyeur and a mean one at that.
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