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Diamonds and Deadlines: A Tale of Greed, Deceit, and a Female Tycoon in the Gilded Age
Maybe someday
49
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
8/100Critics
91/100Scholars
Author:
Betsy Prioleau
Publisher:
Harry N. Abrams
Date:
March 29, 2022
Among the fabled tycoons of the Gilded AgeâCarnegie, Rockefeller, Vanderbiltâis a forgotten figure: Mrs. Frank Leslie. For twenty years she ran the country's largest publishing company, Frank Leslie Publishing, which chronicled postbellum America in dozens of weeklies and monthlies. A pioneer in an all-male industry, she made a fortune and became a national celebrity and tastemaker in the process. But Miriam Leslie was also a byword for scandal: She flouted feminine convention, took lovers, married four times, and harbored unsavory secrets that she concealed through a skein of lies and multiple personas. Both before and after her lifetime, glimpses of the truth emerged, including an illegitimate birth and a checkered youth.
What The Reviewers Say
Betsy Prioleau’s biography of the 'Queen of Park Place' is an appropriately twisty tale of someone trying to outrun her origins.
Ms. Prioleau brings this forgotten woman vividly to life in Diamonds and Deadlines.
Eye-widening.
Immersive.
