Born into a wealthy New England family.
Edie Sedgwick became, in the 1960s, both an emblem of, and a memorial to, the
doomed world spawned by Andy Warhol. Edie was outrageous, vulnerable and
strikingly beautiful. Her childhood was dominated by a brutal but glamorous
father. Fleeing to New York, she became an instant celebrity, known to everyone
in the literary, artistic and fashionable worlds of the day. She was Warhol’s twin
soul, his creature, the superstar of his films and, finally, the victim of a
life which he created for her. Edie is an American fable on an epic scale - the
story of a short, crowded and vivid life which is also the story of a decade.
Author: Jean
Stein
is an American author born into a Jewish family in 1934 in Los Angeles,
California. Jean has worked as an editor for a number of magazines, including “The
Paris Review” and “Esquire”. She is co-author, with George Plimpton, of “American
Journey: The Times of Robert Kennedy” and in 1990 she became the editor of the
literary journal “Grand Street”, until it ceased publication in 2004. It was
described by The New York Times as “one
of the most revered literary magazines of the postwar era”.
Author: George
Plimpton
was born on March 18, 1927 in New York City and he died in September 2003 at 76
years. George was an author, an actor and a literary patron. In 1953 he co-founded
“The Paris Review” and published many books, including “Truman Capote” and “The
Bogey Man”, to name but a few.
My
thoughts:
I’m so excited to talk to you about Edie, I mean about a book devoted to her
short, intense and chaotic life. In the life of Edie there has been worldwide
success and fatal degradation. Even though Edie was surrounded by a huge group
of friends, acquaintances and members of her large family, she felt alone and
unloved.
Edie was the muse of the great artist Andy
Warhol - a character I call opportunist and who was described as a manipulator
by many members of The Factory.
The Factory was an artists’ studio opened
by Andy Warhol in 1964 and located in New York. It was used for the production
of Warhol’s pop art works, the making of films and concerts and many party
celebrations were held there too.
Returning to Edie, she felt a great
emptiness in her life which drove her to get lost in the world of the night:
alcohol, parties and drugs, lots of hard drugs. She died prematurely at the age
of 28 years from an overdose of barbiturates. Strangely, Edie always knew she
wouldn’t live long, according to her close friends. A gipsy, she said, read her
palm and told her she had a short lifeline.
Edie had loneliness as an enemy. That came
from her childhood as one of many offspring of one of the most prestigious rich
and successful old American families: the Minturns,
the Forests, the Sedgwicks.
She grew up with her many siblings on the
family ranch where she never really felt at home. As a young teenager she was
interned in an institution for anorexia. There were rumours of incest involving
her father. The family lived in a closed circle, and always displayed a happy
air, a facade. Knowing the self destructive fate reserved for some members of
Edie’s family, one understands that there was a great lack of love.
In short, (if not I will write a thousand
pages... hahaha...), I would say that this book is very rich in details of the
American society of the sixties. We also learn about pop culture. This richly
documented biography tells us historical facts about the USA, since Edie’s
family was strongly linked to the history of the United States of America.
It is written in a pertinent and sincere
way with the intervention and testimonies of people who worked at the Factory
and members of her family, including a historian.
Edie moved me: a shy, generous, naive
girl, very intelligent and gifted in the arts and terribly touching with huge
black eyes and a bewitching regard... that’s how I perceive her. In addition to
being the greatest model of all time, Edie created, rather than followed
fashion. Her trademarks: dark eye make-up, large earrings, black opaque tights,
a touch of glitter and all that enhanced by her natural grace. Her full name
was Edith Minturn Sedgwick, she was born in Santa Barbara on April 20, 1943 and
died on November 15, 1971.
It goes without saying that I loved this
book, which is more than just a biography. I read it twice in August 2007 and
2012. “When we love, we don’t count” as we say over here!
