The Gilded Edge

„The Gilded Edge is a compelling read from start to finish. Gripping, suspenseful, cinematic. This is narrative nonfiction at its best.“–Lindsey Fitzharris, bestselling author of The Butchering Art

Astonishingly well written, painstakingly researched, and set in the evocative locations of earthquake-ravaged San Francisco and the Monterey Peninsula, the true story of two women–a wife and a poet–who learn the high price of sexual and artistic freedom in a vivid depiction of the debauchery of the late Gilded Age

Nora May French and Carrie Sterling arrive at Carmel-by-the-Sea at the turn of the twentieth century with dramatically different ambitions. Nora, a stunning, brilliant, impulsive writer in her early twenties, seeks artistic recognition and Bohemian refuge among the most celebrated counterculturalists of the era. Carrie, long-suffering wife of real estate developer George Sterling, wants the opposite: a semblance of the stability she thought her advantageous marriage would offer, threatened now that her philandering husband has taken to writing poetry.

After her second abortion, Nora finds herself in a desperate situation but is rescued by an invitation to stay with the Sterlings. To Carrie’s dismay, George and the arrestingly beautiful poetess fall instantly into an affair. The ensuing love triangle, which ultimately ends with the deaths of all three, is more than just a wild love story and a fascinating forgotten chapter. It questions why Nora May–in her day a revered poet whose nationally reported suicide gruesomely inspired youths across the country to take their own lives, with her verses in their pockets no less–has been rendered obscure by literary history. It depicts America at a turning point, as the Gilded Age groans in its death throes and young people, particularly women, look toward a brighter, more egalitarian future.

In an unfortunately familiar development, this vision proves to be a mirage. But women’s rage at the scam redefines American progressivism forever.

For readers of Nathalia Holt, Denise Kiernan, and Sonia Purnell, this shocking history with a feminist bite is not to be missed.

Editorial Reviews

08/09/2021

Prendergast (Buying into English), an English professor at the University of Illinois, disentangles the mysterious lives of 1900s „New Women“ Nora May French and Caroline „Carrie“ Sterling in this high-stakes if uneven account of the Carmel literary colony. Founded in the early 20th century Carmel-by-the-Sea, Calif., the colony hosted such writers as Jack London and Upton Sinclair. At its height in 1907, French, who made up a love triangle with Carrie Sterling and her husband George, died by cyanide poisoning–the Sterlings each died by the same means years later. Prendergast sympathetically depicts French, an acclaimed poet of her time, as a woman whose life had been „cursed by the actions of neglectful and malignant men“ but maintained her confidence while her male peers offered „scathing and patently misogynistic“ responses to her work. Similarly, Sterling, an artist and the hostess of the Carmel writing colony, was branded by the press as the „know-nothing“ wife of Bohemian poet George Sterling who tolerated his many indiscretions. While Prendergast’s commentary is sharp, she fails to fill in the gaps of French’s life between her arrival at Carmel and her death, making things feel incomplete. Still, this punchy feminist tribute offers a fascinating look at two forgotten women of the Gilded Age. Agent: Anna Sproul-Latimer, Neon Literary. (Oct.)
– Publishers Weekly

10/01/2021

Poet Nora May French (1881-1907) is perhaps best known for her death by cyanide poisoning, but this thoroughly researched biography by Prendergast (English, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Buying into English) instead reports on the writer’s complicated life. French had many failed romantic relationships, including some with married men; several abortions; and strained friendships with other writers. Prendergast focuses particularly on these friendships, especially French’s involvement with the married couple George and Carrie Sterling. Each chapter of the book begins with a story about Nora or Carrie and ends with Prendergast’s take on how the story’s events unfolded. Informed by poems and letters, and conversations with librarians, archivists, and historians, Prendergast pieces together French’s life. Many of French’s letters were archived under the names of her more famous boyfriends, which spurs Prendergast to discuss other forgotten women who may also be lost in the archives. Literary scholars will recognize some of the many other figures who appear in this Gilded-Age biography, like Jack London. Interspersed with excerpts of French’s poems, Prendergast gives readers an inside look at what went on behind the writing. VERDICT This well-organized biography reads almost like historical fiction; readers are reminded that this is a true story when Prendergast inserts her witty intellectual commentary.–Natalie Browning, Longwood Univ. Lib., Farmville, VA
– Library Journal

2021-08-17
An examination of the issues surrounding an apparent love triangle that ended in death.

In this work of narrative nonfiction, Prendergast, a Guggenheim fellow and English professor at the University of Illinois, investigates the circumstances surrounding the Gilded Age suicides of Nora May French, George Sterling, and Carrie Sterling by cyanide ingestion. All three individuals were members of a bohemian writing colony located at Carmel-by-the-Sea on the Monterey Peninsula in California. With diligent research, captivating detail, and a little creative license to fill in the gaps, Prendergast chronicles the events that led to the intersection of these three lives. The author also explores the myth and illusion associated with the creation of the writing colony, which would „become famous for hosting Jack London, Upton Sinclair, and Sinclair Lewis.“ The text reads like a dramatic novel fueled by sex, alcohol, and quests for fame and fortune. The region was experiencing a time of expansion and recovery, with the rise of the women’s suffrage movement and the upheaval following the catastrophic 1906 earthquake in San Francisco. As one personal disappointment seemed to follow another, these individuals resolved themselves to their fates. Regarding the mythology surrounding the writing colony, Prendergast writes, „the photo of London, Sterling, Austin, and Hopper in front of the beach house is simply the shot on which the Carmel myth is made, reprinted often in books about Carmel’s founding and turn-of-the-century Bohemian California….It really does seem as if these writers are engaged in spontaneous conversation.“ Periodically, the author interjects herself into the story to provide insight regarding the results of her research, particularly in situations in which evidence was difficult to find or had seemingly been destroyed by men attempting to preserve their reputations.

A well-rendered, tragic tale that speaks to the struggles of women trying to find their places in society.
– Kirkus Reviews

Praise for The Gilded Edge:

One of Monterey County Weekly’s „21 Most Important Books of 2021“ | One of Bustle’s „10 Books to Read If You Aren’t Over House of Gucci“ | One of Artnet’s „20 Books About Art and the Art World to Keep You Reading Well into the New Year“

„Prendergast blows away that sentimental mist with her tenacious research and humorous asides. . . . The Gilded Edge is a book that grapples with the difficult task of retrieving women’s lives from incomplete or distorted archival records. As for any romantic notions that readers may hold of what California Bohemia was like in the early twentieth century, Ms. Prendergast’s book will blow them away.“–Julia Flynn Siler for The Wall Street Journal

„Ultimately, The Gilded Edge takes on the cast of a great detective novel. . . . [An] unpredictable and addictive story.“–Lorraine Berry for Los Angeles Times

„The Gilded Edge is a compelling read from start to finish. Gripping, suspenseful, cinematic. This is narrative nonfiction at its best.“–Lindsey Fitzharris, bestselling author of The Butchering Art

„The Gilded Edge is a gripping tale set in the Bohemian culture of Gilded Age California. Prendergast paints an electrifying portrait of a tragic love triangle, featuring the beautiful young poet Nora May French; her counterpoint, the pragmatic Carrie Sterling; and Carrie’s philandering husband, George. With skill, humor, and biting insight, Prendergast reveals the cost of being a woman in a world dominated by men, placing the women center stage. A brilliant historian, Prendergast also tells of her own quest to find out what really happened, including herself in the story in surprising and fascinating ways. A page-turner, The Gilded Edge reads like a mystery novel. A poignant and fascinating story of the past, but also a story of the writer herself.“–Charlotte Gordon, author of Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley, The Woman Who Named God, and Mistress Bradstreet

„What a story! With the eye of a detective, Catherine Prendergast has brilliantly pieced together the shocking history of the birth of the famed Carmel-by-the-Sea, an early mission turned artists’ colony founded in the early 1900s in Central Coast California, where the literary elite and hangers-on fashioned a Bohemian existence rife with alcohol, sex, jealousy, drama–loads of it–deceit, and suicide. Prendergast’s vivid storytelling draws you into the debauchery, weaving the poetry and words of the famous and not-so-famous into a narrative that challenges the sanitized version of Carmel’s founding. The women, she discovered, paid the price in those early years in lost lives, careers, ruined reputations, and broken marriages, while the men achieved greater accolades. Prendergast puts those women back in the center of the story where they belong, fueling a breathtaking tale about the real lives of the ‘New Woman’ of the early twentieth century.“–Kate Clifford Larson, New York Times bestselling author of Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter

„Catherine Prendergast so vividly re-creates the Bohemian circles of early twentieth century California that I felt transported back in time, witnessing firsthand the challenges, triumphs, and tragedies of Nora May French and Carrie Sterling, her brave and brazen heroines. The Gilded Edge is a highly evocative and unforgettable read.“–Abbott Kahler, New York Times bestselling author (as Karen Abbott) of The Ghosts of Eden Park

„The text reads like a dramatic novel fueled by sex, alcohol, and quests for fame and fortune. . . . A well-rendered, tragic tale that speaks to the struggles of women trying to find their places in society.“–Kirkus Reviews

„We’re living in a second Gilded Age, so this feels pretty relevant. There’s a love triangle, there’s poetry, there’s social reform movements, there’s a real estate developer; it’s just got all the things. I also love a story where it was HUGE in the news at the time, and then almost no one today has heard of it. This is one of those!“–Book Riot

„Life in Carmel among its Bohemian artists is a captivating subject, but Prendergast deepens it by entering the narrative to relay the difficulties she encountered researching Carrie and Nora, two fascinating women whose lives were largely buried in archives devoted to the men in their circle. . . . Prendergast’s vivid history offers a sobering take on a romanticized time and place in which the men were lauded while the women were nearly erased.“–Booklist

„This punchy feminist tribute offers a fascinating look at two forgotten women of the Gilded Age.“–Publishers Weekly

„Explaining the book’s subtitle would constitute a spoiler. The narrative is such a compelling and engaging read, it would be a shame to deny readers the pleasures of exploring it.“–Carmel Magazine

„For a book built around suicides, The Gilded Edge is pulsing with life. . . . Part of the energy comes from the author’s palpable outrage, which emerges in otherwise chatty interludes that chart her efforts to uncover the real history behind a tale of scandal and tragedy.“–Air Mail

„Prendergast gives readers an inside look at what went on behind the writing. . . . This well-organized biography reads almost like historical fiction; readers are reminded that this is a true story when Prendergast inserts her witty intellectual commentary.“–Library Journal

„Part detective work, part narrative nonfiction–combined with Prendergast’s personal observations about what she learned–[The Gilded Edge] is an indispensable corrective to romantic myths of the early twentieth century and our present day.“–Nob Hill Gazette

„Prendergast’s book is a MasterClass in research. Throughout, she sporadically reflects on the misogynist injustice imbedded even in seemingly innocuous things like archival structure. Each woman–and Nora May particularly–was exceptional on their own, but their histories were intentionally (and in some cases maliciously) folded into the records of the era’s famous men. The methodic persistence required to compile such a complete and compelling account is truly noteworthy.“–Holly Dowell, WORD Bookstores
– From the Publisher