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.
