
Diamonds and Deadlines
A Tale of Greed, Deceit, and a Female Tycoon in the Gilded Age
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Narrated by:
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Beth Hicks
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By:
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Betsy Prioleau
The first major biography of the glamorous and scandalous Miriam Leslie, titan of publishing and an unsung hero of women’s suffrage
Among the fabled tycoons of the Gilded Age—Carnegie, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt—is 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 during and after her lifetime, glimpses of the truth emerged, including an illegitimate birth and a checkered youth.
Diamonds and Deadlines reveals the unknown, sensational life of the brilliant and brazen “empress of journalism,” who dropped a bombshell at her death: She left her entire multimillion-dollar estate to women’s suffrage—a never-equaled amount that guaranteed passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. In this dazzling biography, cultural historian Betsy Prioleau draws from diaries, correspondence, genealogies, and published works to provide an intimate look at the life of one of the Gilded Age’s most complex, powerful women and unexpected feminist icons. Ultimately, Diamonds and Deadlines restores Mrs. Frank Leslie to her rightful place in history, as a monumental businesswoman who presaged the feminist future and reflected, in bold relief, the Gilded Age, one of the most momentous, seismic, and vivid epochs in American history.
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Overall, Miriam Leslie’s story is quite remarkable. The fact that she was quite subversive in terms of going against established social norms is also fascinating. Her many marriages and extramarital liaisons would fit into today’s gossip rags without missing a beat.
I appreciate the author’s attempts to sketch in the background details of the momentous events that occurred during Miriam’s life. This contextualization provides important information for an assessment of Miriam’s life and actions. Ms. Prioleau emphasizes the importance of not judging Miriam by today’s standards, which is an all too common problem nowadays.
I did feel at times that Prioleau made sweeping comments about certain situations with little to no factual back-up. There is one particular statement that immediately caused me to stop in disbelief. In the discussion about Miriam’s shadowy origins, it would seem that she was born mixed race. Most likely, her mother was a woman enslaved to her father. Prioleau makes the statement that the majority of souther whites at this time had Black blood due to the abuses of slavery. Since I listened to the audio version and do not have a hard copy of the book, Prioleau may have cited sources for this statement. If so, great. If not, I find it irresponsible to drop such an explosive comment into the narrative without further explanation. While there are many documented cases of white men taking advantage of their female enslaved, to say that most white people have Black blood is ridiculous. Prioleau also fails to explain the distinct culture surrounding Black and white liaisons in New Orleans, where Miriam lived and may have been born. This culture was completely different from other southern cities/locations; readers would have benefited from a better explanation.
It was also difficult to keep up with Miriam’s love life. For instance, her fourth marriage to Willie Wilde, older brother of writer/playwright/poet Oscar Wilde, was not detailed enough. It was a short marriage, but I lost the thread of who the guy was and was very confused during the several pages devoted to that part of her life. The author surmised that the reader remembered Willie from an earlier mention and provided little context to how Miriam and he got together.
Despite this hiccup, Prioleau does a good job of bringing Miriam to life. It must have been a monumental task given that Miriam embellished and/or obfuscated details of her life. I definitely recommend this biography of a vibrant woman who has been lost to history.
Disappearing Act
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Wonderful biography of forgotten gilded age publishing icon
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A forgotten historical icon
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listening to an otherwise lovely story.
French and Spanish pronounciation
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Narration flawed by pronunciation errors and a lack of spontaneity
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