Edith Little Edie Bouvier Beale (1917-2002) is best known for her
appearance in the critically acclaimed 1975 film Grey Gardens, a
documentary by Albert and David Maysles that explored the reclusive
lives of Beale and her mother Big Edie, the first cousin and aunt of
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, respectfully. Over the past three decades,
the film and its eccentric stars have become cult icons, inspiring
fashion tributes by the likes of Phillip Lim and John Galliano, a hit
Broadway musical adaptation that swept up three Tony Awards in 2007, and
an upcoming HBO movie starring Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange as the
famed odd couple.
Edith Bouvier Beale of Grey Gardens: A Life in Pictures, the latest
installment in a series that includes photo-biographies of John F.
Kennedy, Pope John Paul II, Grace Kelly, Marilyn Monroe, and others,
presents the most in-depth look at the life of Little Edie since the
Maysles' film vaulted her into the public consciousness. Conceived by
members of the Beale family, the book traces a line from Edie's
childhood through her heady days as a young socialite and her later
years at Grey Gardens, the decrepit East Hampton estate where she and
her mother lived in near-total isolation for decades. Featuring over 150
newly uncovered photographs and letters, Edith Bouvier Beale of Grey
Gardens offers unprecedented access to the personal history of this
twentieth-century woman of mystery.
