The tumultuous and heartbreaking life of a world-famous model whose
riveting story of beauty, fame, passion, murder, and madness in the
Gilded Age captivated a nation.
As America was stepping into the modern era, one great beauty became the
artist's model of choice. Her perfect form became the emblem of the
Gilded Age and appears on the greatest monuments of New York and the
nation. Supermodel, actress, icon - her beauty paved the way for a life
of glamour, passion, and ultimately tragedy. She dated the millionaires
of the fashionable Newport colony and became the first American movie
star ever to appear naked in a film, but her promising film career
collapsed; her doctor fell in love with her and killed his own wife; and
on her fortieth birthday her mother committed her to an insane asylum.
She remained there until her death in 1996 at the age of 104 and is now
buried in an unmarked grave.
Her name is Audrey Munson.
Many listeners will recognize Audrey Munson and have walked by her in
the street without even knowing her name. She stands atop New York's
Municipal Building. She sits as Miss Manhattan and Miss Brooklyn outside
the Brooklyn Museum and is immortalized on the Manhattan Bridge, the
Frick Mansion, the New York Public Library, and the Pulitzer Fountain
outside the Plaza Hotel. In gold, bronze, and stone, she still graces
bridges, skyscrapers, fountains, churches, monuments, and public
buildings across the nation, from Jacksonville to San Francisco, from
Atlanta to the Wisconsin state capitol.
From James Bone, the former New York bureau chief of The Times of
London, this brilliantly reported investigative biography reveals for
the first time the riveting truth of the forgotten life of an iconic
beauty.
