Lost Ladies of Lit
A book podcast hosted by writing partners Amy Helmes and Kim Askew. Guests include biographers, journalists, authors, and cultural historians discussing lost classics by women writers. You can support Lost Ladies of Lit by visiting https://www.patreon.com/c/LostLadiesofLit339.
Lost Ladies of Lit
Tragic Mansions by Mrs. Philip Lydig
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Exclusive access to premium content!Gilded-Age gossip meets Edith-Wharton-style scandal in the 1927 Fifth-Avenue tell-all Tragic Mansions by Mrs. Philip Lydig (a.k.a. the fashionable socialite Rita de Acosta Lydig). Find out what prompted this glamorous doyenne to dish the dirt on her filthy-rich friends and acquaintances, and why Lydig believed the American upper-crust and their obsession with marrying for money set a dangerous American precedent. Dripping with diamonds and STDs, this book is worth reading for its material opulence as well as its “soapy” accounts of soured matches among the moneyed class.
Mentioned in this episode
Tragic Mansions at Hathtrust.org
NeglectedBooks.com article on Tragic Mansions
Rita Hernandez de Alba de Acosta Stokes Lydig
Met collection of Rita de Acosta Lydig’s clothing
Giovanni Boldini portrait of Rita de Acosta Lydig
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