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The Artists, Misfits, and Superstars Destroyed by the Factory Fame Machine
From the New York Times bestselling author of Capote's Women comes an astonishing account of the revolutionary artist Andy Warhol and his scandalous relationships with the ten women he deemed his "Superstars."
"Now and then, someone would accuse me of being evil," Andy Warhol confessed, "of letting people destroy themselves while I watched, just so I could film them." Obsessed with celebrity, the silver-wigged artistic icon created an ever-evolving entourage of stunning women he dubbed his "Superstars"—Baby Jane Holzer, Edie Sedgwick, Nico, Ultra Violet, Viva, Brigid Berlin, Ingrid Superstar, International Velvet, Mary Woronov, and Candy Darling. He gave several of them new names and manipulated their beauty and talent for his art and social status with no regard for their safety, their dignity, or their lives.
In Warhol's Muses, bestselling biographer Laurence Leamer shines a spotlight on the complex women who inspired and starred in Warhol's legendary underground films—The Chelsea Girls, The Nude Restaurant, and Blue Movie, among others. Drawn by the siren call of Manhattan life in the sixties, they each left their protected enclaves and ventured to a new world, Warhol's famed Factory, having no sense that they would never be able to return to their old homes and familiar ways again. Sex was casual, drugs were ubiquitous, parties were wild, and to Warhol, everyone was transient, temporary, and replaceable. It was a dangerous game he played with the women around him, and on a warm June day in 1968, someone entered the Factory and shot him, changing his life forever.
Warhol's Muses explores the lives of ten endlessly intriguing women, transports us to a turbulent and transformative era, and uncovers the life and work of one of the most legendary artists of all time.
"[C]aptivating group portrait ... meticulous research, including interviews with Warhol's assistants and transcriptions of his tapes, adds fly-on-the-wall immediacy to Leamer's account. Readers will be riveted." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"[T]hought-provoking and fascinating…Instead of passing judgment on Warhol or his Factory of superstars, Leamer presents facts from an era in the New York City art world…a compelling chronicle of Warhol's Factory in the 1960s." —Library Journal (starred review)
"[T]he stories are riveting in their seediness, and Leamer does a nice job of capturing Warhol's ruthlessness...[F]ascinating" —Kirkus Reviews
"None entered [the Factory] without serious baggage, and few left unscathed. Warhol may have contributed to the democratization of art, but Leamer makes clear the consequences of treating people like art objects." —Booklist
"Laurence Leamer brings vivid and illuminating detail to the stories of ten women dubbed 'superstars' by Andy Warhol. From Edie Sedgwick to Nico to Ultra Violet, they were often glamorous or wealthy but each was rebellious in her own way. Whether ambitious or troubled or eccentric or spoiled, Warhol's Factory changed them all." —Cynthia Carr, author of Candy Darling: Dreamer, Icon, Superstar
"As a worshipper at the shrine of Warhol, I thought I knew everything about his Superstars…then I picked up Laurence Leamer's newest work. Part celebration of the incredible women who inspired Andy, part a cautionary tale on fame, entirely an homage to those who dared to live authentically. Bravo." —Jen Otter Bickerdike, author of You Are Beautiful and You Are Alone: The Biography of Nico
This information about Warhol's Muses was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo Credit: Author Grace
Laurence Leamer is a best-selling author and journalist. Leamer is a former Ford Fellow in International Development at the University of Oregon and a former International Fellow at Columbia University. He is regarded as an expert on the Kennedy family and has appeared in numerous media outlets discussing American politics. Leamer has also written best-selling biographies of other American icons, including Johnny Carson, the Reagan family, and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The Price of Justice: A True Story of Corruption and Greed in Coal Country (2013) is his most recent work
Leamer was on the staff at Newsweek, and has written for The New York Times Magazine, Harper's, Playboy, and many other publications. He lives in Palm Beach and Washington, D.C.
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