Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul
by Karen Abbott
List Price:
Our Price: $5.44
You Save: $9.56 (64%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.36 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Karen AbbottEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-06-10
ISBN: 0812975995
Number of pages: 400
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Summary of Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul
Step into the perfumed parlors of the Everleigh Club, the most famous brothel in American history?and the catalyst for a culture war that rocked the nation. Operating in Chicago?s notorious Levee district at the dawn of the last century, the Club?s proprietors, two aristocratic sisters named Minna and Ada Everleigh, welcomed moguls and actors, senators and athletes, foreign dignitaries and literary icons, into their stately double mansion, where thirty stunning Everleigh ?butterflies? awaited their arrival. Courtesans named Doll, Suzy Poon Tang, and Brick Top devoured raw meat to the delight of Prince Henry of Prussia and recited poetry for Theodore Dreiser. Whereas lesser madams pocketed most of a harlot?s earnings and kept a ?whipper? on staff to mete out discipline, the Everleighs made sure their girls dined on gourmet food, were examined by an honest physician, and even tutored in the literature of Balzac.Not everyone appreciated the sisters? attempts to elevate the industry. Rival Levee madams hatched numerous schemes to ruin the Everleighs, including an attempt to frame them for the death of department store heir Marshall Field, Jr. But the sisters? most daunting foes were the Progressive Era reformers, who sent the entire country into a frenzy with lurid tales of ?white slavery???the allegedly rampant practice of kidnapping young girls and forcing them into brothels. This furor shaped America?s sexual culture and had repercussions all the way to the White House, including the formation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
With a cast of characters that includes Jack Johnson, John Barrymore, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., William Howard Taft, ?Hinky Dink? Kenna, and Al Capone, Sin in the Second City is Karen Abbott?s colorful, nuanced portrait of the iconic Everleigh sisters, their world-famous Club, and the perennial clash between our nation?s hedonistic impulses and Puritanical roots. Culminating in a dramatic last stand between brothel keepers and crusading reformers, Sin in the Second City offers a vivid snapshot of America?s journey from Victorian-era propriety to twentieth-century modernity.
Visit www.sininthesecondcity.com to learn more!
?Delicious? Abbott describes the Levee?s characters in such detail that it?s easy to mistake this meticulously researched history for literary fiction.? ?? New York Times Book Review
? Described with scrupulous concern for historical accuracy?an immensely readable book.?
?? Joseph Epstein, The Wall Street Journal
?Assiduously researched? even this book?s minutiae makes for good storytelling.?
?? Janet Maslin, The New York Times
?Karen Abbott has pioneered sizzle history in this satisfyingly lurid tale. Change the hemlines, add 100 years, and the book could be filed under current affairs.? ?? USA Today
?A rousingly racy yarn.? ?Chicago Tribune
?A colorful history of old Chicago that reads like a novel? a compelling and eloquent story.? ?? The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
?Gorgeously detailed? ?? New York Daily News
?At last, a history book you can bring to the beach.? ?? The Philadelphia Inquirer
?Once upon a time, Chicago had a world class bordello called The Everleigh Club. Author Karen Abbott brings the opulent place and its raunchy era alive in a book that just might become this years ?The Devil In the White City.? ?? Chicago Tribune Sunday Magazine (cover story)
?As Abbott?s delicious and exhaustively researched book makes vividly clear, the Everleigh Club was the Taj Mahal of bordellos.? ?? Chicago Sun Times
?The book is rich with details about a fast-and-loose Chicago of the early 20th century? Sin explores this world with gusto, throwing light on a booming city and exposing its shadows.?
?? Time Out Chicago
?[Abbott?s] research enables the kind of vivid description à la fellow journalist Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City that make what could be a dry historic account an intriguing read."
? Seattle Times
?Abbott tells her story with just the right mix of relish and restraint, providing a piquant guide to a world of sexuality? ?? The Atlantic
?A rollicking tale from a more vibrant time: history to a ragtime beat.?
? Kirkus Reviews
?With gleaming prose and authoritative knowledge Abbott elucidates one of the most colorful periods in American history, and the result reads like the very best fiction. Sex, opulence, murder ? What's not to love??
?? Sara Gruen, author of Water for Elephants
?A detailed and intimate portrait of the Ritz of brothels, the famed Everleigh Club of turn-of-the-century Chicago. Sisters Minna and Ada attracted the elites of the world to such glamorous chambers as the Room of 1,000 Mirrors, complete with a reflective floor. And isn?t Minna?s advice to her resident prostitutes worthy advice for us all: ?Give, but give interestingly and with mystery.??
?? Erik Larson, author of The Devil in the White City
?Karen Abbott has combined bodice-ripping salaciousness with top-notch scholarship to produce a work more vivid than a Hollywood movie.?
?? Melissa Fay Greene, author of There is No Me Without You
?Sin in the Second City is a masterful history lesson, a harrowing biography, and - best of all - a superfun read. The Everleigh story closely follows the turns of American history like a little sister. I can't recommend this book loudly enough.?
?? Darin Strauss, author of Chang and Eng
?This is a story of debauchery and corruption, but it is also a story of sisterhood, and unerring devotion. Meticulously researched, and beautifully crafted, Sin in the Second City is an utterly captivating piece of history.?
?? Julian Rubinstein, author of Ballad of the Whiskey Robber
Midwest Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Midwest Books
A Century of Storiesby Ernestine Townsend
Xlibris Corp; Published: 2001-03-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $18.49
Price in other shops:
No - Account Angelsby Eva Lou O'Malley
Xlibris Corp; Published: 2000-09-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $163.59
Of Kindred Celtic Origins, Vol. 1 (Myths, Legends, Genealogy and History of an Ordinary American Family)iUniverse; Published: 2001-06-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $35.74
Price in other shops:
Anna Plus Tales from a Town Called Wellsby Anna Allison Peck
iUniverse; Published: 2000-05-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $19.84
Price in other shops:
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir (Random House Large Print)by Bill Bryson
Random House Large Print; Published: 2006-10-17; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $23.95
Price in other shops:
American Legislative Leaders in the Midwest, 1911-1994by Charles Ritter, James Roger Sharp, Nancy Weatherly Sharp, Jon L. Wakelyn
Greenwood; Published: 1997-11-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $154.77
Price in other shops:
Walden West (North Coast Books)by August Derleth
University of Wisconsin Press; Published: 1992-09-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.29
Price in other shops:
Doc: Memories from a Life in Public Service (Indiana)by Otis R. Bowen
Indiana University Press; Published: 2000-09-22; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.31
Price in other shops:
You Can Go Home Again: Adventures of a Contrary Life (Farming Biography)by Gene Logsdon
Indiana University Press; Published: 1998-10-22; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $18.25
Price in other shops:
America Lost and Found: An English Boy's Wartime Adventure in the New Worldby Anthony Bailey
University Of Chicago Press; Published: 2000-05-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.00
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
City of the Century: The Epic of Chicago and the Making of Americaby Donald L. Miller
PBS; Simon & Schuster; Published: 1997-04-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.51
Price in other shops:
The Eyes of Willie McGee: A Tragedy of Race, Sex, and Secrets in the Jim Crow Southby Alex Heard
Harper Perennial; Published: 2011-05-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.08
Price in other shops:
Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in Historyby Erik Larson
Vintage; Published: 2000-07-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.28
Price in other shops:
From the Mississippi Delta: A Memoirby Endesha Ida Mae Holland Ph.D.
Lawrence Hill Books; Published: 1999-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $64.99
American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare: The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Leeby Karen Abbott
Random House; Published: 2010-12-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.78
Price in other shops:
Flapper: A Madcap Story of Sex, Style, Celebrity, and the Women Who Made America Modernby Joshua Zeitz
Broadway; Published: 2007-02-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.00
Price in other shops:
The Devil's Gentleman: Privilege, Poison, and the Trial That Ushered in the Twentieth Centuryby Harold Schechter
Ballantine Books; Published: 2008-09-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.12
Price in other shops:
In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlinby Erik Larson
Crown; Published: 2011-05-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.97
Price in other shops:
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed Americaby Erik Larson
Vintage; Published: 2004-02-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.89
Price in other shops:
Thunderstruckby Erik Larson
Broadway; Published: 2007-09-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.70
Price in other shops: