"Not just the queen of burlesque, she was 'Dorothy Parker in a G-string,' as Abbott dubs her in her rollicking new biography, which through extensive research and new interviews with Gypsy's son and sister, peels away a few more shimmering layers to get to the woman behind the mystique."
—Vogue

With her critically acclaimed debut Sin in the Second City, bestselling author Karen Abbott "pioneered sizzle history" (USA Today). Now she returns with the gripping and expansive story of America's coming-of-age told through the extraordinary life of Gypsy Rose Lee and the world she survived and conquered. Join her for a reading, signing, and discussion of American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare: The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee.

About the book:

America in the Roaring Twenties: Vaudeville was king. Talking pictures were only a distant flicker. Speakeasies beckoned beyond dimly lit doorways; money flowed fast and free. But then, almost overnight, the Great Depression leveled everything. When the dust settled, Americans were primed for a star who could distract them from grim reality and excite them in new, unexpected ways. Enter Gypsy Rose Lee, a strutting, bawdy, erudite stripper who possessed a preternatural gift for delivering exactly what America needed.

With her superb writing and eye for compelling detail, Karen Abbott brings to life an era of ambition, glamour, struggle, and survival. Using exclusive interviews and never-before-published material, she vividly delves into Gypsy's world, including her intensely dramatic triangle relationship with her sister, actress June Havoc, and their formidable mother, Rose, a petite but ferocious woman who seduced men and women alike and literally killed to get her daughters on the stage.

With a supporting cast of such Jazz Age and Depression-era heavyweights as Lucky Luciano, Harry Houdini, FDR, and Fanny Brice, Abbott weaves a rich narrative of a woman who defied all odds to become a legend—and whose sensational tale of tragedy and triumph embodies the American Dream.

About the Author:

Karen Abbott is the New York Times bestselling author of Sin in the Second City. A native of Philadelphia, she now lives in New York City with her husband and two African Grey parrots who do a mean Ethel Merman.

Tweet