Alice + Freda Forever: A Murder in Memphis

In 1892, America was obsessed with a teenage murderess, but it wasn't her crime that shocked the nation--it was her motivation. Nineteen-year-old Alice Mitchell had planned to pass as a man in order to marry her seventeen-year-old fianc e Freda Ward, but when their love letters were discovered, they were forbidden from ever speaking again. Freda adjusted to this fate with an ease that stunned a heartbroken Alice. Her desperation grew with each unanswered letter--and her father's razor soon went missing. On January 25, Alice publicly slashed her ex-fianc e's throat. Her same-sex love was deemed insane by her father that very night, and medical experts agreed: This was a dangerous and incurable perversion. As the courtroom was expanded to accommodate national interest, Alice spent months in jail--including the night that three of her fellow prisoners were lynched (an event which captured the attention of journalist and civil rights activist Ida B. Wells). After a jury of the finest men in Memphis declared Alice insane, she was remanded to an asylum, where she died under mysterious circumstances just a few years later. Alice + Freda Forever recounts this tragic, real-life love story with over 100 illustrated love letters, maps, artifacts, historical documents, newspaper articles, courtroom proceedings, and intimate, domestic scenes.

Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Pulp/Zest Books
Published: 08/01/2014
ISBN: 9781936976607
Pages: 223
Weight: 1.10lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.10w x 1.00d
Award: Independent Publisher Book Awards - Gold Medal Winner
Award: Cybils - Finalist

Review Citations: Publishers Weekly 08/04/2014
School Library Journal 09/01/2014 pg. 166
Kirkus Reviews 09/15/2014
Booklist 10/01/2014 pg. 44
Library Journal 11/15/2014 pg. 102