{"product_id":"lady-romeo-the-radical-and-revolutionary-life-of-charlotte-cushman-americas-first-celebrity-9781501199530","title":"Lady Romeo: The Radical and Revolutionary Life of Charlotte Cushman, America's First Celebrity","description":"\u003cb\u003eFor fans of \u003ci\u003eBook of Ages \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eAmerican Eve\u003c\/i\u003e, this \"lively, illuminating,\" and enthralling biography of trailblazing 19th-century queer actress Charlotte Cushman \"reveals the force and vitality of this woman on the stage and off\" (\u003ci\u003eThe Boston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e). \u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAll her life, Charlotte Cushman refused to submit to others' expectations. Raised in Boston at the time of the transcendentalists, a series of disasters cleared the way for her life on the stage--a path she eagerly took, rejecting marriage and creating a life of adventure, playing the role of the hero in and out of the theater as she traveled to New Orleans and New York City, and eventually to London and back to build a successful career. Her Hamlet, Romeo, Lady Macbeth, and Nancy Sykes from \u003ci\u003eOliver Twist \u003c\/i\u003ebecame canon, impressing Louisa May Alcott, who later based a character on her in \u003ci\u003eJo's Boys\u003c\/i\u003e, and Walt Whitman, who raved about \"the towering grandeur of her genius\" in his columns for the \u003ci\u003eBrooklyn Daily Eagle\u003c\/i\u003e. She acted alongside Edwin and John Wilkes Booth--supposedly giving the latter a scar on his neck that was later used to identify him as President Lincoln's assassin--and visited frequently with the Great Emancipator himself, who was a devoted Shakespeare fan and admirer of Cushman's work. Her wife immortalized her in the angel at the top of Central Park's Bethesda Fountain; worldwide, she was \"a lady universally acknowledged as the greatest living tragic actress.\" Behind the scenes, she was equally radical, making an independent income, supporting her family, creating one of the first bohemian artists' colonies abroad, and living publicly as a queer woman. And yet, her name has since faded into the shadows. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eNow, her story comes to brilliant life with Tana Wojczuk's \u003ci\u003eLady Romeo\u003c\/i\u003e, an exhilarating and enlightening biography of \"the first real American celebrity\" (\u003ci\u003eChicago Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e). With new research and rarely seen letters and documents, Wojczuk \"paints the past with words, and the reader is effortlessly drawn into a forgotten world\" (Jonathan Lethem) featuring a cast of luminaries and revolutionaries who changed the cultural landscape of America forever. The story of an astonishing and uniquely American life, \u003ci\u003eLady Romeo \u003c\/i\u003ereveals one of the most remarkable forgotten figures in our history and restores her to center stage, where she belongs.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Avid Reader Press \/ Simon \u0026amp; Schuster\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/08\/2021\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781501199530\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 240","brand":"Tana Wojczuk","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39956418134197,"sku":"9781501199530","price":14.45,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_0f24b4e8-6e19-4768-8e75-58cc5d3d6b20.jpg?v=1620220532","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/lady-romeo-the-radical-and-revolutionary-life-of-charlotte-cushman-americas-first-celebrity-9781501199530","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}