The Murder of Helen Jewett: The Life and Death of a Prostitute in Ninetenth-Century New York Paperback - 1999
by Patricia Cline Cohen
With formidable skill, historian Patricia Cline Cohen has reconstructed the events and characters central to one of the great public melodramas of the 19th century--the murder of a beautiful prostitute and the trial of her lover. 16 illustrations. 2 maps.
From the jacket flap
In 1836, the murder of a young prostitute made headlines in New York City and around the country, inaugurating a sex-and-death sensationalism in news reporting that haunts us today. Patricia Cline Cohen goes behind these first lurid accounts to reconstruct the story of the mysterious victim, Helen Jewett.
From her beginnings as a servant girl in Maine, Helen Jewett refashioned herself, using four successive aliases, into a highly paid courtesan. She invented life stories for herself that helped her build a sympathetic clientele among New York City's elite, and she further captivated her customers through her seductive letters, which mixed elements of traditional feminine demureness with sexual boldness. But she was to meet her match--and her nemesis--in a youth called Richard Robinson. He was one of an unprecedented number of young men who flooded into America's burgeoning cities in the 1830s to satisfy the new business society's seemingly infinite need for clerks. The son of an established Connecticut family, he was intense, arrogant, and given to posturing. He became Helen Jewett's lover in a tempestuous affair and ten months later was arrested for her murder. He stood trial in a five-day courtroom drama that ended with his acquittal amid the cheers of hundreds of fellow clerks and other spectators.
With no conviction for murder, nor closure of any sort, the case continued to tantalize the public, even though Richard Robinson disappeared from view. Through the Erie Canal, down the Ohio and the Mississippi, and by way of New Orleans, he reached the wilds of Texas and a new life under a new name. Through her meticulous and ingenious research, Patricia Cline Cohen traces hislife there and the many twists and turns of the lingering mystery of the murder. Her stunning portrayals of Helen Jewett, Robinson, and their raffish, colorful nineteenth-century world make vivid a frenetic city life and sexual morality whose complexities, contradictions, and concerns resonate with those of our own time.
"From the Hardcover edition.
Details
- Title The Murder of Helen Jewett: The Life and Death of a Prostitute in Ninetenth-Century New York
- Author Patricia Cline Cohen
- Binding Paperback
- Edition [ Edition: first
- Pages 512
- Volumes 1
- Language ENG
- Publisher Vintage, New York, New York, U.S.A.
- Date 1999-06-29
- Illustrated Yes
- Features Illustrated, Index, Maps, Table of Contents
- ISBN 9780679740759 / 0679740759
- Weight 1.05 lbs (0.48 kg)
- Dimensions 8.04 x 5.26 x 1.01 in (20.42 x 13.36 x 2.57 cm)
-
Themes
- Chronological Period: 19th Century
- Chronological Period: 1800-1850
- Cultural Region: Mid-Atlantic
- Cultural Region: Northeast U.S.
- Demographic Orientation: Urban
- Geographic Orientation: New York
- Library of Congress subjects United States - Moral conditions, Jewett, Helen
- Library of Congress Catalog Number 98014561
- Dewey Decimal Code B
Media reviews
Citations
- Entertainment Weekly, 09/03/1999, Page 63
- Ingram Advance, 07/01/1999, Page 52
- New York Times, 08/08/1999, Page 24
- Publishers Weekly Best Books, 01/01/1998, Page 45
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