Edie

The quintessential book for anyone writing a modern biography, as well as a page-turning read. Jean Stein and George Plimpton brilliantly create a moving portrait of an Andy Warhol acolyte who became a Warhol Superstar and then an enduring icon of the 1960s, before dying of a drug overdose at age 28. A fascinating oral history that simultaneously depicts a beautiful, glamourous, and troubled young woman and a nation undergoing a paradigm shift.

There’s running away from home, running away from your life, and there’s running away from yourself. Edie Sedgewick did all three. After being raised in an elite family on California ranches, after boarding schools and mental hospitals, Edie landed right smack in the midst of one of the most socially and artistically exciting scenes on the planet - New York in the 1960s. As Andy Warhol’s “It Girl,” she lived a decadent work/party life full of new ideas in music, politics, film, poetry, and art. A classic romp through that glamorous, incredibly fun, and inspiring, yet tragic counterculture.

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I read this biography of Edie Sedgwick, the late model, actress, and Warhol Superstar, when I was starting work on my own book and was just dazzled by how revealing and well-structured it is. Edie captures the ’60s It Girl’s life in stark detail — from her aristocratic but incredibly dysfunctional childhood all the way to her 1971 death, of a drug overdose, at the age of 28. It’s gripping, often sordid stuff, and the true masterpiece of the oral history form.