“Edie Sedgwick couldn’t be contained. Sometimes that meant she was elusive, other times it meant she got the joke better than anyone else in the room.” The first “it girl” of Andy Warhol’s growing art factory, Edie Sedgwick, lived life as a beautiful woman in New York city, pursuing a career of modeling. In my opinion, the book was amazing and I would highly recommend it. It covers her odd, dark family as she was growing up. Edie was at her peak in her 20’s and the book gives all the details of her life through this time period. Growing up in California with seven siblings in a rich family, her life was troubled from the start. In and out of psychiatric hospitals, Edie struggled to pull herself together. After her brothers death, Edie moved to New York City to pursue her modeling career. Shortly after, illegal substances started to take a part in her life.
Not too long after moving to New York, she met famous filmmaker and artist, Andy Warhol, and was invited to Warhol’s “factory”, (or art studio). Sedgwick was noticed very quickly. Outside media started reporting on her appearances in Warhol’s films. Edie developed her famous look being leotards, mini dresses, earrings, and silver sprayed hair. The Factory years came to an end and Edie went on with her life. After a while, Edie became dependant on drugs and started to break off relationships with her friends who had been there for her.
Written in 2007 by David Weisman and Melissa Painter, “Edie: Girl on Fire,” became well known. With reviews on goodreads.com ranging from “Words seriously can’t describe how much I love this book!” to “If you’re into the 60’s…Fashion…Edie…Warhol… It’s a must. You have to grab it.” Compared to other books based on Edie’s crazy life, this book has a lot more pictures and is made into a coffee table book, making the book itself very appealing.
At the top of the list, I enjoyed the book so much mainly because it goes into her fashion sense and who she was as a person, not just her story. You connect with her in a way that makes you feel like you knew her. She wasn’t like anybody else at the time, she was a fashion and model idol and many people looked up to her, even knowing some of the things she did and accepted her for who she was. The second reason being that it’s not written in a normal story or novel form. It takes quotes from people that were close to her and puts yourself in their shoes and how they saw her in their eyes and really gives you a different way of looking at her. The last reason is being the layout. The cover catches your eye and just by flipping through the book, your mind knows right away that you won’t start falling asleep just by looking at a page. The pictures keep you refreshed and wanting to see more!
I am in love with this book. Edie’s life is a series of twisting events and this coffee table book follows every second of it. From growing up within a troubled family, to becoming a well known face of the late 60s, reading about Edie’s life will be engraved in your brain. The story covers love, acceptance, secrets and fame. I would give this 5/5 stars and I believe anybody who is interested in this topic would agree.