The Great Mrs. Elias
Description
The author of the award-winning Sally Hemings now brings to life Hannah Elias, one of the richest black women in America in the early 1900s, in this mesmerizing novel swirling with atmosphere and steeped in history.
A murder
and a case of mistaken identity brings the police to Hannah Elias’ glitzy,
five-story, twenty-room mansion on Central Park West. This is the beginning of an odyssey that moves back and
forth in time and reveals the dangerous secrets of a mysterious woman, the
fortune she built, and her precipitous fall.
Born in
Philadelphia in the late 1800s, Hannah Elias has done things she’s not proud of
to survive. Shedding her past, Hannah slips on a new identity before relocating
to New York City to become as rich as a robber baron. Hannah quietly invests in the stock market, growing
her fortune with the help of businessmen. As the money pours in, Hannah hides
her millions across 29 banks. Finally attaining the life she’s always dreamed,
she buys a mansion on the Upper West Side and decorates it in gold and first-rate
décor, inspired by her idol Cleopatra.
The unsolved
murder turns Hannah’s world upside-down and threatens to destroy everything
she’s built. When the truth of her identity is uncovered, thousands of
protestors gather in front of her stately home. Hounded by the salacious press,
the very private Mrs. Elias finds herself alone, ensnared in a scandalous
trial, and accused of stealing her fortune from whites.
Packed
with glamour, suspense, and drama, populated with real-life luminaries from the
period, The Great Mrs. Elias brings a fascinating woman and the age she
embodied to glorious, tragic life.
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Person
Barbara Chase-Riboud is the bestselling author one biography and six historical novels, including the internationally celebrated Sally Hemings. A distinguished poet who has published three collections, she won the Carl Sandburg Poetry Prize for Best American Poet for her second collection, Portrait of a Nude Women as Cleopatra, and her first collection, Memphis & Peking was edited by Toni Morrison and released to critical acclaim. She is also a celebrated artist, and the recipient of many fellowships and prizes. She was the first African American graduate of the School of Design and Architecture at Yale University in 1960, and received a knighthood in Arts and Letters from the French government in 1996. She lives in Paris, Rome, and New York.