Golden Fleece: The Story of Franz Joseph and Elisabeth of Austria

by Bertita Harding

Overview

First published in 1937, this is German-born American author Bertita Harding’s biography of Franz Joseph I (1830-1916), Austria’s longest-reigning Emperor and King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia (1848-1916), and his wife Elisabeth of Austria (1837-1898).

Illustrated with superb photographs, many of them previously never seen.

“Here is one of the great dramas and romances and tragedies of history. […]Tremendously vital and human and a warmer picture of Franz Joseph than previously encountered…”—Kirkus Review

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781787204256
Publisher:	Borodino Books
Publication date:	04/07/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	407
File size:	21 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Bertita Harding (11 November 1902 - 31 December 1971) was a royal biographer with an easy and sometimes humorous style that made her a popular author.

Born as Bertita Carla Camille Leonarz in Nuremberg, Bavaria, her family moved to Mexico City in 1905, where Bertita then spent her formative years. She attended a catholic school, made trips to Europe and the United States and learned German, Spanish, English Hungarian and French. In 1912 the family moved to Monterrey where she began piano lessons. In 1923, she was sent to the United States to improve her English at Wisconsin University, and there she met Jack Harding, a British-born American. The couple married in 1926 and settled in Indianapolis, Indiana. Bertita became a naturalized American citizen in 1927 and began to have some success as concert pianist; however, she abandoned that career in 1929 and started to write Phantom Crown: The Story of Maximilian and Carlota of Mexico. The book sold well, and in the following years she continued to publish more books about royalty and became a well-known author.

Phantom Crown was turned into a screenplay by John Huston for the film Juarez (1939). The Hardings moved to Hollywood in 1940 where she was offered a job as a writer for Warner Brothers studio, and she spent winters in Indianapolis and the summers in Mexico. Her biography of Richard Wagner was also made into a film, Magic Fire, by German director William Dieterle in 1955.

In 1940 she made a trip to Brazil that inspired her books on the House of Braganza of Brazil. The following year she began a career as lecturer, giving more than 120 lectures throughout the United States. During World War II her husband served as lieutenant colonel and she sold war bonds on support of the troops. After the death of her husband in 1953, she moved permanently to Mexico City.

She died in 1971 at the age of 69.