Molly Brown: Unraveling the Myth

by Kristen Iversen

Overview

WILLA Literary Award Winner and Colorado Book Award Winner! When Margaret Tobin Brown arrived in New York City shortly after her perilous night in Titanic’s Lifeboat Six, a legend was born. Through magazines, books, a Broadway musical, and a Hollywood movie, she became “The Unsinkable Molly Brown,” but in the process her life story was distorted beyond recognition. Even her name was changed—she was never known as “Molly” during her lifetime. Kristen Iversen’s Molly Brown: Unraveling the Myth is the first full-length biography of this American icon, and the story it tells is of a passionate and outspoken crusader for the rights of women, children, mine workers, and others struggling for their voice in the early twentieth century. In the end, the real “Molly” Brown was far more fascinating than her myth, and Kristen Iversen has captured her in all her brilliance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781555664688
Publisher:	Bower House
Publication date:	04/15/2018
Edition description:	Third Edition
Pages:	294
Sales rank:	324,788
Product dimensions:	6.07(w) x 9.13(h) x 0.84(d)

About the Author

Kristen Iversen grew up in Arvada, Colorado, and holds a PhD from the University of Denver. She is the author of several books including the award-winning Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats (Crown), chosen by universities across the country for their Common Read programs and now the subject of a forthcoming documentary. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Nation, Reader's Digest, American Scholar, Fourth Genre, and many other publications. She currently teaches at the University of Cincinnati, where she heads the PhD program in Literary Nonfiction.

Table of Contents

Foreword vi

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xiv

A Note on Sources xvi

A Bump in the Night April 14, 1912 1

A Legend Born April 1912, and Aftermath 31

Raised on the Milk of a Nanny Goat 1867-1886 63

Better Off with a Poor Man 1886-1894 79

An Unfortunate Disposition 1894-1906 107

Why Be Mildewed at Forty? 1906-1912 149

Drum Major of an Imperial Band 1913-1922 179

In the Spirit of Sarah Bernhardt 1922-1932 219

Envoi April 18, 1912 251

Afterword Muffet Laurie Brown 259

Notes 265

Bibliography 286

Index 291

A Conversation with Kristen Iversen 301

Editorial Reviews

“In this extensively researched biography … Iversen reveals that Brown was a far more fascinating and important fi gure than her stage or screen portrayals suggest. … Iversen is particularly adept at placing Brown in the context of her times, making the most of this opportunity to reexamine the Gilded Age and early 20th century through the lens of feminism and economic and social change.”

— PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

“Kristen Iversen has done a fine job of separating fact from fiction in her biography of the flamboyant, unsinkable ‘Molly’ Brown. … A must-read for all Titanic buffs as well as anyone interested in life in turn-of-the-century Colorado.”

— GEORGE BEHE, Author of Titanic: Safety, Speed, and Sacrifice and former V. P. of the Titanic Historical Society

“An entertaining, vivid, and intelligent biography of the woman who was ‘the nearest thing to royalty Denver ever had.’ Written with energy and humor.”

— RIKKI DUCORNET, Author of Gazelle and The Word “Desire”

From the Publisher