Mary Gabriel

The rich, revealing, and thrilling story of five women whose lives and painting propelled a revolution in modern art, from the National Book Award finalist. Set amid the most turbulent social and political period of modern times, Ninth Street Women is the impassioned, wild, sometimes tragic, always exhilarating chronicle of five women who dared to enter the male-dominated world of twentieth-century abstract painting--not as muses but as artists. From their cold-water lofts, where they worked, drank, fought, and loved, these pioneers burst open the door to the art world for themselves and countless others to come. Gutsy and indomitable, Lee Krasner was a hell-raising leader among artists long before she became part of the modern art world's first celebrity couple by marrying Jackson Pollock. Elaine de Kooning, whose brilliant mind and peerless charm made her the emotional center of the New York School, used her work and words to build a bridge between the avant-garde and a public that scorned abstract art as a hoax. Grace Hartigan fearlessly abandoned life as a New Jersey housewife and mother to achieve stardom as one of the boldest painters of her generation. Joan Mitchell, whose notoriously tough exterior shielded a vulnerable artist within, escaped a privileged but emotionally damaging Chicago childhood to translate her fierce vision into magnificent canvases. And Helen Frankenthaler, the beautiful daughter of a prominent New York family, chose the difficult path of the creative life. Her gamble paid off: At twenty-three she created a work so original it launched a new school of painting. These women changed American art and society, tearing up the prevailing social code and replacing it with a doctrine of liberation. In Ninth Street Women, acclaimed author Mary Gabriel tells a remarkable and inspiring story of the power of art and artists in shaping not just postwar America but the future.

Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler: Five Painters and the Movement That Changed Modern Art

Ninth Street Women

Brilliantly researched and wonderfully written, LOVE AND CAPITAL is a heartbreaking and dramatic saga of the family side of the man whose works would redefine the world after his death. Drawing upon years of research, acclaimed biographer Mary Gabriel brings to light the story of Karl and Jenny Marx's marriage. We follow them as they roam Europe, on the run from governments amidst an age of revolution and a secret network of would-be revolutionaries, and see Karl not only as an intellectual, but as a protective father and loving husband, a revolutionary, a jokester, a man of tremendous passions, both political and personal. In LOVE AND CAPITAL, Mary Gabriel has given us a vivid, resplendent, and truly human portrait of the Marxes-their desires, heartbreak and devotion to each other's ideals.

Karl and Jenny Marx and the Birth of a Revolution

Love and Capital

Paul Avrich Collection (Library of Congress)

A biography of the first woman to address Congress, operate a Wall Street brokerage firm, and run for president provides an intimate portrait of Victoria Woodhull's life

The Life of Victoria Woodhull, Uncensored

Notorious Victoria

9th Street Women

'A whopping biography of the pop phenomenon and queen of reinvention. Life is a mystery - hers oughtn't to be after reading this.' THE TIMES, ' biggest books for autumn' 'A fascinating take on one of music's greatest icons' BELFAST TELEGRAPH In this exceptional biography, Pulitzer Prize finalist Mary Gabriel chronicles the meteoric rise and enduring influence of the greatest female pop icon of the modern era: Madonna. 'Daring to write a biography of a woman with whom the entire world is on a first-name basis, Mary Gabriel has created (astonishingly) a book neither gossip-driven nor highly snarky... she reveals instead a Madonna both more true and more unbelievably believable; a rock-and-roll suffragette... Norman Mailer once said to Madonna, 'I've come to the conclusion that you are a great artist.' Exquisitely detailed in her storytelling, Gabriel is clearly in that camp, convincing us that we all still vogue in the House of Madonna.' Brad Gooch, author of City Poet With her arrival on the music scene in the early 1980s, Madonna generated nothing short of an explosion - as great as that of Elvis or the Beatles - taking the nation by storm with her liberated politics and breathtaking talent. But Madonna was more than just a pop star. Everywhere, fans gravitated to her as an emblem of a new age, one in which feminism could shed the buttoned-down demeanour of the 1970s and feel relevant to a new generation. Amid the scourge of AIDS, she brought queer identities into the mainstream, fiercely defending a person's right to love whomever - and be whoever - they wanted. Despite fierce criticism, she never separated her music from her political activism. And as an artist, she never stopped experimenting. Madonna existed to push past boundaries by creating provocative, visionary music, videos, films and live performances that changed culture globally. Deftly tracing Madonna's story from her Michigan roots to her rise to super-stardom, master biographer Mary Gabriel captures the dramatic life and achievements of one of the greatest artists of our time.

A Rebel Life - The Biography

Madonna

A Feminist Tale

For four and a half decades, Etta and Claribel Cone roamed artists' studios and art galleries in Europe, building one of the largest, most important art collections in the world. At one time, these two independently wealthy Jewish women from Baltimore received offers from virtually every prominent art museum in the world, all anxious to house their hitherto private assemblage of modern art. In 1949, they awarded all their holdings to the Baltimore Museum of Art. In 2002, that collection was valued at nearly $1 billion, making them two of the most philanthropic art collectors of our age.Yet, for complex reasons, the story of the Cone sisters has never been fully or accurately told.Mary Gabriel, an art-minded journalist and women's historian, has, at long last, brought the little-known sisters to life, and shone the spotlight on their remarkable achievements.

A Portrait of Etta and Claribel Cone

The Art of Acquiring

“A remarkable biography . . . Well written and researched, this book warrants a spot on every serious American history student’s bookshelf.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review She was the first woman to run for president. She was the first woman to address the U.S. Congress and to operate a brokerage firm on Wall Street. She’s the woman Gloria Steinem called “the most controversial suffragist of them all.” So why have most people never heard of Victoria Woodhull? In this extensively researched biography, journalist Mary Gabriel offers readers a balanced portrait of a unique and complicated woman who was years ahead of her time—and perhaps ahead of our own. “One of the most controversial American women of the late nineteenth century springs to life in this study that leaves no stone unturned.” —Publishers Weekly “[A] deftly written biography . . . of a hell-raising visionary.” —Mirabella “A meaty slice of feminist history peppered with Victorian drama.” —Civilization

The Uncensored Life of Victoria Woodhull - Visionary, Suffragist, and First Woman to Run for President

Heiresses to a family fortune, Etta and Claribel Cone, Jewish sisters from Baltimore, amassed a major collection of modern French artworks. Their Victorian demeanour and dress belied two free-spirited eccentrics whose bold purchases of avant-garde, sometimes erotic art shocked early 20th-century society. They bought paintings by Matisse, Picasso, Cezanne, Degas, Van Gogh, Manet, Redon, Pissarro, and others. After their death, their collection was bequeathed to the Baltimore Museum of Art.

Karl ve Jenny Marx, kızları Jennychen, Laura ve Tussy, en yakın dostları ve dava arkadaşları “General” Friedrich Engels… “Marx Partisi”nin öteki üyeleri olan damatlar, renkli karakterler, devrimciler, sürgünler ve kimi zaman korkuyla kimi zaman umutla dolu canlı bir aile ortamı… Tarihe yeni bir gözle bakıp bambaşka bir gelecek gören Marx ve Engels'le birlikte dünyayı, kurulu düzeni değiştirmeye çalışan insanlar ve tarihin hızla aktığı 19. yüzyılda Avrupa… Mary Gabriel, Marx'ın geniş ailesinin hikâyesini, dönemin önemli olayları ışığında ve Marx'ın önemli eserleriyle harmanlayarak anlatıyor. Gabriel, aile üyelerinin hayat hikâyelerini kaleme aldıkça, Marx'ın dünyayı değiştiren metinlerinde yazılanlar kadar bu metinlerin yazım süreçlerinin ve zamanındaki etkilerinin de önemli olduğunu keşfediyor. İşte Aşk ve Kapital'i benzer çalışmalardan ayıran da özellikle bu etkileşim üzerinde durması: Yazara göre, Jenny ve Karl arasındaki özveriye dayalı ilişkinin doğası anlaşılmadan, Kapital'in yazım sürecini hakkıyla değerlendirmek zor olacaktır. Veya bizzat Mary Gabriel'in sözleriyle, “Marx ailesindeki kadınlar olmasaydı Karl Marx var olmazdı ve Karl Marx olmasaydı, dünya bugün bildiğimiz dünya olmazdı.” Marx'ın ölümünden sonra geride bıraktığı yazı ve notlarını düzenleme görevini memnuniyetle üstlenen Engels, Laura'ya yazdığı bir mektupta şöyle diyor: “Aklım almıyor! Kafasında böylesine heybetli keşifler, bütünlüklü ve eksiksiz bir bilimsel devrim bulunan bir insan, bunları nasıl yirmi yıl orada tutabilmiş?” Aşk ve Kapital, bir anlamda, Engels'in bu sorusunu değiştirerek “Neden?” diye soruyor. Kapital'in diğer ciltlerinin yazımı neden Marx'ın ölümünden sonraya kalıyor? Her okurun, bu büyük devrimcinin mücadelesi ile ailesi arasında kurmaya çalıştığı dengeyi, tereddüt, umut ve hayal kırıklıklarını okuyarak bu soruya kendince bir cevap bulacağına inanıyoruz.

Karl ile Jenny Marx ve Bir Devrimin Doğuşu

Aşk ve Kapital

Never Kiss A Stranger by Mary Gabriel released on May 24, 1985 is available now for purchase.

Mary Gabriel

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