The misanthrope's corner

National Review, July 20, 1998 by Florence King

This could be the accompanying text for the original drawings of the Gibson Girl, the "new woman" of the early twentieth century who threw off Victorian shackles to become man's equal. One of the models used by Charles Dana Gibson was a creamy brunette named Evelyn Nesbit who posed on the beach in a black bathing dress. The mistress of famed architect Stanford White, who built her an indoor playground in their love nest, Evelyn later married Harry Thaw, an insanely jealous millionaire who found out about White and shot him dead during a musical revue on the roof of Madison Square Garden in 1906.

Harry got off scot-free but Evelyn was ruined. For years she was the object of smirks and jokes until, at long last, a movie of her life treated her sympathetically. It was called The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing.