King Lehr and the Gilded Age: With Extracts from the Locked Diary of Harry Lehr - Softcover

Elizabeth Drexel Lehr; Lady Decies

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1557099634 ISBN 13: 9781557099631

Publisher: Applewood Books, 2005

Synopsis

Harry Symes Lehr was born in 1869 into a family that was neither wealthy nor socially prominent. His natural gift for entertaining and his penchant for hobnobbing with the very rich earned him entry to the powerful circle of the New York and Newport social elite, where Harry clowned his way to a position of prominence. One of his admirers and patrons, Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish, introduced him to a young widow, Elizabeth Wharton Drexel. Elizabeth was smitten with young Harry, his elegant dress, and outrageous behavior. They were soon married. But King Lehr had a secret―he was not what he seemed. On their wedding night he cruelly dictated to his new bride the rules of their strange bedfellowship. For twenty-three years, Mrs. Lehr protected his secret and remained in a loveless and abusive marriage. After Harry’s death, Elizabeth remarried, to the Baron Decies. Lady Decies wrote down her secret story in 1938, incorporating Harry’s most intimate diaries, and told all in this scandalous tale of power, desire, and deception.

About this edition

• Publisher: Applewood Books
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1557099634
• ISBN 13: 9781557099631
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 330