For readers that are history buffs, Gilded Age lovers and feminists, this book is for you. Thoroughly researched, “Diamonds and Deadlines” takes you through the life and career of Miriam Leslie, and it’s interesting at every turn. From her poor upbringing to numerous attempts at marriage to leadership at the helm of a number of publications, Miriam Leslie is a figure I’d never heard of, but now won’t soon forget. Overshadowed by the Vanderbilts and Rockefellers in wealth, and Pulitizers and Hearsts in publishing, Miriam forged a name for herself as a woman in charge. Leaving a financial endowment for the suffrage movement after her death, Leslie showed that earlier decisions and sentiments may have been made to remain secure in her career, but left a large impact on the women’s movement at large. Big thanks to NetGalley and Abrams Press for this ARC!

An interesting and engaging look at a woman that history has forgotten. We still hear about Pulitzer and Hearst and they're yellow journalism feud, but I had never heard of Miriam or Frank Leslie Publishing and found the story of her life and business fascinating. Her willingness to shrug off convention when necessary while also using societies rules to her own advantage is something many women will understand and appreciate.

Overall, a well-written, engaging biography crammed full of interesting history. Narrative nonfiction readers will love this one.

This was a pretty interesting biography of a women that strived so hard to be remembered and commemorated by the world, but she never full achieved that feeling and got that fame and prestige that she so desperately wanted.
Miriam Leslie was a woman who came from a hard background and she seized every opportunity in sight to better herself and her circumstances in the eyes of the world. She went through several men, quite a few different scandals and pulled out some truly stunning business deals throughout her life.
This is an extremely well-written and put-together biography, but overall I had a hard time reading just based on the formatting of the story. The author puts Miriam Leslie's story together very well and does not shy away from the different stages of her life that she went through. However, I did not enjoy it as a whole book and would not reach for this again.

Miriam Leslie was as much a publishing tycoon as her male counterparts. She established herself as an astute businesswoman, author, and publisher. However, her life and her situations really fell short for me. I really wish I liked this book more, and I found it to be repetitive and lacking in areas, despite learning about this wonderful enigma of a woman. I do recommend this book to those who are fans of biographies, women's history, the Gilded Age, and publishing. Its worth the read if you are interested in these subjects, however, if you aren't into these topics I would skip this title.

I have more read books about/set during the Gilded Age than I care to count and although I had heard of Frank Leslie, I knew nothing of his wife, Miriam. A singular character of grit, determination, showmanship and pizzazz, Miriam lived a truly remarkable life and Betsy Prioleau's extensively researched book is a gift to readers.

Thank you to Abrams Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read the ARC of this excellent book and provide an honest review.

This is a pretty solid book about a little-known woman from the Gilded Age and her adventurous life. However, the approach felt rather dry and staid at times, sucking the life from the topic.

Welcome to the world of a remarkable woman - Mrs. Frank Leslie. The illegitimate biracial daughter of a slave and a dead beat father, she started life in poverty in New Orleans. She became a larger than life character during the Gilded Age and at the time of her death had enough wealth to will $1 million to support the suffragist movement and the 19th amendment. With four husbands and controlling the largest publishing empire of its day, she was a force to be reckoned with. Even though her husband, Frank Leslie started the publishing empire, at the time of his death that empire was on its last gasp. It was his wife who revived it, not once but twice and did it her way.
She loved men, many many men, was an actress in her youth, possibly a prostitute, as well. She had a love of fine fashion and took a yearly trip to Paris to have the House of Worth create her entire wardrobe for the year. Jewelry was another passion of hers and she had an enormous collection. Everything she did was scandalous and she was always reinventing her life story. It's a shame that history has relegated her to the shadows but this well written and painstakingly researched book brings her life onto the stage once more and I enjoyed it from start to finish.
My thanks to the publisher Abrams Press and to NetGalley for giving me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

Diamonds and Deadlines is the history of Miriam Leslie's life. Her background is believed to have been of mixed racial heritage from New Orleans. She grew up very poor with a father always looking for a get rich scheme. Miriam spoke multiple languages and learned how to read a room early in life. She managed to live with E. G. Squier, her husband, while conducting a relationship with another man, Frank Leslie (who pursued her), in full view of society. Later, she ran several magazine publications at a time that this was unheard while married to Frank Leslie. She was in charge several publications during prosperity and restored them from bankruptcy caused by others multiple times. She aspired to be accepted by upper society around the world. Once she was able to get there she never wanted to lose her place, she kept fighting to maintain her position and be accepted until the end of her life.

The book presents the history of society and racial tensions which were often cruel, judgmental and dismissive. The writer through her depiction leads us to believe that there was a lot more racial antipathy across the nation at the time. This was not necessarily the north against the south in the matter of race. The inclusion of the use of cosmetics to hide the color of Miriam's skin in order to help her pass more as white or lighter skinned is fascinating. This is information that I had not read before.

There was an very interesting mention of the Presidential race between Tilden versus Rutherford B. Hayes. Republican operatives disputed election results in several states which in turn resulted a battleground across the country. The campaign was supposed to be a win for Tilden (184 Electoral votes of 185) and Hayes (165) which turned ugly and centered on three Southern states, with two different sets of returns, and a bribery blitz. The deadlock was finally resolved on February 27 in favor of Hayes, including a full scale constitutional crisis and the 'threat of a horrible civil war.' History does repeat itself, not always favorably.

The language at the time was different and a little cumbersome even though it is English. I was glad I could highlight the words I was unsure of and read the definition to help me understand how it was being used.

This is a very interesting story about history and how Miriam Leslie was more than just Frank Leslie's wife. Miriam was a person who contributed greatly and changed some of societal norms during her life.

I had no idea who Miriam Leslie was before reading this and now I'm fascinated! What a ride. It's hard to deliver so much research and detail without bogging down the book, but Prioleau did a great job! I thought a lot about The Woman They Could Not Silence by Kate Moore when I read this. Though the time periods differ a bit, the writing styles are similar.

This is another example of a mostly forgotten woman who was pivotal to the suffrage movement and to the changing culture of the United States. It would be easy to dismiss Miriam Leslie for her "loose morals" but I think they help to show her power, innovation, and resilience, especially after the awful childhood she had.

Usually I enjoy books that cover the Gilded Age, whether they are survey histories of the period or profiles of the famous society members. However I couldn't enjoy this particular book. Yes it is impressive that Miriam Leslie was able to take over her 3rd husband's newspaper business at a time when the majority of newspapers were run by men. However, all the subterfuge in her life regarding her background is a turn off for me. There is nothing wrong with being a trailblazer in business...but Miriam could have accomplished that without being so immoral in other ways. I'm lost on how female empowerment can be gleaned from this book. What I see is human arrogance and hypocrisy. She can't be empowered and yet still feel that a man should provide for her financially. It's either one or the other. Others may enjoy this book, but it just didn't work for me.

Diamonds and Deadlines by Betsy Prioleau
Release Date: 3/29/2022

Diamonds and Deadlines is an intriguing biography that follows the life of Miriam Leslie. Born to lower class French immigrants, Miriam rises amongst the social ranks and becomes a journalistic tycoon in the Gilded Age. Through various husbands, financial catastrophes, and a growing divide between the rich and the poor in America, Miriam amasses a fortune twice, champions women's rights, and helps change the way the journalism industry was run.

I came into this book with very limited knowledge of the Gilded Age so it was very interesting for me to read about the social and economic conflicts between the rich and the poor during that time period. The beginning of the book seemed a bit all over the place for me but that's because so little is known about Miriam's early life as she reinvented her backstory so many times. I found it fascinating to read about all of the financial, professional, and romantic struggles this woman went through and to see her continue to rise to every challenge.

Thank you to @netgalley and Abrams Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This book was a struggle to rate, as it is very obviously thoroughly researched and informative, but the delivery and abundance of said material most definitely dragged it down for me.

I learned a lot from this book! About Miriam Leslie herself, her probable mixed racial heritage, how she managed to live in a ménage à trois in full view of society, the many market busts she weathered once she had married into money. She was a mix of contradictions; mixed-race and passing, yet the newspaper empire Leslie built was founded in part by courting confederate pro-slavery sensibilities in order to keep as large an audience as possible. Miriam herself learned how to read the room, the popular magazines she began to run promoting women's societal roles as mothers and household keepers, even as she herself shirked household duties and domestic affairs. She really contained multitudes in this sense, straddling social dichotomies in the ways best to her own social and financial advantage.

The book presents more societal history, too; I never knew how pro-slavery the city of New York was at the end of the 1850s, the sweatshop labor practices involved in production of Cuban cigars, specific cosmetics one would use at the turn of the century. In a memorable passage the author mentions the Franco-Prussian war and a choice quote from one of the commanders ("We're in a chamber pot, and they'll shit on us"), an entertaining inclusion.

So I will say this was clearly well researched and very detailed, particularly with the ins and outs of the newspaper industry but...this often renders passages dense and dull, too. It became a chore to get through.

There are also oddities with the writing style beyond its boring nature. Passages and paragraphs are liberally doused with quotation marks, often around sporadic single words so that half the page seems to be the punctuation symbols. Sometimes they're more air quote than normal quote marks, too, and I feel like paraphrasing or some other tactic could've gotten the point across with less quotes all over.

High educational value combined with low readability for me to place this at about three stars.

This book is a must-read for fans of HBO's Gilded Age. As someone who reads fictional tales set during this time period, and I really enjoyed having the chance to learn about a real-life woman who was not only a successful businesswoman but was also involved in the women's suffrage movement. Miriam Leslie truly was a force to be reckoned with!

Diamonds and Deadlines by Betsy Prioleau is the perfect balance of multiple elements. The story of newspaper mogul Miriam Leslie (among a host of many other names), Prioleau writes a biography of a complicated woman who is part fraud and part trailblazer. This can easily become a dry list of personal accomplishments, hero worship, or gossip mongering. Instead, Prioleau tells a nuanced story which takes into account all aspects of Leslie's life whether the facts make her look amazing or awful.

The perfect example of Prioleau's adept handling of the subject matter is the description of Leslie's many fashion choices. Often, authors fall into the trap of showing off how extensive their research is by over-explaining the grandeur of any given wardrobe choice. Leslie's choice of dress is vital to her character, but Prioleau quickly highlights her very expensive choices without bogging down the narrative with pages of explanation. Her narrative is even and never slows down to focus on needless details. It takes this from a good biography to a great read.

(I was provided this book as an advance copy from Netgalley and Abrams books. The full review is available on HistoryNerdsUnited.com)

I’ve been reading and watching a lot of books and documentaries about the Gilded Age, when Vanderbilts and Rockefellers and Morgans ruled the United States. I thought I knew all the major players, but I was wrong. There was another titan, this one of publishing, that I’d not heard of before: Miriam Leslie. Her life is a fascinating story. I received an Advanced Reader’s Copy of Diamonds and Deadlines: A Tale of Greed, Deceit and a Female Tycoon in the Gilded Age from NetGalley and Abrams Press in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Like I said, I had never heard of Miriam Leslie, also known as Mrs. Frank Leslie, in all my reading about the Gilded Age. But there she was, the head of a publishing empire upon the death of her husband. The periodicals she produced are not known today, but in their time, they were some of the most highly circulated magazines in the country. The story of how she got there is fascinating.

The beginning part of the book was very confusing because there was so much confusion about Miriam’s early life. There’s so much about Miriam’s early life that is purely conjecture, some that is based upon written letters, some by Miriam herself and others. What is alleged in this book is that Miriam was actually born illegitimately in the south and was biracial. As an adult, she used plenty of powders to hide her darker olive complexion, and “passed” as white. She may or may not have been a prostitute at some points in her life, she most certainly had a lot of lovers and racked up four husbands in an era when divorce was shocking.

Miriam accumulated not only husbands but great wealth through them, most importantly through her third husband, Frank Leslie. But lest one think that Miriam simply inherited the publishing empire and then went to work, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. During his lifetime, Frank Leslie gave his wife control of several publications and trusted her judgment and style. The two traveled to Europe once a year and she had her entire wardrobe designed by Worth’s in Paris, meaning she was always the height of fashion. Frank also bought her copious amount of jewels, which she draped over herself for their many society outings. Women looked to her, through her publications, to see what was fashionable, and how to be a better woman.

Miriam may not seem like a suffragist the way she constantly concentrated on jewels, clothes and makeup, and how a polite lady behaves in society, but later in life, she befriended Cary Chapman Catt, the suffragist. During the last years of her life, she changed her will no less than six times, and ultimately, at the time of her death, left the bulk of her estate to the suffragist movement. The amount was approximately $2 million. After lawsuits and lawyers’ fees were paid, the final amount was around $1 million. That money was used in a variety of ways to aid the movement and was a big reason the 19th amendment was passed when it did.

I am fascinated with the gilded age ,I was fascinated by Diamonds and Deadlines a non fiction book that reads like fiction.An amazing woman Miriam Leslie’who lived her lifet the way she wanted ahead of her time.Will be recommending.

I'm a huge fan of books on this time period and I am surprised I didn't learn about her sooner. I loved reading about a woman, succeeding in a man's world, and flouting the conventions of her time. The book is very well researched and draws you in. It almost feels like you are reading a fiction novel, instead of a biography. So glad I got to learn more about this woman and how she helped shape the women's suffrage movement.

Well researched biography of Miriam Leslie, who owned & operated the largest publishing company during the United States' Gilded Age. She was a pioneer in an all-male industry. She was brazen, scandalous, a woman before her time. She did what she had to do in order to survive. Her greatest accomplishment, in my opinion, was after her death. Her will stipulated that a huge amount of money be donated to Carrie Chapman Catt for "the furtherance of the cause of Woman's Suffrage". The amount has never been exceeded and revolutionized the movement, likely propelling the passing of the 19th amendment in 1920!

The author's writing was somewhat pretentious at times almost as if she had a list of "never heard before" words on hand (eg. embonpoint) to keep me scouring my dictionary. Book was a bit long and slow-paced but if you're a fan of scrappy, can-do women, then you'll enjoy this. Recommended.

I was gifted this advance copy by NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.

Miriam Leslie was virtually unknown to me until I read this biography. She fabricated her background, had illicit relationships , and spearheaded a publishing empire. She lived the glitz and glam life of the Gilded Age, but was out of touché with reality as she aged.
Still, she lived life in her own terms and I can admire that.

This book is a riveting, rollicking read. The bizarre and sometimes incredible plot twists of Miriam Leslie’s life are somewhere between a fever dream and the cliffhangers of a serialized novel. She is addicting and you simply must know what happens next. Leslie’s professional accomplishments commanding a Gilded Age publishing empire made her a celebrity in her day. She should be better known in ours, and Prioleau’s Diamonds and Deadlines moves in that direction.

Miriam Leslie wholly invented and frequently reinvented herself. Her identities were numerous. She was born in poverty in New Orleans in 1836 as Miriam Follin to a shiftless white father always desperately looking for a way to get rich quick and possibly to an enslaved Black mother. She manufactured a pedigree that obscured her race and class and early exposure to various unsavory situations, including prostitution and a turn on the stage (which was, at the time, almost equally morally suspect). She married multiple times, including late in life inexplicably to Oscar Wilde’s dissolute younger brother. She was constantly in the company of fraudsters and poseurs trying to get something from nothing. Frank Leslie (not his real name, of course!), her third of four husbands, was seemingly the only one in her orbit who actually worked and succeeded, though he, too, left her in financial ruin when he died. She then took over the reins of his media operation—calling herself not just Mrs. Frank Leslie but actually changing her own name to Frank Leslie—and righted the ship, though she then herself sank it at least once before returning to wealth. You will lose count of her husbands, suitors, names, fake birth years, Manhattan addresses, bad bets, and dramatic reversals of fortune. But she kept going, ultimately declaring herself Baroness de Bazus, a completely fabricated title that the New York Times actually used in referring to her at her death.

She presented as, by and large, all about herself, and was not particularly interested in the status of women or their professional opportunities generally. Yet at her death in 1914, she unexpectedly left her sizable estate to Carrie Chapman Catt’s work, making her the single largest benefactor of women’s suffrage efforts, and thus through her personal trailblazing and philanthropy did make possible notable advances for women.

Considering that Leslie spent most of her life obscuring the truth and creating decoy histories and identities that became the public record, Prioleau has done a remarkable job locating and restoring the facts about this “woman of grit and swish.” Interestingly, stripping away the puffery does not diminish Leslie’s accomplishments.