Alice + Freda Forever - by Alexis Coe (Hardcover)

About the Book

"In 1892, America was obsessed with a teenage murderess, but it wasn't her crime that shocked the nation--it was her motivation. Nineteen-year-old Alice Mitchell had planned to pass as a man in order to marry her seventeen-year-old fiancâee Freda Ward, but when their love letters were discovered, they were forbidden from ever speaking again. Freda adjusted to this fate with an ease that stunned a heartbroken Alice. Her desperation grew with each unanswered letter--and her father's razor soon went missing. On January 25, Alice publicly slashed her ex-fiancâee's throat. Her same-sex love was deemed insane by her father that very night, and medical experts agreed: this was a dangerous and incurable perversion"--Publisher's website.

Book Synopsis

Alice + Freda Forever is a gut-wrenching story of love, death, and the dangers of intolerance."--Bustle

In 1892, America was obsessed with a teenage murderess, but it wasn't her crime that shocked the nation--it was her motivation. Nineteen-year-old Alice Mitchell had planned to pass as a man in order to marry her seventeen-year-old fiancée Freda Ward, but when their love letters were discovered, they were forbidden from ever speaking again.

Freda adjusted to this fate with an ease that stunned a heartbroken Alice. Her desperation grew with each unanswered letter--and her father's razor soon went missing. On January 25, Alice publicly slashed her ex-fiancée's throat. Her same-sex love was deemed insane by her father that very night, and medical experts agreed: This was a dangerous and incurable perversion. As the courtroom was expanded to accommodate national interest, Alice spent months in jail--including the night that three of her fellow prisoners were lynched (an event which captured the attention of journalist and civil rights activist Ida B. Wells). After a jury of "the finest men in Memphis" declared Alice insane, she was remanded to an asylum, where she died under mysterious circumstances just a few years later.

Alice + Freda Forever recounts this tragic, real-life love story with over 100 illustrated love letters, maps, artifacts, historical documents, newspaper articles, courtroom proceedings, and intimate, domestic scenes.

Review Quotes

"Alice + Freda Forever is a gut-wrenching story of love, death, and the dangers of intolerance."--Bustle

-- (4/12/2019 12:00:00 AM)

"[A] captivating account, and readers will quickly become absorbed in the suspense surrounding Freda's murder."--starred, School Library Journal

-- (9/1/2014 12:00:00 AM)

"[M]akes the most of its source material on two levels, both as true crime and as social commentary."--Publishers Weekly

-- (8/4/2014 12:00:00 AM)

"A historically resonant reminder of how far societal tolerance has come and that it still remains a work in progress."--Kirkus Reviews

-- (9/15/2014 12:00:00 AM)

"Alexis Coe came across the case in a scholarly article while she was in graduate school and became fascinated by Mitchell and Ward's story. She retells it here with the color and liveliness of a novel."--The New Yorker

-- (10/2/2014 12:00:00 AM)

"Highly recommended as an insightful exploration of an important historical true crime and a solid introduction to narrative nonfiction."--Library Journal

-- (11/15/2014 12:00:00 AM)

About the Author

Alexis Coe has contributed to the Atlantic, Slate, the Paris Review Daily, the Hairpin, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Modern Farmer, and many others. She is a columnist at the Awl and the Toast, and holds an MA in early twentieth-century American history. Before moving to San Francisco, Alexis was a research curator at the New York Public Library.