Black and White and Read All Over - by William Kinsolving (Paperback)

About the Book

He was heir to one of New York's wealthiest families. She was the woman he secretly married. When his family discovered her racial background, their marriage became a national scandal-and one of the most sensational trials of the 1920s.

Book Synopsis

He was heir to one of New York's wealthiest families. She was the woman he secretly married. When his family discovered her racial background, their marriage became the center of one of the most sensational trials of the 1920s.

Leonard Rhinelander and Alice Jones believed their love could overcome the rigid boundaries of race and class. But once their marriage became public, a private love story exploded into a national scandal.

Newspapers chronicled every revelation. Crowds packed the courthouse. Alice found herself at the center of a public spectacle, forced to defend her marriage, her identity and her dignity before a nation eager to judge her.

What did Leonard know when he married Alice? What could she prove? And when race, money and power enter a courtroom, where does fact end and truth begin?

Drawing on trial transcripts, contemporary newspapers, personal letters and diary entries, William Kinsolving's Black and White and Read All Over reimagines the remarkable true story of the Rhinelander case through the lives of the people who endured it-a story of love under surveillance, privilege and power, and the dangerous distance between what is legal and what is just.

In 1925, America couldn't look away. A century later, neither will you.

Review Quotes

"An engrossing and captivating novel that resonates with this boisterous era."- Historical Novel Society

"Kinsolving masterfully explores themes of race, class, identity, and media sensationalism while maintaining a deeply human story at its center." - Kirkus Reviews, GET IT Recommended Read

"Perhaps the novel's greatest achievement is its relevance...A thought-provoking novel that reminds us how easily society can turn private lives into public spectacle." - Midwest Book Review

"The book uses fiction to fill the gaps that court records and New York Times articles do not cover, and in doing so breathes new life into this slice of history. The result is a compelling love story between two people brought together by chance and torn apart by forces of race, class and power beyond their control." - The Lakeville Journal