Independent scholar and New York Times contributor Eve M. Kahn in conversation with scholar and podcaster Carl Raymond about her new book.

Kahn will explore her seven-year Zoe Anderson Norris book journey: the strangest coincidences, most frustrating roadblocks, and most heartbreaking, luminous, and funniest details uncovered on the trail.

Zoe Anderson Norris (1860–1914) was a Kentucky belle turned restless Kansas housewife turned lauded writer/reformer/publisher on the Lower East Side, documenting desperate immigrant poverty in her own bimonthly magazine, The East Side. Defying her era’s ingrained xenophobia (that echoes in our own tumultuous times), and sometimes reporting undercover dressed as a pauper, Zoe (as everyone called her) raged against predatory landlords, corrupt charity executives, cruel Ellis Island guards, and garbagemen ignoring trashcans spreading pestilence, among other pernicious forces. Her motto: “To fight for the poor with my pen.” She took breaks from activism to admire Manhattan skyscrapers “flashing back the fire of the sun” and to dine at restaurants with her friends in an intentionally disorganized group that she organized, the Ragged Edge Klub, dedicated to “the Killing of Kare.”

Wednesday, October 15
6:30–7:30 pm
Salmagundi Club
47 5th Avenue New York, NY 10003

Purchase tickets.

This event is hosted by Coffee House Club. Queen of Bohemia will be available for sale and signing.

Eve M. Kahn writes for The New York Times among other publications. Queen of Bohemia has been called a “compelling, vibrant biography of a larger-than-life character [that] will appeal to anyone interested in turn-of-the-century New York and women’s history.” (Library Journal). Kahn’s 2019 book, Forever Seeing New Beauties: The Forgotten Impressionist Mary Rogers Williams, 1857-1907 (Wesleyan U. Press), won awards from groups including the Connecticut League of History Organizations.

Carl Raymond is the creator and host of The Gilded Gentleman history podcast.