Beautiful Poster Lady

Ethel Reed (1874-1912) is one of the most elusive figures in the history of American graphic design. Born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, she moved in the 1890s to Boston, where, while still in her early twenties, she achieved international recognition for her posters - and for her personal glamour. "The beautiful poster lady" is how newspapers of the day described her, and they often went on to claim that she was the most famous woman artist in America. Ethel Reed was an extraordinarily vivid personality of the fin de siècle and a striking early example of a media celebrity. But in 1896, following a broken engagement, she sailed to Europe, contributed to the two final issues of the Yellow Book in London, and then, after the turn of the century, vanished in the fog (to use her own phrase). Now William S. Peterson, through meticulous archival research, has at last been able to reconstruct the story of her life in England. Though unsuccessful in renewing her artistic career, she found lovers there, bore two children, and eventually married Arthur Warwick, an English army officer. Yet the marriage fell apart immediately, and her final years were darkened by poverty, drug addiction, and alcoholism.