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Biography Edith Sedgwick was born at the Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara, California to Francis Minturn Sedgwick (1904-1967), a sculptor, philanthropist and rancher, and Alice Delano de Forest. Edith was named after her father's sister, Edith Minturn Sedgwick, who died at birth. At St.Timothy's School in Stevenson, Maryland, she assumed the middle name of Minturn. Family History Edie Sedgwick's family came from Stockbridge, Massachusetts where Edie's great-great-great grandfather Judge Theodore Sedgwick had settled after the American Revolution. Theodore Sedgwick was the first to plead and win a case for the freedom of a black woman, Elizabeth Freeman, Mum Bett, under the Massachusetts Bill of Rights that declared all men to be born free and equal. Edie's mother was the daughter of Henry Wheeler de Forest (President of the Southern Pacific Railroad, and direct descendant of Jesse de Forest whose Dutch West India Company helped to settled New Amsterdam). Her paternal grandfather was Henry Dwight Sedgwick III, historian and acclaimed author. Sedgwick's family has been long established in Massachusetts history, with members having been painted by the artist John Singer Sargent. Her great-great-great grandfather, William Ellery, was a signatory of the Declaration of Independence. Modeling Career Edie pursued a brief career in modeling, appearing in Vogue on March 15, 1966. She also appeared in the September 1965 issue of LIFE and was featured in Vogue as a 'youthquaker" in 1965. Although she appeared in magazines like Vogue, she never became an accepted part of the fashion industry. According to senior editor Gloria Schiff: "she was identified in the gossip columns with the drug scene, and back then there was a certain apprehension about being involved in that scene... people were really terrified by it... drugs had done so much damage to young, creative, brilliant people that we were just anti that scene as a policy". However, editor in chief of Vogue, Diana Vreeland, called her an exemplar of the era's youth culture. The Warhol days In January 1965, Edie met Andy Warhol at Lester Persky's apartment. She began going to the Factory regularly in March with Chuck Wein. During one of these visits, Andy put her into Vinyl. She made short cameo appearances in Warhol's film, Horse, when she and Ondine entered the Factory toward the end of the film. On April 30 1965, Andy took both Edie and Chuck (as well as Gerard Malanga) with him to the opening of his exhibit at the Sonnabend Gallery in Paris. Upon returning to New York, Andy told his scriptwriter, Ron Tavel, that he wanted to make Edie the queen of the factory and asked him to write a script for her: "Something in a kitchen. White and clean and plastic." The result was Kitchen, with Edie, Rene Ricard and Roger Trudeau. It was shot at soundman Buddy Wirtschafter's studio apartment. After Kitchen, Chuck Wein replaced Tavel, being credited as writer and assistant director for the filming of Beauty No. 2, in which Edie appeared with "Gino Piserchio, a hunk in jockey shorts". Beauty No. 2 premiered at the Cinematheque on July 17th and her onscreen appearance was compared to Marilyn Monroe's. During this time she became Warhol's Girl of the Year. The pair would often dress alike, and Sedgwick frequently called herself Miss Warhol. The friendship did not last beyond 1966 when Warhol and Sedgwick made an acrimonious public split. As a result of her popularity, she was getting a lot of advice from people to leave Andy and become a real actress. Andy Warhol filmed Edie Sedgwick for "The Chelsea Girls" but when she left the Factory, he edited her out of the film, ostensibly at Edie's request. Her footage was replaced with a shot of Nico with colored lights projected on her face with Velvet Underground music in the background. Bob Dylan and Bob Neuwirth Following her departure from Warhol’s circle, Sedgwick began living at Chelsea Hotel, where she was purported to be involved with Bob Dylan. She is rumoured to be one of the inspirations behind Dylan's seminal 1966 opus Blonde on Blonde, in particular, the acidic put-down song Just Like a Woman and the raucous stomper Leopardskin Pillbox Hat. It was also claimed that the coined phrase "your debutante" referred to Edie on the track, "Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again". Dylan’s friends convinced Edie to sign up with Albert Grossman, Dylan's manager. Their relationship ended when Edie found out that Dylan had married Sara Lowndes in a secret ceremony - something that Edie apparently found out from Warhol during an argument at the Gingerman Restaurant in February 1966. Paul Morrissey: "She Edie said, 'They're Dylan's people going to make a film and I'm supposed to star in it with Bobby Dylan.' Suddenly it was Bobby this and Bobby that, and they realized that she had a crush on him. They thought he'd been leading her on, because just that day Andy had heard in his lawyer's office that Dylan had been secretly married for a few months - he married Sara Lowndes in November 1965... Andy couldn't resist asking, 'Did you know Edie that Bob Dylan has gotten married?' She was trembling. They realized that she really thought of herself as entering a relationship with Dylan, that maybe he hadn't been truthful." There is no evidence that Edie had a romantic relationship with Dylan, and he denies it. It is, however, confirmed that she had one with Bob Neuwirth. In 1966, Sedgwick continued a tumultuous relationship with Dylan's "right hand man" Bob Neuwirth. During this period, she became dependent on heroin and barbiturates. Bob Neuwirth and Edie eventually parted ways in early 1967, unable to deal with her drug use and erratic behaviour. Later Years Edie auditioned for Norman Mailer's play The Deer Park, but Mailer thought she "wasn't very good... She used so much of herself with every line that we knew she'd be immolated after three performances". In April 1967 Sedgwick began shooting Ciao! Manhattan, an underground movie in which she starred. After initial footage was shot in New York, work on the film was abandoned due to budget and legal problems. Sedgwick’s rapidly degenerating health saw her return to her family in California and spend time in several different psychiatric institutions. In August 1969, she was hospitalized in the psychiatric ward of Cottage Hospital after being busted for drugs by the local police. While in the hospital she met another patient, Michael Post, whom she would later marry on July 24, 1971. Sedgwick was in the hospital again in the summer of 1970 but was let out under the supervision of two nurses, and aimed to finish Ciao! Manhattan. Her Death When Edie married Michael Post on July 24, 1971, she supposedly began drinking and taking pills until October when pain medication was given to her to treat a physical illness. She remained under the care of Dr. Wells who prescribed her barbiturates but she would demand more pills or say she had lost them in order to get more, often combining them with alcohol. On the night of November 15 1971, Edie went to a fashion show at the Santa Barbara Museum, a segment of which was filmed for the television show An American Family. After the fashion show, Edie attended a party and was supposedly attacked by a drunken guest who called her a heroin addict. Edie phoned Michael, who arrived at the party and saw that Edie was unwell. Michael eventually left the party with Edie and took her back to their apartment. Before they both fell asleep, Michael gave Edie the medication that had been prescribed for her. When he awoke the following morning at 7:30, Edie was dead, aged 28. The coroner registered her death as "Accident/Suicide" due to a Barbiturate overdose. Edie was buried in the small Oak Hill Cemetery in Ballard, California. The family attended her memorial service. Trivia Filmography Bibliography | ||||||||||
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