Lost love
Subtitle: a true story of passion, murder, and justice in old New York
By: George Cooper.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Pantheon Books
Published: 1994
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 272
Subjects: McFarland, Daniel, b. 1820 -- Trials, litigation, etc.; Richardson, Albert D. 1833-1869.; Richardson, Abby Sage, 1837-1900.; Trials (Murder) -- New York (State) -- New York.
Description: In 1869 America was recovering from the devastation of the Civil War. But a love story and its violent outcome in New York upstaged all else in newspapers across the country. Abby Sage, a beautiful actress, suffered through and finally escaped from an abusive marriage when her jealous ex-husband murdered her alleged lover - acclaimed Civil War journalist Albert Deane Richardsonin the lobby of the New York Tribune.

The ensuing trial captivated the imagination of America and began a fiery debate about the sanctity of marriage and the rights of women.

Lost Love brings this celebrated but forgotten case to life. With the eye of a journalist and the heart of a novelist, George Cooper weaves newspaper accounts, trial transcripts, period illustrations, and letters written by the lovers into an irresistible narrative. The story sweeps from the war-torn South to the new Western frontier, from small-town New England to the drawing rooms of New York's aristocracy.

Cooper also introduces us to some of the most notable figures of the day - Horace Greeley, Edwin Booth, and Henry Ward Beecher among them - for Abby and Albert's lives and the tragedy of their love touched people far and wide. Lost Love vividly rekindles the passion of a love affair more than a century old as it captures the smoldering fervor of America's "age of innocence" - when marriage was still held sacred but the flames of free love and the rise of feminism could be seen just over the horizon.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 266-272).