"With fascinating introduction, notes, and bibliography, Gregory Eiselein clarifies the conflicting accounts of Menken's enigmatic biography and interprets her personal and literary scandals; his appendices set her poems into a literary and historical context. This superb edition makes the powerful voice of Adah Isaacs Menken come alive for twenty-first century readers." -- Kathryn Hellerstein, University of Pennsylvania

"Gregory Eiselein's concise writing and thorough research provide the necessary framework for situating Menken's writings in relation to the American Civil War era, a world so rife with conflict and contradiction that we may scarcely recognize it as the heart of the Victorian period." -- Renee M. Sentilles, Case Western Reserve University