Warhol's Muses: The Artists, Misfits, and Superstars Destroyed by the Factory Fame Machine

From the New York Times bestselling author of Capote’s Women comes an astonishing account of the revolutionary artist Andy Warhol and his scandalous relationships with the ten women he deemed his “superstars”—beginning in 1964 and culminating four years later when Warhol was shot and almost killed.

“Now and then, someone would accuse me of being evil,” Andy Warhol confessed, “of letting people destroy themselves while I watched, just so I could film them.” Obsessed with celebrity, the silver-wigged artistic icon Andy Warhol created an ever-evolving entourage of stunning women he dubbed his “superstars”—Baby Jane Holzer, Edie Sedgwick, Nico, Ultra Violet, Viva, Brigid Berlin, Ingrid Superstar, International Velvet, Mary Woronov, and Candy Darling. He gave several of them new names and manipulated their beauty and talent for his art and social status, with little concern for their safety or dignity. Then, one by one, they left in a state of debasement.

In Warhol’s Muses, New York Times bestselling biographer Laurence Leamer shines a spotlight on the complex women who inspired and starred in Warhol’s legendary underground films—The Chelsea Girls, The Nude Restaurant and Blue Movie, among others. Drawn by the siren call of Manhattan life in the sixties, they each left their protected enclaves and ventured to a new world, Warhol’s famed Factory, having no sense that they would never be able to return to their old homes and familiar ways again. Sex was casual, drugs were ubiquitous, parties were wild, and to Warhol, everyone was transient, temporary, and replaceable. It was a dangerous game he played with the women around him, and on a warm June day in 1968, someone entered the Factory and shot him, changing his life, forever. 

Warhol’s Muses explores the lives of ten endlessly intriguing women, transports us to an era that changed America forever, and uncovers the life and work of one of the most legendary artists of all time.