THE VIVID, SCANDAL-FILLED STORY OF A SHREWD, RAGS-TO-RICHES MILLIONAIRESS AND THE RUTHLESS POLITICIAN WHO PURSUED HER, TOLD AGAINST THE EFFERVESCENT BACKDROP OF AMERICA’S GOLDEN CITY–SAN FRANCISCO. San Francisco, until the mid-1940s, was a city that lived by its own rules, fast and loose. Formed by the gold rush and destroyed by the 1906 earthquake, it served as a pleasure palace for the legions … pleasure palace for the legions of men who sought their fortunes in the California foothills. For the women who followed, their only choice was to support, serve, or submit.
Inez Burns was different. She put everyone to shame with her dazzling, calculated, stone-cold ambition.
Born in the slums of San Francisco to a cigar-rolling alcoholic, Inez transformed herself into one of California’s richest women, becoming a notorious powerbroker, grand dame, and iconoclast. A stunning beauty with perfumed charm, she rose from manicurist to murderess to millionaire, seducing one man after another, bearing children out of wedlock, and bribing politicians and cops along the way to secure her place in the San Francisco firmament.
Inez ruled with incandescent flair. She owned five hundred hats and a closet full of furs, had two small toes surgically removed to fit into stylish high heels, and had two ribs excised to accentuate her hourglass figure. Her presence was defined by couture dresses from Paris, red-carpet strutting at the San Francisco Opera, and a black Pierce-Arrow that delivered her everywhere. She threw outrageous parties on her sprawling, eight-hundred-acre horse ranch, a compound with servants, cooks, horse groomers, and trainers, where politicians, judges, attorneys, Hollywood moguls, and entertainers gamboled over silver fizzes.
Inez was adored by the desperate women who sought her out–and loathed by the power-hungry men who plotted to destroy her.
During a time when women risked their lives with predatory practitioners lurking in back alleys, Inez and her team of women, clad in crisp, white nurse’s uniforms, worked night and day in her elegantly appointed clinic, performing fifty thousand of the safest, most hygienic abortions available during a time when even the richest wives, Hollywood stars, and mistresses had few options when they found themselves with an unwanted pregnancy.
Inez’s illegal business bestowed upon her power and influence–until a determined politician by the name of Edmund G. (Pat) Brown–the father of current California Governor Jerry Brown–used Inez to catapult his nascent career to national prominence.
In The Audacity of Inez Burns, Stephen G. Bloom, the author of the bestselling Postville, reveals a jagged slice of lost American history. From Inez’s riveting tale of glamour and tragedy, he has created a brilliant, compulsively readable portrait of an unforgetable woman during a moment when America’s pendulum swung from compassion to criminality by punishing those who permitted women to control their own destinies.more
This fascinating account of the life of San Francisco’s famous abortionist pulls no punches, elaborating the ambiguous personality and choices of a woman who bribed her way to enormous wealth in the underworld of corrupt and hypocritical San Francisco by providing expert and safe abortions to thousands of women at a time when abortion was still illegal. The author does a marvelous job of telling a true story without taking sides. I recommend it to anyone interested in San Francisco history, women’s rights and unforgettable true stories
Very boring – couldn’t get into it and quit reading
Actually I didn’t finish this. The book was more of a recitation of the various sculptures she posed for. I was hoping for more personal details. Agnes came across with no more personality than the stones that bear her likeness today.
This book is well researched and well written. I learned a lot about the culture and politics of San Francisco at the turn of the century. I gave it 3 stars because the subject matter of abortion is not one I particularly enjoyed as I am pro life.
I grew up in the Bay Area in the 50’s so some of the names in this book were familiar. The story was fascinating to me. At my age (75) I have seen many changes in the way society has changed . Sometimes for the better and sometimes not. Do not read this book unless you have an open mind.
I’m a life long California but had never heard of Inez Burns. Fascinating look at San Francisco, not from a tourist point of view but a hard look at the darker side of the city from late 1890 to early 1900. For a history buff a real eye opener. With a touch of humor, I’m not skipping over one word,,,,don’t want to miss anything!
The Audacity of Inez Burns is the astonishing story of an important and lost figure of history — one whose daring, skill, and compassion served countless women of her time, and saved them, too. This riveting account of Burns’ hardscrabble rise to power and wealth, and the smug forces of righteousness that conspired to bring her down, is a vivid illustration of how our past haunts the present. A timely and provocative portrait.
The Audacity of Inez Burns is a don’t-miss read. It chronicles the rise and fall of a remarkable woman, both fierce and fearless, who built a highly professional and highly illegal abortion services empire in early 20th century California. But it also chronicles her eventual collision with rise of California itself and its ambitious and newly powerful politicians. The result is a richly detailed and intensely human story, conflicted and completely compelling.