A sweeping biography of one of the most influential and successful business-women in American history, BECOMING ELIZABETH ARDEN opens the Red Door to a world of wealth, glamor, and the profitable business of beauty
Elizabeth Arden was a household name on six continents and a millionaire several times over before her death in 1966. Arden counted British royalty and social elites from the overlapping worlds of New York, Hollywood, London, and Paris among her clients. She revolutionized skin care and cosmetics, making it acceptable for all women to embrace glamour and wear makeup—not just actresses and prostitutes. She created a successful international business empire before women gained the vote and at a time when virtually no woman owned or ran a national company. She developed the first luxury spa and insisted on a holistic understanding of health and beauty. Unconventional and driven, Arden fervently believed that every woman could be beautiful.
Acclaimed biographer Stacy Cordery does full justice to one of America’s greatest entrepreneurs. Canadian-born Florence Nightingale Graham turned herself into Elizabeth Arden, using her uncanny sense of the possible to take full advantage of everything New York City offered, building her company and becoming one with her brand. In an astounding rags-to-riches tale, Elizabeth Arden came to personify sophistication and refinement. Her hard work and innovation made makeup, fitness, and style not only acceptable but de rigueur. Arden prospered throughout the Depression, reimagined women’s needs during two World Wars, and by pioneering new approaches to marketing and advertising, ushered beauty into the modern era. Cordery delivers a compelling picture of a modern CEO whose career provides a model for aspiring businesses to this day.
About the Author
Historian Stacy A. Cordery is the author of five books, including the bestselling biography Alice: Alice Roosevelt Longworth, from White House Princess to Washington Power Broker and the authoritative biography of Girl Scout founder Juliette Gordon Low. The recipient of several teaching awards, she is a professor in the History Department at Iowa State University in Ames, where she teaches courses on First Ladies, the Gilded Age, and modern America. She held an endowed chair in Roosevelt Studies and worked with the Theodore Roosevelt Center in North Dakota, is president-elect of SHGAPE (the Society for Historians of the Gilded Age & Progressive Era), and on the board of FLARE (the First Ladies Association for Research and Education). A popular public speaker, Cordery’s public appearances include NPR’s Weekend Edition, the History Channel, CNN, Smithsonian TV, the Diane Rehm Show, and C-SPAN. For more information, please seewww.stacycordery.com.
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