Warhol's Muses

The Artists, Misfits, and Superstars Destroyed by the Factory Fame Machine

De: Laurence Leamer

Narrado por: Isuri Wijesundara

ONE OF “12 NEW NONFICTION BOOKS YOU NEED TO READ IN 2025”—THE OBSERVER

A “MUST-READ” BOOK OF SPRING 2025–TOWN & COUNTRY

ONE OF “25 BOOKS TO READ IN 2025”—TORONTO STAR

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”.

“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 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 no regard for their safety, their dignity, or their lives.

In Warhol’s Muses, 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 a turbulent and transformative era, and uncovers the life and work of one of the most legendary artists of all time.

©2025 Laurence Leamer (P)2025 Penguin Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

One of Publishers Weekly’s Best Summer Reads of 2025

“Enriched by kaleidoscopic detail, it’s an enthralling window into the making of a legendary artist and the beginnings of celebrity culture, set against the volatile art scene of 1960s and ’70s New York City.”—Publishers Weekly

“[T]hought-provoking and fascinating…Instead of passing judgment on Warhol or his Factory of superstars, Leamer presents facts from an era in the New York City art world…a compelling chronicle of Warhol’s Factory in the 1960s.”—Library Journal (starred review)

“Captivating, vivid portraits of the fascinating women exploited by Andy Warhol—written by the premier biographer of America’s entitled rich. Laurence Leamer brilliantly evokes the Sixties, its wildness, but also its seediness and pathos. A stunning achievement—and just a damn good read.”—Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize-winning coauthor of American Prometheus and director of the Leon Levy Center for Biography