Century Girl

"The Ziegfeld Follies", Florenz Ziegfeld's stage spectacular, promised the best performers, the most lavish sets, and the most ravishing girls. Doris Eaton Travis was one of these prized beauties - and, at fourteen, was chosen as the youngest chorus girl in the Follies. Mine eyes are yet dim with the luminous beauty of a girl named Doris, one Chicago reviewer wrote. Eaton was the last of the Ziegfeld girls - living to the age of 106. Over the course of a century, she performed for presidents and princesses, entertained Gershwin, Lindbergh, and Astaire, starred in silent and talking pictures, bantered with Babe Ruth, offended Henry Ford, outlived six siblings, written a newspaper column, hosted a television show, earned a Phi Beta Kappa degree in history, raised turkeys, and raced horses. "Century Girl" is a visual tour of this extraordinary woman's journey through the ages. As fans of her breakout hit Radioactive know, Lauren Redniss' narrative art employs an entirely original collage style - a seamless blend of her trademark line-drawings, hand-written narrative, and archival photos - in a sequence of full-page spreads, each one illustrating a rich chapter in Doris Eaton's life. From the birth of the Ziegfeld Follies through Prohibition, the jazz age, the early era of Hollywood, two World Wars, and nearly every dance style imaginable, Doris has lived through it all with utmost grace and strength of character - and never missed a step. "Century Girl" is equal parts seductive and fun, inspiring and wise, and appeals to anyone who loves art, dance, glamorous women, and the rich landscape of 20th century America. Lauren Redniss has created a book of such style and charm that only Doris Eaton could have inspired it.