Queen of the Mist - by Joan Murray (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

This novel-in-verse tells the fascinating story of Annie Taylor, who, in 1901, became the first person to plunge over the brink of Niagara Falls in a barrel. But as Joan Murray reveals, America didn't know what to do with a mature and self-possessed heroine: Annie Taylor, as an 'older woman, ' was rejected and exploited and finally eclipsed by the man who repeated her stunt ten years later.

Review Quotes

A portrait of a woman so achingly intimate it will linger long in your memory. --Joyce Carol Oates

"[A] superb book-length poem, Queen of the Mist tells a story about the quest for fame, the cruelties of discrimination and the vagaries of the American dream. . . . [A]n eminently readable, rhythmic narrative that crackles with candor and wry sagacity. I read this in one sitting." --Jan Worth, Detroit Free Press

"Joan Murray's engrossing account of Annie Taylor--the teacher who in 1901, at the age of 63, was the first person to shoot the falls--is just as imaginative as the quest narratives of poetic tradition." --Robert Taylor, The Boston Globe

"Testament to the surprise and beauty that poetry can still be. . . . Murray [has] an admirable dedication to the epic drama, the rhythms, the sounds of poetry. . . . [B]ut what is truly striking is the way she has transformed the forgotten figure of Annie Taylor into an augur of the age to come." --Justin Coffin, Philadelphia Inquirer

"Establish[es] Murray as a major feminist voice working in a dramatic mode. . . . Taylor's preparations, her inner motivations and the plunge itself are all movingly rendered." --Publishers Weekly

"[A] quintessentially American epic. . . . In form, structure, language, narrative, it is wonderful." --Gerald Stern, National Book Award winner