“Enchanted by an evocative photograph of a woman playing her violin outside a log cabin with the majestic Teton Mountains in the background, Maura Jane Farrelly decided to look into the story behind it. Her historical detective work unearthed intersecting trails and unforgettable tales of murder, suicide, social scandal, and much more—all firmly set in the context of America during its Gilded Age. A remarkable work of research and storytelling, Compliments of Hamilton and Sargent proves that if a picture tells a thousand words, it can also hide thousands more.”—Dayton Duncan, coauthor of The National Parks: America’s Best Idea
“Maura Jane Farrelly is a marvelous writer and gifted storyteller who brings a finely honed sense of time and place to this remarkable book. Compliments of Hamilton and Sargent is many things at once—an enthralling triple biography, a fascinating work of historical detection, a compelling dialogue between past and present, a brilliant meditation on the historian’s craft, and a vivid portrait of a modernizing United States that manages to be both sweeping and intimate. By reconstructing the intertwined stories of Robert Ray Hamilton, John Dudley Sargent, and Edith Drake Sargent, Farrelly reminds us of the extraordinary significance of seemingly ordinary lives.”—Wendy Gamber, author of The Notorious Mrs. Clem: Murder and Money in the Gilded Age
