A remarkable new book about Newport's
legendary woman of mystery.
70 Turner art works - hard cover - 156 pages
Over 100 illustrations, including 23 in full color.
Available nationally at leading bookstores including Barnes
& Noble, Borders, B. Dalton, Waldenbooks and others.
Also available by mail through Cliffside Inn for $34.95
plus tax and shipping. To order call (800) 845-1811
 he
wealthy and hauntingly beautiful Beatrice Turner (1888-1948) had
Cliffside, her fabulous Newport home, painted black. No one knew
why. As styles changed, she continued to dress in Victorian
clothes. No one could guess her reasons. She painted over
3,000 works of art at Cliffside, including more than 1,000
self-portraits, nearly all of which were destroyed in a huge Newport
bonfire after her death. No one wanted them.
roguish New York attorney rescued some 70 of her paintings from the
fire and took them on tour. The Hearst newspapers printed the legend
of Beatrice Turner in 1949. LIFE magazine followed with a
provocative photo spread in 1950.
 ometime
thereafter, these paintings disappeared.
 n
1989 a former television executive (and current owner of Cliffside)
began an eight-year search for the missing art collection and for
clues to unanswered questions about Beatrice Turner's enigmatic life.
The search has unlocked hidden doors, swirled in ironic twists and
produced a cast of colorful and memorable characters.
 ith
all the elements of great fiction and the plot of a Hollywood classic,
BEATRICE is, astonishingly, all true. BEATRICE is the story of the
quest, the extraordinary woman who inspired it, and the "story
behind the story." Writer Sheldon Bart, combining the skills of a
master storyteller, reporter and detective, takes us on an incredible
journey that ends with the unsuspected truth.
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