The Almost Legendary Morris Sisters
A True Story of Family Fiction
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3.6 • 7 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A Washington Post best nonfiction book pick of 2021
“It is biography as an expression of love.” – The New York Times
New York Times–bestselling author Julie Klam’s funny and moving story of the Morris sisters, distant relations with mysterious pasts.
Ever since she was young, Julie Klam has been fascinated by the Morris sisters, cousins of her grandmother. According to family lore, early in the twentieth century the sisters’ parents decided to move the family from Eastern Europe to Los Angeles so their father could become a movie director. On the way, their pregnant mother went into labor in St. Louis, where the baby was born and where their mother died. The father left the children in an orphanage and promised to send for them when he settled in California—a promise he never kept. One of the Morris sisters later became a successful Wall Street trader and advised Franklin Roosevelt. The sisters lived together in New York City, none of them married or had children, and one even had an affair with J. P. Morgan.
The stories of these independent women intrigued Klam, but as she delved into them to learn more, she realized that the tales were almost completely untrue.
The Almost Legendary Morris Sisters is the revealing account of what Klam discovered about her family—and herself—as she dug into the past. The deeper she went into the lives of the Morris sisters, the slipperier their stories became. And the more questions she had about what actually happened to them, the more her opinion of them evolved.
Part memoir and part confessional, and told with the wit and honesty that are hallmarks of Klam’s books, The Almost Legendary Morris Sisters is the fascinating and funny true story of one writer’s journey into her family’s past, the truths she brings to light, and what she learns about herself along the way.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Klam (The Stars in Our Eyes) mines the complicated past of her grandmother's four cousins in her half-baked genealogical memoir. "How much of what defines us at various points in our lives is based on what we are told by the people we trust," she writes, explaining how the "strange" family lore she grew up with was full of embellishments and gaps in memory. The story that preoccupied her most was that of the Morris sisters—who came to America in the early 20th century, were orphaned in the Midwest, and eventually became millionaires in New York City—one that was discovered to have been more misinformation than facts. In colloquial prose, Klam sets out to understand the lives of these "completely crazy, obscenely wealthy" women, incorporating excerpts from email exchanges and letters with family members and genealogical experts along the way. She learns that, despite toiling in industries dominated by men—one sister was a successful Wall Street financier—the Morrises were anomalies of their time, as they only did business with other women, "leaving the bulk of their money for the benefit of female related causes," according to a second cousin. While their feminist ideals make for fascinating material, Klam fails to paint the sisters as interesting, multidimensional characters, favoring her process over her subjects. By the book's end, readers may be left with more questions than answers.
