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Allison Pataki, author of It Girl

At the dawn of the 20th century, New York’s streets teem with change: electricity, automobiles, the brash young President Teddy Roosevelt --- and the It Girls. As artists’ muses and working models, these independent young women soar to stardom because of their talent, charisma and irresistible beauty. While working as a shopgirl, the young Evelyn Talbot is recruited as a studio model and soon catches the eye of the preeminent artists of the age. When Broadway comes calling, Evelyn solidifies her status as the first self-made American female celebrity: the iconic Gibson Girl. When Evelyn finds herself at the center of a murder of passion declared “the Crime of the Century,” she is blamed for the acts of the men in her life. In the media frenzy that spirals around her, Evelyn realizes that to survive, she will have to write her own ending.

It Girl by Allison Pataki

April 2026

Allison Pataki has a way of making the past seem like it was a whole lot of fun in her latest novel, IT GIRL. Who’s the girl? She’s Evelyn Talbot, who’s based on Evelyn Nesbit, the real-life Gibson Girl who landed in New York City from Pittsburgh during the days leading up to and through the Gilded Age. The scene it sets --- with Mrs. Astor holding court in the city, traveling abroad on ocean lines --- is all the rage, and the New York theater is a place where you see shows not just once but rather multiple times.