Fanny Kemble - first star in Lenox galaxy

In the 1830s, Fanny Kemble was the sensation of the theater world, touring America to make money to save the bankrupt Covent Garden Theater managed by her father in London, when she met Catharine Maria Sedgwick, doyenne of the famous Stockbridge family.

Fanny and Catharine became fast friends, and before long, Fanny was a regular at the Curtis Hotel in Lenox,and eventually she built “The Perch”, an estate that was on the street now named for her. An attractive boulder now marks the spot, across from Canyon Ranch. Struck by the view from the town graveyard, Fanny Kemble is said to have remarked, “Not only is Lenox a beautiful place to live, but it is also a beautiful place to die.”

Adjacent to the graveyard was the town’s meetinghouse, now known as the Church on the Hill, where Kemble scheduled one of her popular Shakespearean recitations, eager to repay the generous welcome afforded her by Lenoxians. She wanted the proceeds used for the benefit of the town’s poor. “Dear,” came the reply,“but there are no poor in Lenox.”

Another bit of local lore regards an encounter between Fanny and a tradesman at the Curtis Hotel. When the man failed to doff his cap upon their meeting, she protested,“Gentlemen always remove their hats when they speak to me.”

“Pardon me madam,” he replied, “but I’m not a gentleman, I’m a plumber”. Fanny got a kick out of his riposte and thus began another fast friendship.

Journal of a Residence on a Georgia Plantation

Written in 1838 - 1839 by Fanny Kemble in the form of letters to her friend, Mrs. Charles "Kate" Sedgwick of Lenox, Journal of a Residence on a Georgia Plantation is regarded as one of the most powerful anti-slavery books ever written.

Mrs. Sedgwick's argument that African slaves on Georgia plantations were treated better by their American owners than the Irish were treated in Ireland by the English, is thought to be one of the reasons that publication of the book was suppressed more than 20 years.

When finally published in England, it was credited with turning the tide of public sentiment away from England's joining the war in support of the Confederacy.

Edie Sedgwick

Actress Kyra Sedgwick is a descendant of Mrs. Sedgwick, as was Edie Sedgwick, the tragic figure who once was Andy Wharol's "Girl of the Year".

"When Edie was first published a decade ago, it quickly became an international bestseller. In the sixties Edie Sedgwick exploded into the public eye like a comet--aristocratic, glamorous, and Andy Warhol's superstar. Then at 28 her light fizzled and died from a drug overdose. Alternately thrilling, tragic and horrifying, this book shatters many myths about the American sixties. Photographs."