Alice Sedgwick Wohl at Harvard Book Store

Harvard Book Store welcomes renowned translator ALICE SEDGWICK WOHL for a discussion of her new book As It Turns Out: Thinking About Edie and Andy. She will be joined in conversation by MEGAN MARSHALL—biographer and author of Elizabeth Bishop: A Miracle for Breakfast.

A Return to In-Person Events

Harvard Book Store is excited to be back to in-person programming. To ensure the safety and comfort of everyone in attendance, the following Covid-19 safety protocols will be in place at all of our Harvard Book Store events until further notice:

• Face coverings are required of all staff and attendees when inside the store. Masks must snugly cover nose and mouth.

About As It Turns Out

As It Turns Out is a family story. Alice Sedgwick Wohl is writing to her brother Bobby, who died in a motorcycle accident in 1965, just before their sister Edie Sedgwick met Andy Warhol. After unexpectedly coming across Edie’s image in a clip from Warhol’s extraordinary film Outer and Inner Space, Wohl was moved to put her inner dialogue with Bobby on the page in an attempt to reconstruct Edie’s life and figure out what made Edie and Andy such iconic figures in American culture. What was it about Andy that enabled him to anticipate so much of contemporary culture? Why did Edie draw attention wherever she went? Who exactly was she, who fascinated Warhol and captured the imagination of a generation?

Wohl tells the story as only a sister could, from their childhood on a California ranch and the beginnings of Edie’s lifelong troubles in the world of their parents to her life and relationship with Warhol within the silver walls of the Factory, in the fashionable arenas of New York, and as projected in the various critically acclaimed films he made with her. As Wohl seeks to understand the conjunction of Edie and Andy, she writes with a keen critical eye and careful reflection about their enduring impact. As It Turns Out is a meditation addressed to her brother about their sister, about the girl behind the magnetic image, and about the culture she and Warhol introduced.

Praise for As It Turns Out

"With words as clear cut as crystal, Wohl deftly unpacks the damaging hollowness of the monied world in which she and Edie were raised and contrasts it with the sometimes joyful yet gritty Silver Factory which was a perfect métier for Edie’s stream of consciousness way of living. Without a hint of hagiography we meet both Edie and Andy Warhol as they were, not quite 'just kids' but much more tongue-in-cheek than any self-appointed cultural icon today could dare to be. An extremely accurate portrait of Andy's highly complex personality." ―Michael Findlay, author of Seeing Slowly: Looking at Modern Art

"Some stories just have to be told. As It Turns Out, Alice Sedgwick Wohl’s poignant account of her quest to understand the lost much-younger sister she never really knew―Pop Art icon Edie Sedgwick―pulses with the energy of revelation, the urgency of truth-telling. And there is more: a clear-eyed analysis of Andy Warhol in his heyday and of the enduring legacy of the image-making celebrity pair, Edie and Andy. Turns out Warhol’s not the mad-genius villain of this Mod morality tale. Read on and find out why." ―Megan Marshall, author of Elizabeth Bishop: A Miracle for Breakfast

"As It Turns Out is a revelation. Alice Sedgwick Wohl reveals herself to be a remarkably talented writer who, with finely turned sentences and lyric passages, paints an unforgettable picture of the strange and singular childhood that produced both herself and her sister Edie Sedgwick . . . Wohl shrewdly analyses the unlikely but perfect partnership between Edie and Andy. Edie and Alice’s vast Santa Barbara ranch, in which appearances were everything, corresponded perfectly with Warhol’s vision of an art in which under the surface of everything there was only more surface." ―Alexander Stille, author of The Force of Things