A high-society sex scandal that ended in the murder of a successful architect in Madison Square Garden is the subject of a new book by Charlottesville historian Henry Wiencek.
Stan and Gus: Art, Ardor, and The Friendship That Built the Gilded Age follows the friendship of the aforementioned Stanford White and sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens.
White designed the Washington Square Arch, in addition to numerous buildings and homes for the wealthy. Saint-Gaudens was most known for monuments commemorating figures from the Civil War in New York’s Central Park and Chicago’s Grant Park, as two examples. He designed the $20 Double Eagle gold coin for the U.S. mint and the $10 Indian Head gold eagle. Together, the work of White and Saint-Gaudens defined the art of the Gilded Age…