Rough amusements

A'Lelia Walker died in 1931 after a midnight snack of lobster and chocolate cake washed down with champagne, bringing to an end one of the most striking social careers in New York's history. She was the daughter of Madame C. J. Walker, the philanthropist who rose from poverty to multimillionaire status. A'Lelia became America's first black poor little rich girl, spending her inheritance on elaborate, celebrity-packed parties at her Westchester mansion and her salon on 136th Street.

Ben Neihart takes readers into her world and the wider history around it. He explores mixed-race prostitution, the bachelorization of New York society, sexually audacious French balls, and the Slide, one of the most depraved bars of nineteenth-century New York. Along the way he introduces a vivid cast that includes Nancy Cunard, the combative shipping heiress; Langston Hughes, the self-contained poetic genius; and Jennie June, a tragic, castrated sexual addict.

Against a backdrop of Harlem's lavish drag balls, Neihart also describes one evening when A'Lelia may or may not have been targeted by gangland kidnappers. He writes in a novelistic style and portrays her as Harlem's Queen of the Night.