Alice + Freda forever

"In 1892 America was obsessed with a teenage murderess but it wasn't her crime that shocked the nation--it was her motivation. Nineteen-year-old Alice Mitchell had planned to pass as a man in order to marry her seventeen-year-old fiancée Freda Ward but when their love letters were discovered they were forbidden from ever speaking again. Freda adjusted to this fate with an ease that stunned a heartbroken Alice. Her desperation grew with each unanswered letter--and her father's razor soon went missing. On January 25 Alice publicly slashed her ex-fiancée's throat. Her same-sex love was deemed insane by her father that very night and medical experts agreed: This was a dangerous and incurable perversion. As the courtroom was expanded to accommodate national interest Alice spent months in jail- including the night that three of her fellow prisoners were lynched (an event which captured the attention of journalist and civil rights activist Ida B. Wells). After a jury of "the finest men in Memphis" declared Alice insane she was remanded to an asylum where she died under mysterious circumstances just a few years later. Alice + Freda Forever recounts this tragic real-life love story with over 100 illustrated love letters maps artifacts historical documents newspaper articles courtroom proceedings and intimate domestic scenes--painting a vivid picture of a sadly familiar world."--Publisher's website.