By Sandra Smires
Curator of The Lillie Langtry Collection and Former Langtry House Historian
The memoir of Emilie Charlotte Le Breton, The Days I Knew, published in 1925, starts off describing her early years growing up on the Isle of Jersey, the only daughter in a family of six boys, five older and one a few years younger. Pretty much a tomboy, she was early on influenced by her mother who loved the outdoors and gardening and, like Lillie, considered a great beauty. Her father was the Dean of Jersey and Rector of St. Saviour’s Parish on the island. Lillie apparently got her first marriage proposal when only fourteen from the son of the Archbishop of Canterbury, a high ranking member of the Anglican Church. She also describes her brief courtship with her first husband, Edward Langtry, and her fondness for his yacht, The Red Gauntlet.
Lillie and Edward first lived at his house on the water in Southampton but eventually ended up in London where, because of her beauty and brains, they were discovered by members of London Society. Lillie was soon the toast of the town, with the nickname, The Jersey Lily. She met poets, writers, actors, artists and members of parliament as well as being sought after by various lords and landowners, many of them already married themselves. She also describes her first meeting with Albert Edward, the Prince of Wales, Queen Victoria’s first born son and heir to the British throne. He was also married and a father.
In the book, Lillie provides vivid descriptions of her early London social life and tells many anecdotes about the famous and infamous people she met, including the American artist James Whistler and the Irish-born playwright Oscar Wilde. She tells how she eventually ended up going on the English theatrical stage to pay off debts incurred by her and her husband. She arrived in New York in October1882 and met Freddie Gebhard, a young man whose fate would be tied to hers for nearly 10 years. They soon became almost a daily feature in all the New York newspapers.
Although Lillie doesn’t mention Freddie in her memoirs, she does describe her property and house in Guenoc Valley, Lake County, California. In 1888, she purchased the land after visiting with Freddie, who owned an adjoining piece of property down the road.
She mentions one young man with whom she later had an affair, but only describes him as an eccentric young bachelor with vast estates in Scotland, a stud farm, a racing stable “and more money than he knew what to do with.” His name was George Abingdon Baird, who often rode his own racehorses as an amateur jockey. He gave her, as a gift, her first race horse and she was pretty much hooked and soon started her own stables. Lillie eventually retired from the stage and sold her race horses and stables and moved to Monte Carlo, where she bought a house she named Villa le Lys. The last chapter of her book describes her life in Monte Carlo, where she died in 1929.
The Days I Knew
By Lillie Langtry
(Lady De Bathe)
Publisher: George H. Doran, On Murray Hill, New York, 1925.
Because I Loved Him, The Life and Loves of Lillie Langtry
By Noel Gerson
Publisher: William Morrow & Company, Inc., New York, 1971.
Lillie, A Novel
By David Butler
Publisher: Warner Books Edition, 1978
A novelized version of Lillie Langtry’s life and times, the basis of the Masterpiece Theatre Presentation.
Lillie Langtry, Her life in words and pictures
By Jeremy Birkett and John Richardson
Publisher: Blandford Press, Pool, Dorset in association with Rupert Shuff Ltd., London, and the Sociéte Jersiaise, 1979
The Diary of Lillie Langtry and Other Remembrances, A Novel
By Donna Lee Harper
Publisher: Arrowhead Classics, Los Angeles, 1995
The story opens with Lillie describing how she came to own the Guenoc Valley property.
The Gilded Lily, The Life and Loves of the fabulous Lillie Langtry
By Ernest Dudley
Publisher: Odhams Press Limited, Long Acre, London, 1958
Not a very flattering portrait of Lillie Langtry, but covers all the highlights of her life and career.
The Jersey Lily, The Life and Times of Lillie Langtry
By Sonia Hillsdon
Publisher: Seaflower Books, imprint of Ex Librus PressBradford on Avon, Wiltshire, 1993
The Jersey Lily, The Story of the Fabulous Mrs. Langtry
By Pierre Sichel, Publisher: Prentice Hall, Inc., Englewood, N.J., 1958
A novelized version of the Lillie Langtry story, including imagined conversations between Lillie and her husband and friends as well as with Freddie Gebhard.
Lillie Langtry, Manners, Masks and Morals
By Laura Beatty
Chatto & Windus, London, 1999, also published by Random House, London, Random House Australia, Random House, New Zealand and Random House Group Limited.
Covers her love affair with Arthur Jones, a child hood friend, in detail quoting from letters to Jones, before she became internationally famous.
The Prince & The Lily, The Story of Lillie Langtry—The Greatest International Beauty of Her Day
By James Brough
Publisher: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, Inc., New York, N.Y., 1975
One of the best early biographies of Lillie Langtry, it tells in detail about the relationship between Lillie Langtry and the Prince of Wales, Albert Edward (later King Edward VII).
Two Lilies in America: Lillian Russell and Lillie Langtry
By Lois Rather
Publisher: The Rather Press, 3200 Guido Street, Oakland, California, 94602, 1973
A study of two of the most famous women of the 19th and early 20th centuries, Lillian Russell was a singer and actress famous about the same time that Langtry made her American stage debut in New York in 1882. Russell was supposedly the mistress of Diamond Jim Brady.
Also of interest:
All At Sea
By Lillie De Bathe (Mrs. Langtry)
Published by Hutchinson & Co., Paternoster Row, London, 1909.
Lillie’s only novel set on board a ship and with lots of bantering conversation and people pretending to be someone else and mistaken identities. Charming and funny.
Note: Most of these books are out of print but various websites including Amazon and Alibris may have sellers who are selling second hand copies. I found several copies of the books mentioned above on Alibris for very reasonable prices.
