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The Lives And Loves of Daisy And Violet Hilton
A True Story Of Conjoined Twins
Author: Dean Jensen
Ten Speed Press, 2006
Reviewed by Judith Ann Moriarty
Gallerist Dean Jensen is known for the weird and wild art he
exhibits in the Water Street emporium bearing his name. To my
mind, he’s akin to P.T. Barnum.
It comes as no surprise that this dealer in artful oddities, unveiled
his new book, The Lives And Loves Of Daisy And Violet Hilton (A
True Story Of Conjoined Twins), four days prior to Halloween. The
scene was Schwartz Bookshops on Downer, the night was wild
and rainy, and the house was packed as he read his excerpts. My
Halloween issue of The New Yorker arrived the same day, and
on its cover was an image of a shrieking black cat, back hunched,
looking in a mirror at its shrieking black cat “twin.”
I began reading impresario Jensen’s 421 page book that very
evening, but not before casting a wary eye on Wisconsin author
Jacquelyn Mitchard’s endorsement (“I was up all night!”)
emblazoned on the snazzy soft cover.
It begins like this: “Kate was having a hard labor.” What an
opening volley…a drum roll preceding the bloody and ominous
1908 birth ( in Brighton, England ) of joined-at-the-spine twins.
When the girls were christened a few weeks later, a reporter at
the event, “even recorded the twins’ passing of gas.” More than
gas was passed, in fact, the conjoined themselves had been
legally passed to midwife Mary Hilton who brought them into the
world, and as their adopted “Auntie” was about to take her “cash
cow” show on the road.
Henceforth, the tale takes grim Dickensian twists and turns as
people pay to gawk, doctors assemble to poke and probe, and
beatings are laid-on by Auntie Mary. Jensen describes Brighton
as a “place of raffish gaiety overrun with tourists,” but we know by
now that it is the entrance to Hell. As the girls grow, so does their
world fame and the flow of cash. Some doctors suggest the twins
could be surgically separated, but Auntie, bless her black heart,
knows it would put an end to her cash-cow bonanza. Chapter
nine finds them in Milwaukee, where the author notes “they
caused a near riot.”
Violet and Daisy died in 1969, bound together in death as in life.
No fair skipping ahead to the final chapter titled “These Days Are
Now Over, Over Forever,” for if you do, you’ll miss pages packed
with pathos, historical fact, and photos from the author’s personal
trove. Jensen has pulled off a high-wire act, a balance of tension
and tenderness. I admit that the tale gave me twinges of guilt, as
if I’d snuck under a canvas tent to take a peek at a freak show.
Could the real freaks be those who gawk?
I was up all night wondering.
Comments? Email comments@susceptibletoimages.com
A True Story Of Conjoined Twins
Author: Dean Jensen
Ten Speed Press, 2006
Reviewed by Judith Ann Moriarty
Gallerist Dean Jensen is known for the weird and wild art he
exhibits in the Water Street emporium bearing his name. To my
mind, he’s akin to P.T. Barnum.
It comes as no surprise that this dealer in artful oddities, unveiled
his new book, The Lives And Loves Of Daisy And Violet Hilton (A
True Story Of Conjoined Twins), four days prior to Halloween. The
scene was Schwartz Bookshops on Downer, the night was wild
and rainy, and the house was packed as he read his excerpts. My
Halloween issue of The New Yorker arrived the same day, and
on its cover was an image of a shrieking black cat, back hunched,
looking in a mirror at its shrieking black cat “twin.”
I began reading impresario Jensen’s 421 page book that very
evening, but not before casting a wary eye on Wisconsin author
Jacquelyn Mitchard’s endorsement (“I was up all night!”)
emblazoned on the snazzy soft cover.
It begins like this: “Kate was having a hard labor.” What an
opening volley…a drum roll preceding the bloody and ominous
1908 birth ( in Brighton, England ) of joined-at-the-spine twins.
When the girls were christened a few weeks later, a reporter at
the event, “even recorded the twins’ passing of gas.” More than
gas was passed, in fact, the conjoined themselves had been
legally passed to midwife Mary Hilton who brought them into the
world, and as their adopted “Auntie” was about to take her “cash
cow” show on the road.
Henceforth, the tale takes grim Dickensian twists and turns as
people pay to gawk, doctors assemble to poke and probe, and
beatings are laid-on by Auntie Mary. Jensen describes Brighton
as a “place of raffish gaiety overrun with tourists,” but we know by
now that it is the entrance to Hell. As the girls grow, so does their
world fame and the flow of cash. Some doctors suggest the twins
could be surgically separated, but Auntie, bless her black heart,
knows it would put an end to her cash-cow bonanza. Chapter
nine finds them in Milwaukee, where the author notes “they
caused a near riot.”
Violet and Daisy died in 1969, bound together in death as in life.
No fair skipping ahead to the final chapter titled “These Days Are
Now Over, Over Forever,” for if you do, you’ll miss pages packed
with pathos, historical fact, and photos from the author’s personal
trove. Jensen has pulled off a high-wire act, a balance of tension
and tenderness. I admit that the tale gave me twinges of guilt, as
if I’d snuck under a canvas tent to take a peek at a freak show.
Could the real freaks be those who gawk?
I was up all night wondering.
Comments? Email comments@susceptibletoimages.com
| The Hilton Sisters. Photo courtesy of Ten Speed Press. |
| Photo courtesy of Ten Speed Press. |
| Photo courtesy of Ten Speed Press. |