Nagel, Susan 1954-

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NAGEL, Susan 1954-

(Susan Ellen Nagel)

PERSONAL: Born July 3, 1954, in Fayetteville, NC; married Jon Nagel, April 28, 1979; children: Hadley. Education: Mount Holyoke College, A.B., 1976; New York University, M.A., 1981, Ph.D., 1988.

ADDRESSES: Home—New York, NY. Agent—c/o Author Mail, HarperCollins, 10 E. 53rd St., 7th Fl., New York, NY 10020. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Educator, writer, and playwright. Fawcett Books, New York, NY, publicist, 1977–79; Gannett Newspapers, New York, NY, staff member, 1976–77; Marymount Manhattan College, New York, NY, professor in humanities department.

MEMBER: Modern Language Association, Dramatists Guild, New York Jr. League, Central Park Conservancy (member, women's committee).

WRITINGS:

The Influence of the Novels of Jean Giraudoux on the Hispanic Vanguard Novels of the 1920s–1930s, Bucknell University Press (Lewisburg, PA), 1991.

Mistress of the Elgin Marbles: A Biography of Mary Nisbet, Countess of Elgin, William Morrow (New York, NY), 2004.

Author of articles for scholarly journals, the Gannett newspaper chain, and Town and Country. Also coauthor of New York Review of Art, 1978, and of plays Money Is Thicker than Blood, The Organ Grinder and His Grease Monkey, I Was a Fugitive from the Junior League, Players, and C-Fun.

SIDELIGHTS: Susan Nagel tells the story of one of the most charismatic, influential, and scandalous women of the Romantic era in her book Mistress of the Elgin Marbles: A Biography of Mary Nisbet, Countess of Elgin. Born to a wealthy Scottish family, Mary Nisbet was a renowned beauty who married Thomas Bruce, seventh earl of Elgin. Nesbitt took a strong interest in her husband's diplomatic duties and traveled to Turkey with him when he was appointed British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. Nesbit was well liked by the sultan and consorted with the empire's royal family, a fact that allowed her to visit harems and gain access to several aspects of Middle-Eastern culture normally closed to Westerners. Nesbit is credited with helping bring the smallpox vaccine to the Middle East and striking a diplomatic agreement with French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. However, she also financed her husband's removal and transportation of historic marbles from the Pantheon to Great Britain, an action which many more recent museum experts have viewed as a form of cultural plunder. Nesbitt eventually began a love affair with her husband's best friend, which affair led to her ultimate downfall and burial years later in an unmarked grave.

A Kirkus Reviews contributor wrote that in Mistress of the Elgin Marbles Nagel portrays a "unique life related with animation, admiration, and affection, but also faithfully and unfancifully." Brad Hooper, writing in Booklist, commented that "the reconstruction of her sparkling personality and her exciting life story makes required reading for anyone interested in cultural history." A Publishers Weekly reviewer noted that while the story about the marble makes for "dramatic reading," "the biography's chief merit is its wealth of domestic and intimate detail and Nagel's ability to chart the course of an elite marriage with insight and compassion yet without sentimentality."