Who Killed Jane Stanford? A Gilded Age Tale of M**der

In 1885 Jane and Leland Stanford co-founded a university to honor their recently deceased young son. After her husband’s death in 1893, Jane Stanford steered Stanford into eccentricity and public controversy for more than a decade. In 1905 she was murdered in Hawaii, a victim, according to the Honolulu coroner’s jury, of strychnine poisoning. With her vast funding hanging in the balance, Stanford's president and his allies quickly constructed a cover-up story of death by natural causes, while the murderer was never found. In his new book Who Killed Jane Stanford? A Gilded Age Tale of M**der, Deceit, Spirits and the Birth of a University, historian Richard White defy sifts through the scattered evidence and conflicting stories, and gives us the first full account of Jane Stanford’s M**der and its cover-up. White reads and discusses his work, with journalist Julia Flynn Siler.

Richard White is the author of many acclaimed histories, including Railroaded, the groundbreaking study of the transcontinentals; winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Francis Parkman Prize, and a Pulitzer Prize finalist. He is Margaret Byrne Professor of American History, Emeritus, at Stanford University, and lives near Palo Alto, California.

Julia Flynn Siler is a journalist and New York Times bestselling author of The White Devil's Daughters: The Women Who Fought Slavery in San Francisco's Chinatown); The House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty; and Lost Kingdom: Hawaii’s Last Queen, the Sugar Kings, and America’s First Imperial Adventure.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Book Club of California, 312 Sutter Street, San Francisco, United States