When Jenny Lind arrived from Europe on a summer day in 1850, the city of New York went wild. Steamboats in the harbor whistled a shrill welcome. Church bells rang. Flags were flying. And thousands upon thousands of gaily dressed people gathered to welcome ashore the Swedish Nightingale - the most famous and beloved singer of her generation.

Bernadine Kielty has written a romantic, exciting, and accurate biography of Jenny Lind, giving us not only a moving account of her childhood and rise to fame in Europe, but dramatizing her triumphal tour of America under the shrewd management of the irrepressible Barnum.

Kings and queens of the Old World were already among the host of her ardent admirers. Now the New World for the first time heard her lovely voice. We follow her from New York to Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Charleston, Havana, New Orleans, St. Louis, Cincinnati, and elsewhere as she gently conquers the North American continent.

Here is a swift, suspenseful, and charming account of a remarkable woman's life - her career, her love affairs, her happiness, and her moments of sorrow; her strong character in times of stress; her many honors and her charities (which at times absorbed most of her huge earnings). Here, in fact, is Jenny Lind herself, who was feted as no other woman of her time, showered with jeweled gifts, extravagant praise, and almost universal love.

Those of us who live a century too late to have known her magic are fortunate to be able to read such a distinguished account of her fabulous career.

From the dust jacket