Captive of the Labyrinth
Sarah L. Winchester, Heiress to the Rifle Fortune
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Narrated by:
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Nan McNamara
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By:
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Mary Jo Ignoffo
About this listen
The first full-length biography of Sarah Winchester, the subject of the movie Winchester starring Helen Mirren, now available for the first time in audio.
Since her death in 1922, Sarah Winchester has been perceived as a mysterious, haunted figure. After inheriting a vast fortune upon the death of her husband in 1881, Sarah purchased a simple farmhouse in San José, California. She began building additions to the house and continued construction on it for the next twenty years. A hostile press cast Sarah as the conscience of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company—a widow shouldering responsibility for the many deaths caused by the rifle that brought her riches. She was accused of being a ghost-obsessed spiritualist, and to this day it is largely believed that the extensive construction she executed on her San José house was done to appease the ghouls around her.
But was she really as guilt-ridden and superstitious as history remembers her? When Winchester’s home was purchased after her death, it was transformed into a tourist attraction. The bizarre, sprawling mansion and the enigmatic nature of Winchester’s life were exaggerated by the new owners to generate publicity for their business. But as the mansion has become more widely known, the person of Winchester has receded from reality, and she is only remembered for squandering her riches to ward off disturbed spirits.
Captive of the Labyrinth: Sarah L. Winchester, Heiress to the Rifle Fortune demystifies the life of this unique American. In the first full-length biography of Winchester, author and historian Mary Jo Ignoffo unearths the truth about this notorious eccentric, revealing that she was not a maddened spiritualist driven by remorse but an intelligent, articulate woman who sought to protect her private life amidst the chaos of her public existence. The author takes readers through Winchester’s several homes, explores her private life, and, by excerpting from personal correspondence, gives the heiress a voice for the first time since her death. Ignoffo’s research reveals that Winchester’s true financial priority was not dissipating her fortune on the mansion in San José but investing it for a philanthropic legacy.
For too long Sarah Winchester has existed as a ghost herself—a woman whose existence lies somewhere between the facts of her life and a set of sensationalized recollections of who she may have been. Captive of the Labyrinth finally puts to rest the myths about this remarkable woman, and, in the process, uncovers the legacy she intended to leave behind.
©2017 Mary Jo Ignoffo (P)2017 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Thomas Jefferson had three daughters: Martha and Maria by his wife, Martha Wayles Jefferson, and Harriet by his slave Sally Hemings. Although the three women shared a father, the similarities end there. Martha and Maria received a fine convent school education while they lived with their father during his diplomatic posting in Paris. Once they returned home, however, the sisters found their options limited by the laws and customs of early America. Harriet Hemings followed a different path. She escaped slavery — apparently with the assistance of Jefferson himself.
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Don't waste money on this book.
- By Amazon Customer on 02-17-18
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Where I Was From
- By: Joan Didion
- Narrated by: Gabrielle De Cuir
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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In her moving and insightful new book, Joan Didion reassesses parts of her life, her work, her history and ours. A native Californian, Didion applies her scalpel-like intelligence to the state’s ethic of ruthless self-sufficiency in order to examine that ethic’s often tenuous relationship to reality. Combining history and reportage, memoir and literary criticism, Where I Was From explores California’s romances with land and water; its unacknowledged debts to railroads, aerospace, and big government; the disjunction between its code of individualism and its fetish for prisons.
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California belongs to Joan Didion.
- By Darwin8u on 11-04-15
By: Joan Didion
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Passing Strange
- A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line
- By: Martha A. Sandweiss
- Narrated by: Lorna Raver
- Length: 14 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Brilliant scientist and witty conversationalist, best-selling author and architect of the great surveys that mapped the West after the Civil War, Clarence King was named by John Hay "the best and brightest of his generation". But King hid a secret from his Gilded Age cohorts and prominent family in Newport: for 13 years he lived a double life - as the celebrated White explorer, geologist, and writer Clarence King and as a Black Pullman porter and steelworker named James Todd.
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Race and Identity
- By Roy on 03-22-10
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Titan
- The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 35 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Titan is the first full-length biography based on unrestricted access to Rockefeller’s exceptionally rich trove of papers. A landmark publication full of startling revelations, the book indelibly alters our image of this most enigmatic capitalist. Born the son of a flamboyant, bigamous snake-oil salesman and a pious, straitlaced mother, Rockefeller rose from rustic origins to become the world’s richest man by creating America’s most powerful and feared monopoly, Standard Oil. Branded "the Octopus" by legions of muckrakers, the trust refined and marketed nearly 90 percent of the oil produced in America.
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He makes Bill Gates look like a Pauper!
- By Rick on 11-04-13
By: Ron Chernow
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Hershey
- Milton S. Hershey's Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire, and Utopian Dreams
- By: Michael D'Antonio
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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In this compelling biography, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael D'Antonio gives us the real-life rags-to-riches story of Milton S. Hershey, a largely uneducated businessman whose idealistic sense of purpose created an immense financial empire, a town, and a legacy that lasts to this day.
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The Benchmark for Chartiable, Rich Men
- By Boyd Tschaggeny on 01-30-19
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Emily Post
- Daughter of the Gilded Age, Mistress of American Manners
- By: Laura Claridge
- Narrated by: Christine Williams
- Length: 18 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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From the excesses of the late 19th-century Gilded Age, through the horrors of World War I, to the transformations of the Roaring 20s that gave birth to her magisterial Etiquette, Emily Post unfailingly took the measure of her era. A Baltimore blue blood with a populist heart, she helped the masses live the American dream with her hugely popular book, which has been continuously in print for over 85 years.
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Typical for Emily Post
- By Stephanie on 01-07-19
By: Laura Claridge
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Frontier Grit
- The Unlikely True Stories of Daring Pioneer Women
- By: Marianne Monson
- Narrated by: Caroline Shaffer
- Length: 5 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Discover the stories of 12 women who heard the call to settle the West and who came from all points of the globe to begin their journeys. As a slave Clara watched helplessly as her husband and children were sold, only to be reunited with her youngest daughter as a free woman six decades later. As a young girl, Charlotte hid her gender to escape a life of poverty and became the greatest stagecoach driver who ever lived. As a Native American, Gertrude fought to give her people a voice and to educate leaders about the ways and importance of America's native people.
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only ok
- By Jane Orr on 06-14-21
By: Marianne Monson
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Taking on the Trust
- The Epic Battle of Ida Tarbell and John D. Rockefeller
- By: Steve Weinberg
- Narrated by: Pam Ward
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Long before the rise of mega-corporations like Wal-Mart and Microsoft, Standard Oil controlled the oil industry with a monopolistic force unprecedented in American business history. Undaunted by the ruthless power of its owner, John D. Rockefeller, a fearless and ambitious reporter named Ida Minerva Tarbell confronted the company known simply as "The Trust".
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Annoying Narrator
- By Nate on 04-03-15
By: Steve Weinberg
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Bunny Mellon
- The Life of an American Style Legend
- By: Meryl Gordon
- Narrated by: Vanessa Cortland
- Length: 17 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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A new biography of Bunny Mellon, the style icon and American aristocrat who designed the White House Rose Garden for her friend JFK and served as a living witness to 20th century American history, operating in the high-level arenas of politics, diplomacy, art, and fashion.
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Well written bio.
- By Minda Leah Kahn on 09-01-18
By: Meryl Gordon
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The Black Russian
- By: Vladimir Alexandrov
- Narrated by: Peter Marinker
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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The Black Russian is the incredible story of Frederick Bruce Thomas, born in 1872 to former slaves who became prosperous farmers in Mississippi. After leaving the South and working as a waiter and valet in Chicago and Brooklyn, Frederick sought greater freedom in London, then crisscrossed Europe, and - in a highly unusual choice for a black American at the time - went to Russia in 1899. Because he found no color line there, Frederick made Moscow his home. He renamed himself Fyodor Fyodorovich Tomas, married twice, acquired a mistress, and took Russian citizenship.
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US Born African Descendant 2 Russian Citizenship
- By Sheila Gibson on 03-14-15
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The Orpheus Clock
- The Search for My Family's Art Treasures Stolen by the Nazis
- By: Simon Goodman
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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The Gutmanns, as they were known, rose from a small Bohemian hamlet to become one of Germany's most powerful banking families. They also amassed a magnificent, world-class art collection that included works by Degas, Renoir, Botticelli, Guardi, and many, many others. But the Nazi regime snatched from them everything they had worked to build: their remarkable art, their immense wealth, their prominent social standing, and their very lives.
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A Masterpiece of 21st Century History
- By Daniel Grünfeld on 09-18-19
By: Simon Goodman
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The Invisibles
- The Untold Story of African American Slaves in the White House
- By: Jesse Holland
- Narrated by: JD Jackson
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Jesse J. Holland's The Invisibles is the first book to tell the story of the executive mansion's most unexpected residents: the African American slaves who lived with the US presidents who owned them. Interest in African Americans and the White House are at an all-time high due to the historic presidency of Barack Obama and the soon-to-be-opened Smithsonian National Museum of African American Culture and History.
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Riveting Book
- By Jean on 02-13-16
By: Jesse Holland
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Black Titan
- A.G. Gaston and the Making of a Black American Millionaire
- By: Carol Jenkins
- Narrated by: Susan Spain
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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A.G. Gaston, the poor grandson of slaves, was born in the Deep South in 1892. Over the course of his extraordinary life, he amassed a fortune of over $130 million and a vast business empire. The story of his remarkable life is written with eloquence and grace by his niece, an Emmy¿ Award-winning journalist and her daughter, who holds degrees from Yale and Harvard.
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Black Gold = Standing Ovation
- By 2Fresh on 01-20-16
By: Carol Jenkins
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The Sugar King of Havana
- The Rise and Fall of Julio Lobo, Cuba's Last Tycoon
- By: John Paul Rathbone
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Fifty years after the Cuban revolution, the legendary wealth of the sugar magnate Julio Lobo remains emblematic of a certain way of life that came to an abrupt end when Fidel Castro marched into Havana. Known in his day as the King of Sugar, Lobo was for decades the most powerful force in the world sugar market, controlling vast swaths of the island's sugar interests.
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VERY INFORMATIVE
- By Terry on 03-26-12
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Prairie Fires
- The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder
- By: Caroline Fraser
- Narrated by: Christina Moore
- Length: 21 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Millions of fans of Little House on the Prairie believe they know Laura Ingalls - the pioneer girl who survived blizzards and near-starvation on the Great Plains, and the woman who wrote the famous autobiographical books. But the true story of her life has never been fully told. Now, drawing on unpublished manuscripts, letters, diaries, and land and financial records, Caroline Fraser masterfully fills in the gaps in Wilder's biography.
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Don’t read if you don’t want your fond memories...
- By NMwritergal on 11-24-17
By: Caroline Fraser
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Master of the Mountain
- Thomas Jefferson and His Slaves
- By: Henry Wiencek
- Narrated by: Brian Holsopple
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Is there anything new to say about Thomas Jefferson and slavery? The answer is a resounding yes. Henry Wiencek's eloquent, persuasive book - based on new information coming from archaeological work at Monticello and on hitherto overlooked or disregarded evidence in Jefferson's papers - opens up a huge, poorly understood dimension of Jefferson's world. We must, Wiencek suggests, follow the money.
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Clear, Insightful & Iconclastic History
- By R.S. on 04-18-13
By: Henry Wiencek
What listeners say about Captive of the Labyrinth
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Matthew
- 04-14-21
Finally
It was wonderful to finally hear the true story of Sarah’s life. A woman who gave so generously should not be cast into such a sad light!
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- Lysette Stauffer
- 12-29-20
best biography I've ever read
I thought I knew everything about the Winchester Mystery House and Sarah. this book taught me the true much more interesting story of this mythical woman. well researched, fascinating and should be studied in history classes and journalism classes alike.
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- Vicki Hare
- 12-28-17
Compelling historic listening
Having just visited the Winchester Mystery House I was curious to know more, especially as a Hollywood movie based on Sarah Winchester, played by Helen Mirrin, has been made. I wanted the facts not the hype.
This book is based on letters, notes, receipts, documents and direct telling from descendants of staff who knew the real story.
The book reveals that Sarah Winchester was not a spiritualist plagues by guilt and afraid of ghosts, but a skilled self educated architect and designer who built many houses including the now tourist attraction in San Jose.
Because she did not socialize, the town folk made up stories about her which warped into the mysterious tales we hear about her today. All are untrue, especially the movie!
The audio book reads somewhat like a textbook in style, it is not a story, but I found it compelling and extremely interesting.
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- Noelia
- 10-01-21
loved
loved it, it was very informative. I've been to the house before and loved the deep dive into Mrs. Winchester's life.
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- Rick
- 08-02-20
Dispels myths about the subject
Ignoffo writes an informative overview of the life of a woman who sought to avoid attention. The problem with a bio of such a person is she did not leave much evidence about her life and it shows, but not in a bad way. The book starts with a lot of family history that is hard to follow in audio format. Turning what is essentially genealogical data into a narrative is not easy but as a genealogist I found it interesting, though I can see why many would find it slow and dull.
The book is best once she moves west and starts building the house that made her famous. You can tell Ignoffo is engaging in a lot of speculation based on limited evidence, but she always makes sense and avoids the sensational to focus on likely real motives for Sarah Winchester's building spree.
To flesh out the story she goes on a number of sensible tangents about relatives and the growth of the San Francisco area as well as historical events. She concludes not with Sarah's death, but how the "Mystery House" developed into the tourist attraction it is today.
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- T. Redwood
- 04-27-18
The Woman Behind the Mystery House
This book was meticulously researched and is a great read. The first four chapters were a snooze-fest for myself with just a tad too much detail and history leading up to the reason we all chose this book: the life of Sarah Winchester and her amazing mansion. I will definitely listen to this book again, however I will remember to just start at chapter five. I live less than 30 minutes from the Mystery House and have visited it. This book reveals the legend and separates the myths from the facts that has built this story over time. Truly entertaining and enlightening. However, don't expect a spook story, but rather the media frenzy that INVENTED the spook story. It was so great to learn that Sarah was indeed a recluse which led to the mystery, but who knew what an a amazing philanthropist she was. The author gets credit for leading the story up to the present day with the present owners and manager of the Mystery House. See the Hollywood spook story movies, but also check out this book to see where the myth springs from reality.
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1 person found this helpful
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- J. Brown
- 01-12-20
Want to know the truth?
Ghost stories are fun, but I prefer to know the truth, I also like to know when someone is pulling a fast one on me. The Winchester Mystery house is just as beautiful, spooky and mysterious without all the lies about Sarah Winchester. If you’d like to the truth behind the house, the woman, and the time they lived in, I highly recommend this book. I’m so glad I “read” it.
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- Andrea newton
- 10-18-24
So much better than expected
This book was well researched and performed exceptionally well. It’s well worth the listen and family friendly
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- Carmen Gibson
- 03-07-24
Facts to Silence the Myths
Thank you to the author for your hard work and dedication to telling a factual story about Mrs Sarah Winchester. It is shameful that in life and now a century after her death people use her name and a false story to make money. I enjoyed the study but only of Mrs Winchester but a bit of history about the Winchester family and business, plus history of California. I highly recommend this book.
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- Kelly Crawford
- 08-04-20
Love hearing the truth
I have been to the Winchester house many times. I have to say that the truth about Sarah Winchester makes me admire her and I will visit the house again but with a greater admiration for this woman
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1 person found this helpful