author
Aimée Crocker Gouraud
1864–1941
A railroad heiress turned globe-trotting bohemian, she became famous for a life that mixed wealth, mysticism, travel, and spectacular public scandal. Her adventures in the United States, Europe, and Asia made her one of the most talked-about social figures of her era.
1 Audiobook
Moon-madness, and other fantasies
by Aimée Crocker Gouraud
About the author
Born in Sacramento, California, Aimée Isabella Crocker was a member of the wealthy Crocker family and inherited a large fortune while still young. She grew into an unconventional public figure known for rejecting social expectations and building a reputation as a mystic, traveler, and flamboyant hostess.
She spent time in the Far East and was widely associated with spiritual curiosity, exotic collecting, and extravagant parties in San Francisco, New York, and Paris. Newspapers followed her closely, especially her highly public personal life, her many marriages, and the dramatic image she carefully cultivated.
Crocker also wrote about her life, helping shape her own legend as an adventurer and outsider. Remembered today as a striking Gilded Age and early twentieth-century celebrity, she stands out as a woman who turned inheritance, performance, and self-invention into a lasting story.