If anyone’s heard of Mrs. Frank Leslie today, it’s not much. She’s been put to pasture and long forgotten. But she was a Gilded Age banner name, the “Empress of Journalism,” who ran the largest publishing company in America for 20 years on male turf and made a fortune.
Miriam Leslie (née Miriam Florence Follin) was a cunning businesswoman, a media giant, and a shrewd operator—a field marshal disguised as the ideal “true woman.” A revered national icon, she dictated fashion and good form, wrote six books, and hosted a celebrated salon for the culturati.
