Betsy Prioleau was born and grew up in Richmond, Virginia. Her father was portrait artist Hugo Stevens, and her home life was full of books, art and talkfests. She worked as a reporter on the Charlottesville Daily Progress and received a B.S. and M.A. from the University of Virginia.

After a Ph.D. in American literature at Duke University, she taught English and World Literature at Manhattan College, where she was a tenured associate professor. She was a scholar in residence at New York University, and most recently, taught cultural history in the New York University Liberal Studies Program. Besides scholarly articles, she has written for popular publications and authored four books: DIAMONDS AND DEADLINES (2022), SWOON (2013), SEDUCTRESS (2003) and CIRCLE OF EROS (1983).

She lives with her husband Philip in Charleston, South Carolina and New York City, and dances with her grandchild Olivia, gardens and swims when she’s not buried in books.

Books by Betsy Prioleau

Diamonds and Deadlines: A Tale of Greed, Deceit, and a Female Tycoon in New York City’s Gilded Age

by Betsy Prioleau - Biography, History, Nonfiction

DIAMONDS AND DEADLINES is the first major biography of the glamorous and scandalous Miriam Leslie, titan of publishing and an unsung hero of women’s suffrage.

Seductress: Women Who Ravished the World and Their Lost Art of Love

by Betsy Prioleau