PRAISE FOR
Mirage

People Magazine
“People staff writer Nina Burleigh spotlights the Indiana Jones-esque scientists who joined Napoleon's Egyptian invasion during the late 18th century.”

The New York Sun
“  . ..  . She tells a lively story. . . . . In her closing chapters, [Burleigh] vividly describes the nightmare that had befallen the occupiers. Devastated by plague, the French fitfully retreated in late 1801, as the English plundered the savants' finds. Holed up in a besieged Alexandria, a bedraggled, emaciated Saint-Hilaire deliriously contemplated a unifying theory of life, "a principle so gigantic it unified all the sciences," as he dissected an electric fish. Writing with manic energy as bombs exploded outside, Saint-Hilaire mused on "the imponderable fluids" of light, electricity, and heat as he tried to pinpoint a link to "all the phenomena of the material world." It is a stunning image, and a fitting metaphor for the overreaching ambition that drove the savants in their quest.”

The San Francisco Chronicle - December 14, 2007
“Burleigh…explains significant details without getting heavily academic. By separating the narrative into sections and sketching individuals-the chemist, the mathematician, the zoologist – she makes the discussion accessible…a fascinating read about an extraordinary time and place in world history.” Full review at The San Francisco Chronicle.

The New York Sun - December 12, 2007
One of Napoleon's more reckless gambles — there were many — was his ill-fated invasion of Egypt in 1798. Determined to cut off Britain's trading routes with India, the petit general crossed the Mediterranean with some 50,000 soldiers and sailors, looking to drive the English from the Orient. But this was a military mission with an intellectual bent. Napoleon, intoxicated by the example of Alexander the Great, another conqueror with big ideas, had a grand vision: He wanted to modernize Egypt — even if he had to do it at the point of a gun — and explore the glories of the Egyptian past... Full review at The New York Sun.

The New York Times Book Review - December 9, 2007
**EDITOR'S CHOICE** “Burleigh’s description of a young army overdressed for the sweltering heat (in Alpine wool uniforms), afraid and unable to communicate with the increasingly hostile locals, has echoes of the present.  Her principle subject, however, is not the military but the 151 "savants" Napoleon took along -- geologists, mapmakers, naturalists, artists, even a musicologist.  . . .Burleigh hurtles in less than 250 pages through the three grueling years the savants spent in Egypt, peppering her tale with multitudes of facts, digressions, and antidotes.” Full review at The New York Times.

More Magazine
“Burleigh’s latest history gives us a fresh take on well-known material - Napoleon’s eighteenth – century invasion and Democracy –spreading mission in Egypt. His campaign did not go well. (Sound Familiar?)”

LoadedQuestions.com
Author Nina Burleigh is an accomplished journalist who reported for Time magazine in Iraq in the 1990s. With Mirage she has written a very detailed book about Napoleon Bonaparte's march to Egypt with the French army beneath him. . . I certainly recommend reading this book. Burleigh's approach to this historical adventure is refreshing and very approachable -- history for the non historian.”

Interviews with Nina Burleigh have appeared on XM Radio's Bob Edwards Show, National Geographic Radio, and Bloomberg Radio. Air times to come.

The Associated Press
“With an easy style and an eye for striking detail, Burleigh concentrates on 151 French scientists, scholars and students who joined the expedition, tempted by hero worship of Napoleon and the prospect of scientific adventure.”

Library Journal
“If you enjoy delving into small crevices of the past looking for little-considered gems of history, then Burleigh's (The Stranger and the Statesman) latest is for you. Focusing on Napoléon's expedition to Egypt in 1798-1801 and particularly on the scientists who accompanied the military forces, Burleigh illuminates an unfamiliar moment in the history of science.  . . .Burleigh's storytelling ability is mesmerizing; she skillfully fills in the backstory of the region in artfully crafted paragraphs, summing up thousands of years of history without slowing the flow of the narrative.”

Publishers Weekly
“Burleigh (A Very Private Woman) offers an absorbing glimpse of Napoleon’s thwarted bid for a grand French empire and its intellectual fruits.”

Kirkus Reviews
“A breathless account of the French invasion of Egypt in 1798.”

PRAISE FOR
The Stranger and the Statesman

"Most of us employed at Smithsonian have the vague knowledge that James Smithson’s disenchantment with British aristocracy was behind his curious bequest to create an institution to be founded in Washington, D.C., “for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men.” But this is far from the complete story. Thanks to this lively and extraordinarily well-researched book, Nina Burleigh shows the situation to have been far more interesting and complex..." More at Geotimes.

-- Geotimes, April 2004

"Of all the great nineteenth-century philanthropists who used their wealth to enrich American civil society, James Smithson (1765-1829) is surely one of the more enigmatic. Millions flock to the Smithsonian museums that bear his name each year, yet few people realize he never visited America. And none can say why this illegitimate son of a British aristocrat used his fortune to endow what would become America's best-known museums." More at The Philanthropy Roundtable.

-- Martin Morse Wooster, The Philanthropic Roundtable

"Burleigh's investigation reads at times like a riveting cold-case episode; she succeeds admirably in putting flesh on Smithson's skeletal remains."

-- Chicago Tribune

"The source of Smithson's desire to establish an institution in the new city of Washington "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge" is the psychological mystery at the heart of Nina Burleigh's engaging tour of his life and times, 'The Stranger and the Statesman: James Smithson, John Quincy Adams and the Making of America's Greatest Museum: the Smithsonian.'"

-- San Francisco Chronicle

'The Nation's Attic'
"When I started this slim book, a new account of the life of the enigmatic and eccentric English love child who went on to become the initiating benefactor of America's Smithsonian Institution, the auguries were far from good, and I thought that I would not like it at all. There were all manner of infelicities about the book that, initially at least, put me right off it. But I persevered and, 200-odd pages later, I put it aside, replete, delighted, enchanted, and fascinated -- and humbled too by the realization that a hasty judgment is often an unworthy judgment, and that all books should at least be given a chance..." More at The Boston Globe.

-- Simon Winchester, Boston Globe

"This engaging book is well worth the time to read. Even James Macie, or James Smithson, as he came to call himself in middle age, might have applauded this "increase & diffusion of Knowledge" about the founding of the institution."

-- Richmond Times Dispatch

"This meticulously researched book reads like a suspense novel, looking for clues in James Smithson's odd life that might have led him to give a large fortune to a country he had never seen. Then there's the question of what America, then completely broke, would do with the money. The twists and turns of that political plot feature a hero-John Quincy Adams, who could be called the stepfather of the Smithsonian. It's a riveting story of two men, and a fascinating picture of the world where they lived."

— Cokie Roberts

"Nina Burleigh tells an unusual and exciting story, backs it up with impressive scholarship, and brings to life the sometimes vexed history of a great American institution."

— Justin Kaplan

"What a great American story! Nina Burleigh's The Stranger and the Statesman is a beautifully rendered account of the extraordinary circumstances that lead to the creation of the Smithsonian. John Quincy Adams comes bursting out of these pages full of tenacity and grit. The old adage that 'history is stranger than fiction' has never been more apropos. Highly recommended."

— Douglas Brinkley

Smithsonian magazine review of The Stranger and the Statesman.

Sullivan County Democrat - 11/24/03
How Nina Burleigh Got The Smithsonian Story
  Nina Burleigh is like a modern-day Nancy Drew with kids.
  This mother of two and accomplished author does her sleuthing in the public library.
  Pouring over firsthand accounts of tales from long ago, surfing the Web for bits and pieces of history, Burleigh culls the information she needs to pen books on some of the nation’s most obscure mysteries...entire story here.

Nina Burleigh talks about her new book, The Stranger and the Statesman, with Jeffrey Toobin on WNYC radio.

"In this fascinating and painstakingly-researched account, Nina Burleigh has dissected Washington's most intriguing murder mystery and produced, all-in-one, a captivating biography, a thriller, and an insightful portrait of Georgetown in its golden presidential age of high-drama political dinners and late-night White House assignations."

— From Christopher Ogden,
author of Life of the Party

"Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil meets Camelot...elegant and evocative. ... Burleigh weaves a good tale. She's terrific on a Georgetown that no longer exists."

— Washington Post Book World

"Power is so utterly fascinating. Sometimes it's used for evil purposes, like the kind of power that has silenced the telling of Mary Pinchot Meyer's mysterious murder for over three decades. In A Very Private Woman, Nina Burleigh has finally told this tragic tale of a privileged beauty with friends in high places."

— Dominick Dunne

"A superbly crafted, evocative glimpse of an adventurous spirit whose grisly murder remains a mystery."

— San Francisco Chronicle

"Provocative, erudite...pure Georgetown noir."

— The New York Observer

"Mary Meyer, CIA wife, mistress of President Kennedy, murder victim, has long been a story waiting for the right author. In this book, with its incisive, unsensational but fascinating reporting, Nina Burleigh really delivers. ... Fine, well-judged work.

— Anthony Summers, author of Official and Confidential and Goddess

"While Burleigh avoids offering theories about the unsolved murder, she vividly evokes one conspiracy of titillating interest today: how Washington insiders of the era kept their "secretly swinging" activities discreet."

— Entertainment Weekly, Megan Harlan

"Nina Burleigh brings a rich array of real-life characters to A Very Private Woman, some of whom could have tumbled out of a John le Carré novel."

— The New York Times Book Review,
Patricia O'Brien

"A scintillating true story ... [Burleigh] relies on well-documented evidence and recollections. ... An astute observer of the political scene."

— New York Post

"A sensitive study of a time, place and woman ... A Very Private Woman is a wonderful read."

— Weekly Standard

"Burleigh provides an intriguing look into the mythology surrounding the Kennedy White House and the Cold War era, when secrets were a way of life."

— Knoxville News-Sentinel

"Proves that every Washington sex scandal is juicy in its own way."

— Glamour

"Journalist Nina Burleigh gives a fascinating account of the suspicions that have fed conspiracy theories of CIA involvement in the death of Mary Pinchot Meyer, married to a top CIA official and a mistress to President John F. Kennedy. Meyer was murdered on a wooded towpath in Georgetown, less than a year after Kennedy's assassination. As fascinating as the circumstances of her unsolved murder, including CIA concerns about the contents of Meyer's diary, her life was equally compelling. Born into wealth, member of the Eastern social elite, Meyer became part of the domestic scenery of the CIA during its most clandestine period. Burleigh conveys the CIA husbands' pernicious intrigues and the wives' suppressed domesticities. Secrets kept by Meyer's cold warrior husband contributed to the growing distance between them, even after the loss of a young child. Meyer retreated into her painting and lovers, including Kennedy. A close relationship with Timothy O'Leary led to allegations that she brought drugs, including LSD, into the White House for use with Kennedy. Conspiracy theorists will love this book."

— Vanessa Bush, Booklist

"The name Mary Meyer is unfamiliar to most Americans. Those living in Washington and Georgetown know it well. Mary Pinchot Meyer's story has waited 34 years for just the right author. An author capable of relating an insightful portrait of DC and Georgetown in the days of "Camelot." An author who could with high-drama dissect Washington's most intriguing murder mystery. Nina Burleigh, a contributing editor at New York Magazine and a resident of New York City is the writer who now steps forward to tell Mary's story of mystery and intrigue..." (more at the link)

— BusinessKnowHow.com