Edith Pattou - Photo Galleries

Edith Gallery

An official gallery of portraits of me through the years…

Halloweens Past

I have been a big fan of Halloween and dressing up in costumes since grade school and have fond memories of the Halloween costume parade at The Greeley School in Winnetka, especially the year I was Casper the Friendly Ghost. My husband and I host a semi-annual Halloween party and here are a few favorite costumes…

My Name

I was named after two formidable ‘Ediths’, one from each side of my family. Edith McLaughlin, my mother’s grandmother, a warm, much-loved woman of French and English background who married into a prosperous Irish family with a successful coffee producing company, McLaughlin’s Manor House Coffee. The original Edith Pattou, my great grandmother on my father’s side, was a strong woman from Yonkers whose husband deserted her, leaving her to care for two small boys on her own. She moved to France where it was cheaper to live in 1903 and supported her family by writing French conversation books for American tourists.

As a child I quite disliked my first name, finding it hopelessly old-fashioned compared to the Nancys and Susans in my school. It didn’t help that my parents only called me ‘Edith’ when they were angry, otherwise I was ‘Ede’ or one of an array of fanciful nicknames, including ‘bread-face’.

At any rate, at around the age of twelve I embraced the name Edie and have loved it ever since.

Herewith is a gallery of famous Edies…

Polar Bears

During the writing of East I did a lot of research on polar bears and began collecting images of them. They are spectacular creatures and it fills me with grief to think that one day our planet will no longer be able to sustain them.

Ghosting

These are photos inspired by Ghosting, my 2014 book about a high school prank that goes horrifically awry. One of the characters, Maxie, is a photographer and some of the photos are ones she takes during the course of the story. There is also a jar of fake blood that I made. We used it during the making of the book trailer for Ghosting (you can watch the book trailer here). And there are photos from the game MouseTrap which is mentioned several times during the story and is, in fact, a metaphor for the events that take place on that fateful night.