The Lives and Loves of Daisy and Violet Hilton: A True Story of Conjoined Twins

Dean Jensen did a great job unearthing the facts and assembling the intimate life stories of the ORIGINAL Hilton Sisters, in his book, "The Lives and Loves of Daisy and Violet Hilton: A True Story of Conjoined Twins". His writing style is very easy to read and the story sucks you in early on. Although these sisters are looked upon as "freaks", the more you read about the challenges they faced, the more you see they are just two women searching for happiness and love. As the mystery is unlocked, and intimate details are exposed something surprising happens, you find yourself rooting for the twins and genuinely caring about them. This book takes you on an emotional roller coaster ride detailing their lives of coming into this world a little different, entertaining millions internationally and dying virtually unknown. By the time you read about the accounts of their death, you feel like you've lost two good friends. I was swept away in the descriptive writing of the vaudeville era, the glimpse into the sideshow life and how fickle the entertainment industry really is. It was unbelievable to learn that the twins helped the careers of many 'just starting out stars' like Bob Hope & Burns and Allen and how the great magician Harry Houdini taught them a technique to 'separate themselves'. The more you read about how extraordinary their lives were, the more you change your perception of how you view people who are different from you. Life handed them lemons, so they made lemonade and then some. I highly recommend this book!

I originally became intrigued by conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton after seeing the 1932 film "Freaks" back in the late 1980s. I subsequently read that they had spent their final years, and in fact are buried, in my own state of North Carolina. When James Taylor reprinted the sisters' own autobiography in his publication "Shocked and Amazed," I eagerly ordered those issues. I was pleasantly surprised to learn in those pages that a gentleman named Dean Jensen was researching the sisters' lives, and that what he had discovered was a lot wilder than the euphemistic gloss the twins put on their own account of their adventures. I began anticipating this book immediately. Even then, Jensen's work-in-progress seemed too good to be true, his subject(s) so esoteric and obscure a topic of interest, that I had to wonder if it would ever see publication. Time passed, my anticipation cooled off . . . and then out of the blue this year, an internet correspondent mentioned he'd just received his copy! A web search confirmed it had been out for several months already! A bit chagrined, I quickly ordered a copy for myself. I have to say the long wait was justified by the degree of biographical detail Mr. Jensen put into his book. This is especially impressive considering how difficult it must have been to dig up the facts on these girls in whom any popular interest had gone cold long before the petite Daisy and Violet were laid to rest in a single casket in a grave plot that was theirs only out of charity. Take, for instance, the intimate account of their birth, almost a hundred years ago, in a Brighton England slum. It reads as though Mr. Jensen was an eyewitness! Daisy and Violet emerge in Jensen's biography as complex, flawed human beings, far from the mere "victims-of-fate-and-avarice-to-be-pitied" their own memoir paints them as. Their behavior is often far from admirable though they will still engage your sympathies. This book is fascinating and more than once jaw-dropping. I have to say, "Thank you, Mr. Jensen; your book was worth the wait." -- Micah Harris

This book is about the lives of conjoined twins who entertain millions internationally in the vaudeville era. It chronicles the extraordinary lives of Daisy and Violet Hilton while documenting famous entertainers of that era with whom the twins worked. It surprises with names of stars whom we all now recognize that the twins `supported' with their fame in those early years. It speaks to how personal and global circumstances affected the twins' lives, the industry, and the world. It speaks to how fickle is fame. Yet it is about much more. The way it is written and researched offers a significant look at an era that is made fascinating while far from our current experience. A cast of characters is developed. Some exploit the twins and others care about them. The story is compelling because it speaks to the extraordinary successes, failures, feelings, desires, and drama in the lives of these conjoined sisters who, in this story, grow literally from birth to death. One cares about their well being while turning each page. Dean Jensen's book speaks to the humane and inhumane in all of us. It is a great and highly recommended read. Joan Backes

This is an amazing book, beautifully written. I couldn't put it down and had to remind myself often that it was non-fiction. Highly recommended.

These two women were "freaks" at a time when that made them superstars of Vaudeville, more famous than Bob Hope, Burns and Allen, etc. But the book is more about the two people, Violet and Daisy, and their very human talents, feelings and struggles. Dean Jensen has written a page-turner about human nature, not just that of conjoined sisters but of the people who took advantage of them, the people who went to see them because they were "freaks" and the people who genuinely loved and resapected them. This is a great book as biography and as entertainment.