$250
The Warfare of Celebrity with Aristocracy in America - From the "First Families" to the "Four Hundred" to "Publi-ciety"
AMORY, Cleveland
Inscribed on FFEP: For Curtice Townsend with thanks
[599] pp.
Harper & Brothers Publishers New York
1960
8 1/2" x 6"
Cleveland Amory (September 2, 1917 – October 14, 1998) was an American author, reporter, television critic, commentator and animal rights activist. He wrote a series of popular books poking fun at the pretensions and customs of society, starting with The Proper Bostonians in 1947.
Starting in the late 1940s, Amory wrote a series of bestselling social history books, starting with The Proper Bostonians (1947) and continuing through The Last Resorts (1952) and Who Killed Society? (1960), that satirized the pretensions of the upper class society, particularly in Boston, where he had grown up. In 1952, he became a regular columnist for the weekly magazine Saturday Review. He continued to write the column for 20 years, until 1972. He also wrote articles for many other publications. In the spring of 1955, he traveled to France with his wife Martha for an assignment with the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Amory agreed to ghostwrite the Duchess' autobiography, but after realizing that she wanted him to sugar-coat her life, he quickly left the project.