"Life Of The Party" 1994 OGDEN, Christopher (INSCRIBED) (SOLD)
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The Biography of Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman
OGDEN, Christopher
Inscribed on note (laid in): To Nina (Griscom) by the author
[504] pp.
Little, Brown, and Company
1994
First Edition
9 1/2" x 6 1/2"
Fine/ Fine
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In this captivating, gossipy, withering biography, Time writer Ogden portrays Harriman--a major Democratic fund-raiser, backer of Clinton and currently U.S. ambassador to France--as a coolly calculating opportunist who parlayed her ambition into vast wealth and political clout by targeting rich and famous men. An English baron's daughter, Pamela Digby in 1939, at age 19, wed hedonistic, alcoholic Randolph Churchill and moved into Downing Street, where she helped her father-in-law, Sir Winston, by acting as an intelligence broker during WW II. Her second marriage to ebullient, barbiturate-addicted Broadway producer Leland Hayward put her in the vortex of the golden age of the American musical. She used the wealth of her third husband, the late statesman Averell Harriman, to resuscitate the Democratic Party's fortunes. Ogden catalogues Harriman's numerous liaisons (Edward R. Murrow, Elie de Rothschild, Aly Khan, Fiat auto magnate Gianni Agnelli, etc.) in this unauthorized tell-all based on months of interviews with her for a proposed autobiography that was abandoned.
Pamela Beryl Harriman (née Digby; March 20, 1920 – February 5, 1997), also known as Pamela Churchill Harriman, was an English political activist for the Democratic Party, diplomat, and socialite. She married three times: her first husband was Randolph Churchill, the son of prime minister Winston Churchill; her third husband was W. Averell Harriman, an American diplomat who also served as Governor of New York. Her only child, Winston Churchill (1940–2010), was named after his famous grandfather. She served as US ambassador to France from 1993 until her death in 1997.