The Sisters: Babe Mortimer Paley, Betsy Roosevelt Whitney, Minnie Astor Fosburgh: The Lives & Times of the Fabulous Cushing Sisters.
Grafton, David.
Place Published: New York:
Publisher: Random House,
Date Published: 1992.
Description: STATED FIRST EDITION, 1st Printing (9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2). 316 pages with index and acknowledgements plus 16 pages black and white photos. This book is in FINE condition. The dust jacket is VERY GOOD with minor edgewear wear and closed cut to front flap edge . NOT price-clipped. Not remaindered. JMVintage specializes in books, magazines and other treasures related to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor...and other curious subjects. Dust jacket reads: Americans had a forty-year love affair with the three Cushing sisters-Minnie, Betsey, and Babe - from the193Os through the 1970s. They were Iike movie stars, setting trends and fashions, leading glamorous lives. Daughters of the world-renowned neurosurgeon Dr. Harvey Cushing of Boston, the sisters were not born rich, but their marriages catapulted them into a world of weatlth and power. Minnie married real estate tycoon Vincent Astor after a lengthy affair, becoming a pillar of old-money New York society. Tiring of his sporting life, she divorced him to marry painter James Fosburgh, a homosexual, and became the doyenne of New York's artistic circles, establishing a glittering salon. Alan Jay Lerner, Claudette Colbert, Renata Tibaldi, David Hockne, Dorothy Rodgers, John Hammond, and Robert Motherwell were frequent guests at her soirees. Betsey Cushing married James Roosevelt and, as President Franklin Roosevelt's daughter-in-law, became his unofficial hostess at the White House. When her marriage to Jimmy Roosevelt foundered, she became Mrs. Jock (John Jay) Whitney and one of the richest women in the world. And finally Barbara, known as Babe, married Standard Oil heir Stanley Mortimer of Tuxedo Park, then went on to wed the legendary CBS board chairman William Paley. The only "working girl" among the Cushing sisters, she was a fashion editor at Vogue magazine. Her sense of elegance set a standard for the style-conscious; she was the Duchess of Windsor and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis rolled into one. Her celebrated friendship and bitter feud Capote is the stuff of legend. A book about the Cushing sisters is fascinating story of life among the rich-rich. The houses, the gardens, the yachts, the jewels, the parties, all added up to lives of almost unimaginable luxury. The Cushing sisters got their money through mother wit and single-minded perseverance, along with an understanding of power and the shrewd use of their good looks. For the first time, David Grafton provides a portrait of the their indomitable, larger-than-life mother, who electrified and utterly dominated her daughters. The sisters made the attainment of money and social standing look easy, something that women everywhere could accomplish. The Sisters reveals the truth about the Cushing sisters' lives, their phenomenal rise from the comfortable reaches of the upper middle class to the closest thing to aristocracy America has known. The Sisters describes the special world-the time between the two world wars-that made this conquest possible. If the lives of the three beautiful Cushing sisters fascinated America for forty years, it was partly because Betsey, Minnie, and Babe fit perfectly into their time. They were role models for an age, mirrors of a culture, expressions of values for people who needed to believe in charmed lives.
Edition: First editionBinding: 1/4 cloth
Condition: Fine in Very Good DJ
ISBN: 0394584163
Book Id: 17495
Price: $65.00
