Book Alert / Emily Post

Emily Post -- Daughter of the Gilded Age: Mistress of American Manners, Random House '08, $30, 525 pages, ISBN #0375509216. Index, bibliography, source notes, grouping of b&w glossy images.

In the words of humorist P.J. O'Rourke, "It was the genius of Emily Post to show us that manners are the small coin of morality. You can go years between saving people from burning houses, but you can be polite and kind every day."

But that "genius" was late in her career. Well born, Emily Price was one of Manhattan's most sought-after debutantes. When she married Edwin Post, she anticipated a privileged, happy life much like that of her parents. But when she found herself at the center of a scandalous, highly-public divorce, Emily realized that even though she was living at the turn of the 20th century, any stability she would acquire would come from standing on her two feet.

A 15-year career of writing novels would follow until at age 50, she turned a corner, writing her transforming book Etiquette. In spite of a small first print run, sales grew steadily until the book became a perennial, one its author would update twice a decade to keep it current.

Laura Claridge is the author of several books, including another biography of Emily Post, and has worked as an academic and a journalist.