Electronic press kit for Laura Claridge

Contact Literary Agent

Carol Mann Carol Mann Agency 55 , NY 10003

• Tel: 212 206-5635

• Fax: 212 675-4809

1 Personal Representation

Dennis Oppenheimer

• [email protected]

• 917 650-4575

Speaking engagements / general contact

• [email protected]

Biography

Laura Claridge has written books ranging from feminist theory to bi- ography and popular culture, most recently the story of an Ameri- can icon, Emily Post: Daughter of the Gilded Age, Mistress of Amer- ican Manners (), for which she received a National Endowment for the Humanities grant. This project also received the J. Anthony Lukas Prize for a Work in Progress, administered by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Born in Clearwater, Florida, Laura Claridge received her Ph.D. in British Romanticism and Literary Theory from the University of Mary- land in 1986. She taught in the English departments at Converse and Wofford colleges in Spartanburg, SC, and was a tenured professor of English at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis until 1997. She has been a frequent writer and reviewer for the national press, appearing in such newspapers and magazines as , Vogue, The Boston Globe, , and the Christian Science Monitor. Her books have been translated into Spanish, German, and Polish. She has appeared frequently in the national media, including NBC, CNN, BBC, CSPAN, and NPR and such widely watched programs as the Today Show. Laura Claridge’s biography of iconic publisher Blanche Knopf, The Lady with the Borzoi, will be published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in April, 2016. Laura Claridge and her husband live in New York’s Hudson Valley.

2 Previous works and reviews Emily Post: Daughter of the Gilded Age, Mistress of American Man- ners

“It is to Laura Claridge’s credit that she has written the first full bi- ography of Post. An exhaustive researcher, Ms. Claridge has in this book provided beguiling new details about the taxonomies that governed Post’s life. And Ms. Claridge has situated her within the context of the fast-changing customs at the beginning of the 20th century when she exerted her greatest power.” Dinitia Smith, “In turning her attention to Post, [Claridge] takes up two myster- ies. One has to do with etiquette: why, in a supposedly classless society like America, do so many people fret about table manners? And the other has to do with ‘Etiquette’: how did Post convert so- cial disgrace into such a triumph? . . . Unlike the typical author bi- ography, which suggests that salvation comes in the form of self- expression—shame and alienation converted into art—her life story testifies to the redemptive power of repression. Emily Post became Emily Post by doing what Emily Post advised.” Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker “Laura Claridge’s meticulously researched bio hints at a feistier Emily, who once ‘plied her banjo like a flirtatious peacock’ as a Gilded Age debutante mingling with boldface names. . . .Emily Post is a rich portrait of an era, but — like its subject — it has little time for idle gossip.” Katharine Critchlow, Entertainment Weekly “Claridge’s warm, appreciative text does full justice to the sur- prisingly democratic influence of Post’s most famous book, and it also paints a rich, almost novelistic portrait of a woman whose long, full life embodied the dramatic changes that transformed American society.” Wendy Smith, Chicago Tribune “Claridge’s Emily Post is not only a fascinating look at a woman who managed to conquer many worlds in her time, it is also a social biography of the changing face of the during the 20th century.” Faye Jones, BookPage “As with her last book, a biography of Norman Rockwell, Laura Claridge has revisited an American icon, upending or at least ques-

3 tioning cliché, which, in the case of Emily Post, is that of a fussy, ob- sessive woman preoccupied with which fork one should use. Clar- idge tracks Emily’s rise from vivacious debutante to poised but ne- glected society wife and mother against the backdrop of the Gilded Age, deftly tucking in such capsule anecdotes as the déclassé Van- derbilts vying for high-society acceptance. . . .Claridge’s book hints at becoming a cultural or literary analysis, offering glimpses of Post’s historical context and writing style.” Liz Brown, Los Angeles Times “[Claridge] offers a rich description of the social development of the times,. . . an immensely researched work that straddles the line between academic and popular nonfiction. . . [R]eaders will find themselves rewarded with fascinating insights into the times through which Emily Post guided us.” Anne E. Carroll, Sun “Laura Claridge’s Emily Post is, in the end, a sterling — if you will — contribution to the biographies of American heroines.” Nashville Tennessean “An absorbing new biography. . . Claridge writes a smooth, clean story of a woman whose legacy is much more central to American life than choosing the correct fork.” Evelyn Theiss, Cleveland Plain Dealer “The first to fully portray this pioneer, Claridge is becoming the sort of biographer readers will follow anywhere, . . . and now this ab- sorbing study of a keenly perceptive ethicist second only to in the immensity of her influence. . . .The pain and humili- ation of her divorce from Edwin Post fostered her devotion to writ- ing (she was a successful novelist) and seeded the compassion and advocacy for women that shaped her highly moral approach to eti- quette. Claridge chronicles Post’s remarkable ability to discern the needs of a burgeoning American public transformed by immigra- tion, industrialization, war, and women’s and civil rights, and hungry for guidance in social and familial situations.” Donna Seaman, Book- list (starred review) “It was the genius of Emily Post to show us that manners are the small coin of morality.. . .Emily Post became perhaps the most impor- tant and certainly the most influential moralist of the 20th century. It is Laura Claridge’s genius to explain the surprising and improba- ble background and equally amazing personality of Emily Post.” P.J. O’Rourke, author of Modern Manners: An Etiquette Book for Rude

4 People “What she [Claridge] has given us is not only a canny and in- sightful read, but when she calls her Emily ‘a domestic anthropolo- gist,’ you know she’s right. Brava!” Nancy Milford, author of Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay “Laura Claridge has given us so much more than a mere biog- raphy of this august arbiter of good manners; [She] has flung open the doors of an entire society – she has shown us in enchanting, mesmerizing detail how the modern city of New York was built and made.” Carolyn See, author of Making a Literary Life “. . . a biography as rich and engaging as a portrait by John Singer Sargent.” Daniel Mark Epstein, author of The Lincolns: Portrait of a Marriage “Laura Claridge’s masterful Emily Post tells the story of a lively heroine, raised in a Gilded Age New York of silk-stockings and debu- tante balls, who wrote one of the enduring bestsellers of the 20th century.. . . Laura Claridge’s vivid, graceful biography of Emily Post is an essential contribution to American social history.” Eric Homberger, author of Mrs. Astor’s New York

Norman Rockwell: A Life

“An excellent and thorough new biography” Michael Kimmelman, The New York Times “Judicious, eminently readable, and astute, persuasive. . . This book deserves a wide readership” Michael Kammen, The Boston Globe "Impeccably researched and engagingly written.” The Washing- ton Post “Claridge has done an extraordinary job; she is an exhaustive researcher and a gifted art historian.” Entertainment Weekly “Fascinating” People Magazine “A critical biography of exceptional quality. . . .carefully re- searched, well written, and a pleasure to read.” Christian Science Monitor “A fine book. . .clear and lively.” Chicago Sun-Times “ A brilliant biography.” Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

5 : A Life of Deco and Decadence

"Claridge brings tact and insight to the job of unpicking the embroi- dery with which this aristocratic Russian émigré adorned the facts of her life. . . .Lempicka wasn’t thoughtful, but Claridge is, and she usefully explores the nature of modernism and women painters’ place in it." New Yorker “Lucid and interesting account of Lempicka’s life.” New York Times "Laura Claridge has discovered a lot more than anyone else about this indisputably remarkable woman." Irish Times “Even a reader with doubts (about Lempicka’s art) will be charmed by the eccentricities described in this feminist flavored, engrossing account.” Publishers Weekly “The definitive round-up of de Lempicka’s ramshackle but rivet- ing life.” Sunday Times (London) “A thorough and intricately wrought critical biography. . . .Clar- idge delivers a nuanced and detailed account. . . .an astute biog- raphy.” Kirkus Reviews

Out of Bounds

"Out of Bounds disrupts and reforms our thinking about women, men, and literature. I admire its wonderful cogency, flair, and intelligence." Catharine R. Stimpson, Rutgers University, New Brunswick "This impressive and varied collection passes far beyond the sim- ple critique of ’patriarchal’ symptoms that we see so often in literary criticism of male writers. . . .their originality resides in the collective refusal to simply condemn or lionize the gender politics of particu- lar writers. . . .the critics themselves struggle in earnest to revise the terms of the debate in gender criticism." Paul Smith, Carnegie- Mellon University

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