Dear Mrs. Post

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Dear Mrs. Post 18 • .th e R ftui.re.r H er W ritingl Endle.rs' )! H f!r Daily R outin e ;. a Co n siderabl e Wh irl • - . .-:... o JgJy ~JE MillJ&. (Gdl1 J&.JElJ CIll Il!llll J&.J&.JJMill IN/ at the mercy of the public she created when she wrote Etiquette. " ' hen the publishing firm Color P h o tograph $ Taktln f o r The Sa turday Euen in g Post by Juan D mitri of .l1"unk & \Vagnalls suggested that she write the book. she was skeptical; she disliked tho word "etiquette" as heing both fancy a.nd AWl' year, when the rort.\'-tir~ t printing of I·;mily ('ould hear in those siml}le words an (,(·ho of the phony. and she felt uncomforta.ble about setting PO!oit' s 1·:ti(luette: the Blue Book of Social author's own wistfulness ov('r the whole hellish herself up in print as an authority on <:Ol're('L sO('iul l'~ag(' was released to the puhli(', sonw of il~ situa.tion. behavior, which was something she had always ta.ken reader'S \\el'(' a little startled by the touch 01' lavender Etiquette in Society, in B u~iness. in Politic's a nd more 01' less idly forg-ranted. Hichurd Du fTy, of I ~"'ullk tha.t persisted in its pagE'R . " 'I'he ha 'helol' girl can. a.t Il ome has sold nearl y 500.000 ('opies-at fOllr dol­ & \\'agnalls, pointed out that, although there were on occasion, go out alone with any unmarried man lars apiece-sine-e it was first published in J922. and plenty of etiquette books on the market, nOllt' had ~he knows WE'll, if the thE-ater she goes to, or the it has been slightly revised three times. but it was been written by n. woman of J'c('ognized sO('inl posi­ resta.urant she dines at, be of conventional charac'­ not until this year that. lYl rs. Post-apparently con­ lion since .Mrs. Sherwood-grandmother of Rol)f?J'l t('r," ~ l rs. Post's book stated tranquilly in 1936. vi nced that people are going to go right on behaving Sherwood. the playwright-wrote~ l allnersand So(·ial "The striet rules of etiquette demand that the in the unfettered way that has become fashionable Usages. back in the 80's. l ie followed uphis argumellt eli vorced meet as total and unspeaking strangers" it and convenien t-decided to broaden the standards by sending ..\·Irs. Post all the current books a.bout set forth in another chapter. and "A lady hn.ving her of beha.vior she established fifteen years ago. This etiquette he could lay his hands on, and a few da.ys portrait painted always takes a. woman friend . or spring a completely revised and up-to-date version later she telephoned him. hf'r maid, '" ho sits in the studio. or at least within of l-aiquet.te is appearing. in whic:h bachelor girls. I . These people." $h e said, referring to the etiquette sight or hearing." divorcees a nd ladies who like to hang arollnd artists' writers. " don't seem to know what they're talking All over the ('ollntry, barhelor gi rls were going out studios are considered patiently. even perhaps with abou t." alone with unmarried men they knew only slightly, a twinkle. The Vanishing Chapel'On almost entirely I! \rell. you teli 'em," said !\ rr. DutTy simply. in the hOI>f', perhaps. of getting to know them better; disappears, and is replaced by a sprig'htly chapter on Goaded. ~ I rs. Pos t sat down 011 a high stool at the ciivoreed people were greeting eac·h other, when they T he .!\lodern ~ l an and Girl. 'rhe author has named architect'S drafting table she likes to write Oil and • met aecidentally, with just as much kindliness as this couple John Strongheart and Louise Lovely, and in the next ten months, turned out 250,000 words 011 though they had never been married; and whatever plans to let them spend a good deal of time just drift­ etiquette. She wrote about aU the problems that ladies were having their portraits painted had very ing around together. without anybody within sight occurred to her, and iL was scarcely surpriSing tha.t few women friends, or maids either, who were con­ or he.:'\.ring. l\l rs. Post is a gentlewoman of the old they were mainly the problems within her Own ex­ tent to sl>end a whole afternoon just sitting within s(·hool. and she likes the old ways best. but she is a perience or within that of her friends in New York, sight or hearing. But ~ l rs. Post pretty thoroughly businesswoman as well. \\"ith srarcelya sigh for the at Newport or at Tuxedo. 'rhe book. when it Wn~ ignored the modern trend. The 1936 edition of decorous past, she has made up her mind to march published, was a curiOllsly li\'el.v and readable work Etiquette also contained an entire chapt r devoted sturdily abreast of the times. through which the Toploftys. (he Eminents, th. (0 (he (,h"I'""on. and. althou!:h she was. in fact. re­ Although her word is accepted as gospel by millions Bobo Gildings. the P:otqllites and other c:hal'a.(·t4?r!-\_ fen'ed to as I. The ranishing Chaperon." the reader of readers. F.milv. Post has alwavs- been somehow all based on real people, a ~ the author c-onfess{'d in " H er Fa ce SHll Ho s That F i n e T r unspuren c)I of L In e a nd Tex ~ f ure Thll t N flu.,r/J..4lte L . tr ves u W o m a n Wh u H I! ,s B een B 'Il.uHfu l the dedication-moved symholi('ully, forever pre­ to be rook. waitress and channing hORteRs to n. dinn('r l'II(IIE'ssly ('art'ful a.hout IIPr own (·hoi(·l' of word ... III occupied with the righllivery for their footmen. the party-informal-of eight peoplc, without I{('tting forlllal (:011 vl'rsatioll. a lid I t mOl hol'S Iwr fa III t Iy U 1Il':I'lY order of precedem'e a.t fOl'mal dinners. the duties of up f!'Om the table. rro test the s~'stelll 8he had to twar anyone NI.Y ",>holl('," for inst:l1H'l'. illslt'ad 01' 11 kitchenmuid in a. stillT of twelve servants, and thought up for ~ l rs. ~I'hree in-One before she brought "telephone." During husin(>l:'s hours, howl'H·r. Iwl' similnr high-toned nuance~ of the mannered life. it out in print, ~ l rs. Post invited six of her own contu(·ts with the world of industry ha,\'l' ('OIHlitiolHl(\ Before it had boon out a. month. however, ~~mi)y friends-the Toploftys. the Gilding, and the her to a more (,olorful langnage. Sht' !:'a,vs .. damn" Post began getting lotters t hat staggered her. \\lomen \\"orldlys-to dine with her and her son, Bru('e, at in n. definite WllY whell things t'xu.slwrate hl~r, slw readers throughout the country wrote to her, saying. her apartment in New York. Seated ~erenely at describes furniture or clothes she dO(.'iol!l't like as "Dear ~ t rs. Post, You didn't say in your book the head of her ll.ble with a stack of soup plMes be­ "godawful," and one u.dvertisil1l{ man who askE'd whether a widow ought to sign her letters' !\l rs. John fore her. she served the soup from a. hot tureen and her opinion of n. layout showing a, tahle st't for a Jones' or ' :~d rs. l\1ary Jones,'" and "Dear 1\·1. rs. put the empty plates. 8..'5 they \\'('re hund(..l(i ba.ck to formal dinner got it in one "ord. ~ I n.;. Po ... t ~mid it • Post I fow can I give a formal dinner for eight people her. daintily out of sight on the hottom shelf of a Wu.s lousy. Not long ago. she wellt to a (·o(·ktailll:lrly , ? tI without a servant. tea wagon at her elbow. while Bruce, at his end of g'ivell by one of the ,YOllng'eT and giddier ('oupll's Shocked and puzzled, ~ I rs. Post informed such the table, ladled out the meat cou rse from a chafing among her friends at which a. newlSpapel' columnist correspondents that 110 lady, whether married. dish. b; verything went smoothly without a servant and his wife, who we re also guests, got into an urgu­ widowed or single. ever signs a letter "~ l iss" or in the place-except the (·ook. who sta.yed in th(' ment. intense enough to a.ttra.ct everybody's atlf'n­ "Mrs. Anything"-except in parentheses n.rter kitchen-and the glittering guests handed pln.tes lion, about what time he had come home the night "Mary Jones "-and that nobody can give a really a round from one to another as flawlessly as though before. The husband stated flatly that he had been formal dinner without any servant. they had been doing it all their lives. horne, in bed and asleep. at midnight. "You're a \Vhen leiters kept coming in, asking whether it ~;mily Post looks considerably youngf"r than hf"r damn liar, dear," his wife told him casually, out of was true that bread must be broken into pieces ex­ ag , which is sixty-four.
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