Bunny Mellon, Meryl Gordon
Bunny Mellon, Meryl Gordon
13 Rating(s)
List: $38.99 | Sale: $27.30
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Bunny Mellon
The Life of an American Style Legend

Author: Meryl Gordon

Narrator: Vanessa Cortland

Unabridged: 17 hr 31 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/26/2017

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included

Synopsis

A biography of Bunny Mellon, the style icon and American aristocrat who designed the White House Rose Garden for her friend JFK and served as a living witness to 20th Century American history, operating in the high-level arenas of politics, diplomacy, art and fashion.

Bunny Mellon, who died in 2014 at age 103, was press-shy during her lifetime. With the co-operation of Bunny Mellon's family, author Meryl Gordon received access to thousands of pages of her letters, diaries and appointment calendars and has interviewed more than 175 people to capture the spirit of this talented American original.

About Meryl Gordon

Meryl Gordon is a full-time magazine journalist who has been a contract writer for New York magazine for the past fifteen years. She has profiled such influential figures as Kofi Annan, Mike Bloomberg, and John Kerry, and such stars as Nicole Kidman, Susan Sarandon, and Maggie Gyllenhaal. She has written major features for the New York Times Magazine, Gourmet, Elle,
Marie Claire, and More. A graduate of the University of Michigan, she lives in New York City with her husband.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Irene on September 10, 2017

In the mid- 1970s, I lived across Whitehaven Street (in D.C.) from Paul and Bunny Mellon. Bunny (I feel so strange calling her by her first name) invited me to Sunday lunch every so often. The walls in the dining room were full-on trompe l'oiel.. Soup was served in covered dishes shaped like little......more

Goodreads review by Anne on June 04, 2019

3.6 Very well researched book. However, Bunny deserves no pedestal and using the label ‘American Style Icon’ is way too generous. She bought her influence and left a wake of bad relationships: bitter children and grandchildren, hurt friends, devious politicians and philandering husbands. There were f......more

Goodreads review by Becky on March 10, 2018

This is one of those books that you miss after you have finished it. Don't know why I am drawn to this period of history - nor did I realize Bunny Mellon and Jackie Kennedy were such close friends. This biography is quite thorough, well researched and fascinating. It is impossible to comprehend a li......more

Quotes

"Jacqueline Kennedy looked up to her socially. President Kennedy counted on her good taste to design the Rose Garden. Rachel 'Bunny' Mellon lived in a world ardently protected by discreet guards, long driveways, and noble family retainers. Thanks to Meryl Gordon we get past them."
—Chris Matthews, anchor, MSNBC's Hardball, and author of Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero

"With an eye for telling detail balanced by nuanced understanding, Meryl Gordon explores Bunny Mellon's impeccably designed homes and gardens as well as the marital deceptions, family tragedies, intense friendships, and political intrigues. A tale of surprising creativity and resilience."—Sally Bedell Smith, author of Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life

"Meryl Gordon's heroic reporting and shrewd insights have given us a fully drawn portrait of one of the twentieth century's most compelling figures, by turns warmhearted and cold-blooded, coping with an emptiness no treasure chests of jewels and art could fill."—Jeff Greenfield, author of If Kennedy Lived

"Who better than the wry, insightful Meryl Gordon to chronicle the life and legacy of such a colorful woman? Gordon is a master at delighting her readers with equal parts history and dish."—Julia Glass, award-winning author of Three Junes and A House Among the Trees

"As stylish and fascinating as its subject, this book is a biographical tour de force."
—Linda Fairstein, New York Times bestselling author

"Meryl Gordon's enchanting story takes us deep inside a lost world of taste and class-a world, as Caroline Kennedy said of Bunny Mellon's life, that was 'beautiful, well-built, and infinitely interesting.'"
—Jonathan Alter, author of The Center Holds: Obama and His Enemies

"Journalist Gordon...again fascinatingly chronicles the remarkable life of an elite twentieth-century American woman....Readers interested in gardening, art, and interior design will drool over Bunny's fine tastes, and her ease at fulfilling every one of them, but all lovers of biographies will marvel at Gordon's portrayal of Bunny's long life, and the significant figures who buzzed in and out of it."—Booklist (Starred Review)

"Gordon illuminates the virtues and contradictions of socialite Bunny Mellon (1910-2014) in this entertaining tell-all chronicle... The result is a juicy behind-the-scenes tale of American aristocracy."—Publisher's Weekly

"A rapturous biography.... and a window into 20th century American aristocracy."—Kirkus

"A gossipy read."—Wall Street Journal

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