The Sisters: Babe Mortimer Paley, Betsey Roosevelt Whitney, Minnie Astor Fosburgh - The Lives and Times of the Fabulous Cushing Sisters - Hardcover

Grafton, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0394584163 ISBN 13: 9780394584164

Publisher: Villard, 1992

Synopsis

Reveals the lives of three high-society women whose influence determined what was "in" and what was "out" for thirty years

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Reviews

Although Boston patriarch Harvey Cushing was a famous neurosurgeon, the real business in his family was the securing of highly advantageous marriages for the social-climbing daughters, according to this bland, psychologically unrevealing and repetitious biography. Betsey made it to the White House as wife of FDR's son Jimmy Roosevelt, but her friendship with the president was bitterly resented by Jimmy and First Lady Eleanor; a happier and wealthier second marriage to Jock Whitney followed. Minnie disappointed her family when she divorced Vincent Astor and his fortune and later married homosexual artist James Fosburgh. Grafton ( Red, Hot and Rich ) recycles anecdotes told better by Sally Bedell Smith in her biography of Babe's husband and CBS founder Bill Paley, All His Glory . The book is larded with lists of celebrities, and their clothing and jewels, but falls short of explaining Minnie's purported lesbianism and alcoholism or "caring and generous" Babe's neglect of her children. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The story of the glittering trio who exemplified glamour (and shrewd matchmaking) to a captivated public gets a curiously lifeless treatment from biographer Grafton (Red, Hot, and Rich, 1987). Daughters of renowned brain-surgery pioneer Harvey Cushing, Mary (``Minnie''), Betsey, and Barbara (``Babe''), apt pupils of a strong-willed mother for whom ``marriage was a business,'' lived a saga that would put most romance novelists to shame. Betsey, favorite daughter-in-law of FDR while wife of his son James, traded up to equally well-bred (and much wealthier) John Hay ``Jock'' Whitney. Babe went from socialite Stanley Mortimer, Jr., to CBS founder William S. Paley, a demanding philanderer but rich enough to secure her position as the ``ultimate fashion and social icon of New York's dazzling scene.'' Minnie endured a miserable union with sullen multimillionaire Vincent Astor before establishing a lively artistic salon with a second husband--the impeccably patrician (and openly homosexual) painter James Fosburgh. Only Betsey managed to find marital happiness along with wealth, but none of the sisters blamed adored mother Gogsie. Featuring an unusually varied cast of society, political, and artistic figures--from the British royal family to Truman Capote--what could have been a fun, frothy gossip- fest is instead a leaden recitation of guest lists, jewelry details, and clothing descriptions. Not that Grafton doesn't drop a juicy tidbit or two--the stylish Babe had all her teeth knocked out in a teenage auto accident; Eleanor Roosevelt didn't shave her underarms--but he hedges a lot: the Astors' marriage may not have been consummated, but, then again, Minnie may have been a lesbian; on the other hand, she was Vincent's mistress for years before the wedding. Subjects who deserve at least style, if not substance, get neither in this superficial chronicle. (Sixteen pages of b&w photographs--not seen.) -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

With this deftly stylish account of the three sisters from Boston who made marrying well into a social art form, beautiful people insider Grafton ( Red, Hot, & Rich!: An Oral History of Cole Porter , LJ 5/1/87) has created a sizzler. The Cushings became tastemakers who created the glitterati, setting standards for elegance as they presided over the transformation of the Cafe Society into the Jet Set. Participants have told their stories in other venues (Slim Keith's Slim: Memories of a Rich and Imperfect Life , S. & S., 1990; Brooke Astor's Footprints: An Autobiography , LJ 8/80; and Truman Capote's Music for Chameleons , LJ 8/80), but Grafton renders with feeling the betrayals experienced by the women who became role models for a generation and "expressed values for people who needed to believe in fairy tales." Glamorous and irresistible, The Sisters is every bit as fabulous as its subject matter and is highly recommended for libraries interested in social and cultural history and biography.
- Susan E. Parker, Harvard Law Sch. Lib.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Villard
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0394584163
• ISBN 13: 9780394584164
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 316