Society as I have found it
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$1,900 USD
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Limited De Luxe edition, signed by the author, a.k.a. the gatekeeper of the Gilded Age
McAllister, Ward
Society as I have found it
1890, New York, Cassell Publishing Company
First Edition
$1,900 USD
Sale price
$1,900 USD
Regular price
Overview
Signed Edition de Luxe, no. 309 of 400 copies, signed by Ward McAllister on the limitation leaf. McAllister wrote as the self-appointed arbiter of New York and Newport society, a Southern-born lawyer who transformed social authority into a profession. Acting as adviser, host, and master of ceremonies to the wealthiest families of the Gilded Age, he became the indispensable intermediary between New York's old Knickerbocker elite and the newly enriched industrial fortunes, most notably the Vanderbilts. His orchestration of Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt's spectacular costume ball of 1883 (one of the defining social events of the Gilded Age) helped secure the family's acceptance into Mrs. Astor's exclusive circle and cemented his reputation as the era's supreme social strategist. By 1890, however, the rituals of fashionable society had themselves become objects of public fascination, and this book transformed private dinners, balls, calling cards, and drawing-room etiquette into printed spectacle. The publication infuriated many of the families whose confidence McAllister had cultivated, rapidly undermining his own social standing before his death in 1895. It was here, too, that the phrase "the Four Hundred," supposedly the number of guests who could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom, entered American social history. Taken as a whole, the book is at once memoir, etiquette manual, and insider's chronicle of the New York and Newport elite at the moment their unwritten rules were first revealed to the wider public.
Inside the book
The text opens as an autobiography, tracing McAllister's family origins in Savannah, his education in European manners, and his gradual ascent into the highest circles of New York and Newport society. From there it becomes a manual of Gilded Age sociability, revealing the mechanics of fashionable life from the inside: cotillion dinners and Newport entertainments, the first private balls at Delmonico's, the vogue for four-in-hand driving, elaborate wedding banquets, the foundation and governance of the Patriarchs, and the celebrated "Swan Dinner." McAllister explains not merely what society did, but how it reproduced itself, devoting chapters to the formal introduction of a young woman into society, the etiquette of dinner-giving, the engagement and management of a chef, and the ceremonial role of Madeira ("the King of Wines") with practical observations on vintages, shippers, Malmsey, and the curious practice of maturing bottles in the attic. The illustrations comprise the frontispiece portrait; a fully prepared dinner table in Newport, 1890 (double-page, between pp. 256-257); a fine photogravure of McAllister in the costume of Count de la Môle worn at Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt's celebrated Bal Costume, one of the defining spectacles of the Gilded Age (between pp. 352-353). The volume concludes with a remarkable appendix reproducing the printed ephemera of elite society: specimen visiting cards, P.P.C. cards, mourning cards graded according to the closeness of the relationship, formal and informal dinner invitations, invitations to the theatre and dances, model acceptances, and an informal acceptance letter signed in facsimile by McAllister himself. Together, these transform the book from memoir into a practical handbook for navigating the rituals of America's social aristocracy.
Why La Fenice chose it
The book captures the moment New York's most exclusive society accidentally let everyone peek behind the velvet curtain. Signed by the man who turned social climbing into an art form, this deluxe edition is limited to just 400 copies: the very number of McAllister's legendary "Four Hundred." Coincidence? We sincerely hope not. Consider it essential reading before (or during) your next "The Gilded Age" binge.
Condition Report
Pp. [2] f.e., [i-xv], [1] portrait plate, 1-469, [2] illustration plates, [2] r.e.
Original two-tone cloth binding, with an elegant gilt armorial device and gilt lettering of McAllister's name on both covers. All edges gilt. Some light rubbing to the spine and board extremities. Limitation leaf at p. iv recording no. 309 of 400 copies and bearing Ward McAllister's signature. Three plates outside the pagination, as described above. Internally clean and very fresh. A sound, bright copy in fine condition.
Dimensions (inches): 10 1/2 x 7 1/2 x 2
About the author
Ward McAllister (d. early 1895), Savannah-born memoirist, etiquette commentator and renowned character of the Gilded Age.
Condition & Provenance Reports
Additional notes and photographs available by request.
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