HEIRESS--THE RICH LIFE OF MARJORIE MERRIWEATHER POST HC

Socialite, heiress, businesswoman. Born March 15, 1887 in Springfield, Illinois. The only child of Charles William Post and Ella Letitia Merriweather, Marjorie became the owner of the successful Postum Cereal Company at age 27 after her father died. She married four times: In 1905 to investment banker Edward Bennett Close, in 1920 to financier Edward Francis Hutton, in 1935 to Washington lawyer and Soviet ambassador Joseph E. Davies, and in 1958 to May Department Stores heir Herbert A. May Jr.

In 1923, after Post’s second husband Edward Hutton became Postum’s chairman of the board, the company expanded to include such brands as Birdseye Frozen Foods and became the General Foods Corporation. The move was largely instigated by Marjorie, a shrewd businesswoman who saw the need for prepared food in an age of increasingly independent women. After the Huttons divorced in 1935, Marjorie joined the company’s Board of Directors, becoming one of the first women to join the board of directors of a major American corporation.

Post was renowned for her lavish homes, and a few have since become landmarks. The Long Island home she shared with her third husband is now the C.W. Post College at Long Island University. The 115-room Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, was purchased from the Post Family Trust by Donald Trump in 1985 who reopened it as a private club. Her Washington, D.C. estate, Hillwood, was left to the Smithsonian and reopened to public in 1977 as a museum to display Post’s extensive French and Russian art collection.

Though an avid socialite with expensive tastes, including the largest privately owned sea-going yacht in the world and a pair of 20-carat diamond earrings belonging to Marie Antoinette, Post was also renowned for her substantial charitable donations. She set up soup kitchens in New York during the Depression and contributed to the Soviet War Relief of World War II, the Boy Scouts of America and the National Symphony Orchestra's "Music for Young America" program. Over the years, she donated millions of dollars to charities, including $100,000 to build the Kennedy Center. The French government also awarded Post the Legion of Honor after she donated funds to construct field hospitals in France during World War I.

In HEIRESS: THE RICH LIFE OF MARJORIE MERRIWEATHER POST, William Wright explores the life and times of this extraordinary woman.  With photos.

This oop hardcover edition is published by NEW REPUBLIC BOOKS (1978...265 pages).  NO DUST JACKET.  The book is in good++ condition showing age appropriate wear---with a name on the front endpage.  (8 on a 10 scale).