Home > Work > American Empress: The Life and Times of Marjorie Merriweather Post
1 " Life on the road, even for a worldly man like C. W. Post and his well-bred daughter, presented certain challenges. although he could order meals, fasten Marjorie's buttons, and make sure that she was properly dressed, C. W. could not fix her hair. "
― Nancy Rubin Stuart , American Empress: The Life and Times of Marjorie Merriweather Post
2 " Illness was thus considered not so much a condition of the human body as a reflection of a doubting or ailing spirit. "
3 " Above all, wealth was no longer to be flaunted. While an ostentatious displays of money might have been de rigueur in the Golden Twenties, it was decidedly out of fashion in the desperate days of the Destitute Thirties. The splashy parties the socialite once gave and attended in the twenties in New York and Palm Beach now dwindled to a trickle and were replaced with charity teas, and fund raisers. "
4 " Like most well-built Russian homes, Spaso House had been 'furred in', built with an extra layer of wall between the exterior and interior to provide additional insulation against the cold. "
5 " By 1937 Soviet standards, mementos of Russian history before the 1917 revolution were irrelevant. Even the suggestion that china, jewelry, or furniture created for the imperial palaces of the tsars was worth more than its weight in gold might be construed as anti-Soviet propaganda. "
6 " The divorce was a blow to Marjorie's pride from which she would never fully recover. Despite her beauty, brains, and wealth, Marjorie never had a marriage that remained happy for very long. Once, General Foods chairman Clare Francis asked her about them outright. 'Marjorie, you could run General Motors. you could run U.S. Steel. You're the smartest woman I know.But why do you have so much trouble with husbands?'Clare, I honestly don't know. Ain't it hell?'Marjorie said and shrugged her shoulders. "
7 " Inspired by its views of both the Atlantic and Lake Worth, Marjorie planned to call her home Mar-A-Lago from the Latin, meaning 'from sea to lake. "
8 " When acquaintances expressed their fascination with his new Palm Beach home {Mar-A-Lago} , the stockbroker often shrugged cynically. 'You know Marjorie said she as going to build a little cottage by the sea. Look what we got! "
9 " Her conclusions were not always favorable, but she rarely aired her negative opinions about others even to her closest friends. "
10 " Human existence, he believed, was a series of spiritual gradations through which man evolved to a higher state by virtue of his deeds. "
11 " The estate Marjorie envisioned was to be erected in the middle of the seventeen-acre lot, which, when cleared of jungle growth, would be surrounded by great stretches of rolling lawn with views of Lake Worth and the Atlantic. "
12 " Remarkable as Mar-A-Lago was, the estate had created strains in Marjorie's marriage, which, coupled with her plea to buy the Birdseye company, were leading E.F. to disapprove of his wife's spending habits.When acquaintances expressed their their fascination with his new Palm Beach home, the stockbroker often shrugged cynically. 'You know Marjorie said she was going to built a little cottage by the sea. Look what we got!" t h "
13 " one of Marjorie's boats, they were inevitably "
14 " While Mar-A-Lago was later categorized as an example of Hispano-Mooresque architecture because of its stucco exterior, antique tile embellishments, rambling outbuildings and red-tiled roof, the estate was actually a carefully crafted amalgam of architectural styles blended together to display the most admirable features of several European countries. "
15 " While music may be the food of love, it can also serve as solace for love's demise. "
16 " Hysterical. That word had unfortunate ramifications. "
17 " Women did not yet have the vote, but suffrage was clearly in the wind "
