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- Lady Sackville, Signed by Susan Mary Alsop to John Julius Norwich
Lady Sackville, Signed by Susan Mary Alsop to John Julius Norwich
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[Signed Presentation to John Julius Norwich] Alsop, Susan Mary. Lady Sackville. First English Edition. 1978. Book and dust jacket are both in very good condition. Book is warmly inscribed, “For darling Anne and John Julius, with fondest love, Susan Mary Alsop, June 16, 1978.”
This is a biography of V. Sackville West’s mother, Lady Sackville. Her story is as convoluted as it is fascinating. She was the illegitimate daughter of Lionel, the second Lord Sackville. When he was sent to the United States as a diplomat, she accompanied him and became one of Washington, D.C.’s most celebrated hostesses. Upon the death of her father, she circumvented primogeniture, becoming Lady Sackville, as her husband was also her first cousin, heir to the title. However, she found herself in the odd position of proving her illegitimacy in court when her brother Henry alleged their parents had secretly married—which would mean he was rightful heir to the Sackville peerage. The author, herself a leading Washington hostess, also had a branch askew on her family tree. Her son Bill Patten was fathered by Duff Cooper—the first Viscount Norwich—and this copy is inscribed to his son by Lady Diana Cooper, John Julius (the second Viscount Norwich).
“Some people have lives that can be charted as flatly as railway lines from birth to death and others live from drama to drama. Do these last have some curious attraction for excitement, or is it just luck?”
--Susan Mary Alsop
This is a biography of V. Sackville West’s mother, Lady Sackville. Her story is as convoluted as it is fascinating. She was the illegitimate daughter of Lionel, the second Lord Sackville. When he was sent to the United States as a diplomat, she accompanied him and became one of Washington, D.C.’s most celebrated hostesses. Upon the death of her father, she circumvented primogeniture, becoming Lady Sackville, as her husband was also her first cousin, heir to the title. However, she found herself in the odd position of proving her illegitimacy in court when her brother Henry alleged their parents had secretly married—which would mean he was rightful heir to the Sackville peerage. The author, herself a leading Washington hostess, also had a branch askew on her family tree. Her son Bill Patten was fathered by Duff Cooper—the first Viscount Norwich—and this copy is inscribed to his son by Lady Diana Cooper, John Julius (the second Viscount Norwich).
“Some people have lives that can be charted as flatly as railway lines from birth to death and others live from drama to drama. Do these last have some curious attraction for excitement, or is it just luck?”
--Susan Mary Alsop
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