​“Riches have never fascinated me, unless combined with the greatest charm or distinction.”
 
F. Scott Fitzgerald, Letter to Ernest Hemingway, via The Romantic Egoists

Pauline and Philippe de Rothschild were such people. From Anjelica Huston’s A Story Lately Told: Coming of Age in Ireland, London, and New York:

When Dad’s great friend Pauline de Rothschild visited [our home in Ireland] St. Clerans, she wore a long braid to her waist and thigh-high purple cordovan boots. Dad adored her. He always said that her home, Château Mouton, in France, was the most glamorous place he had ever been in his life—the way things are done there, a high level of wealth combined with exquisite taste.

Image Credit: Vogue's Book of Houses, Gardens, People

“American husbands are the best in the world; no other husbands are so generous to their wives, or can be so easily divorced.”
 
--Elinor Glyn, via Von Sternberg

Check out our selection of books on the Duke and Duchess of Windsor here.

“Joan Crawford’s secretary called to ask me why Joan’s picture wasn’t in the show. So now I have to ask Don [Bachardy] to call her and explain. The real reason is that Joan signed it all over with loving words and a huge signature, absurdly and fatally upstaging the drawing.”
 
Christopher Isherwood, Liberation: Diaries  Volume Three, 1970-1983

There are three categories of signed books: those that are "flatsigned" without personalization; those with "best wishes" inscriptions to anonymous recipients; and the most desirable, "presentation" copies that are warmly inscribed by the author to a friend or someone connected to the book. As to this last category—the presentation copies—the question then becomes what was the circumstance behind the inscription. Sometimes this can be gleaned from the inscription itself. Often, however, further information is required.

Consider the case of the Linda McCartney's Home Cooking, signed to Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin. Not only does this copy have a warm personal inscription, it contains an authorial drawing as well. It is a pictograph of a fish crossed out by an "x," obviously a suggestion from McCartney that the recipients might consider switching from a pesco-vegetarian diet to an entirely vegetarian one. 

Though the inscription dates back to the nineties, the circumstances behind it only recently came into focus. In his just-released memoir, Nevertheless, Alec Baldwin describes the moment he first met Linda McCartney and their instant connection—​the humane treatment of animals:

In 1993, I hosted [Saturday Night Live] when Paul McCartney was performing, and I met the warm and down to earth Linda McCartney backstage. We briefly talked about her animal rights work, since I had been introduced to the issue while living with Kim.

“It’s a pity nobody believes in simple lust anymore.”
 
Ava Gardner, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations

“Creating god in our own image. It flatters our vanity, and of course we prefer vanity to understanding.”
 
Aldous Huxley, After Many a Summer Dies the Swan

Image Credit: The Best of Beaton

"Charm has little to do with being handsome; it lies in a subtle willingness to please without groveling, combined with the ability to make decisions without a hint of tyranny."
 
Quentin Crisp, Resident Alien

Image Credit: Angus McBean, Portraits