The Original Bill Paley
Paley, Kate. The Original Bill Paley. Privately Printed. 1996. Hardcover in very good condition—covers show mild wear. No dust jacket (as issued.).
A downside of fame is the near-impossible struggle to maintain ownership of one’s own story. Seemingly everyone seeks to profit from it, and they do so ignorant of the facts or even by knowingly distorting them. And it only becomes worse upon death. Such was the case with Babe Paley and the other women whom Truman Capote idolized as his Swans. Babe, the woman whose only imperfection Truman said was her lack thereof, had been dead for nearly two decades when she was brought back into public life in 1994 with the publication of The Power of Style: The Women Who Defined the Art of Living Well. Since then, interest in Mrs. Paley and her fellow swans has only gained momentum. This of course have increased by multiples since Truman Capote and his Swans became the subject of FX’s anthology series Feud. This small, octavo book, by the Paley’s perceptive daughter, uses Bill’s photographs to present a simpler but truer picture of Babe, Bill, their friends, and family. Privately printed, this book rarely comes on the resale market.
“What is public history but a register of the successes and disappointments, the vices, the follies and the quarrels of those who engage in contention for power.”
--William S. Paley