Happy Times, Signed by Lee Radziwill
[Signed by Lee Radziwill] Radziwill, Lee. Happy Times. First Edition. 2000. Book and dust jacket are both in very good condition. Book is warmly inscribed, "Pour Hélène, Avec mes meilleurs veux, Lee Radziwill."
Lee Radziwill, the equally (some say more) stylish sister of one of the most celebrated, admired women of the 20th Century, could have made a bundle by signing with a major publishing house and writing a full-scale, dishy memoir. Instead, she went with a boutique publisher known for its beautiful coffee table books, and produced this scrapbook-style book, containing more pages of photographs than text. She explained that a different approach would involve her in too many other lives (most notably that of her sister). As such, we don’t quite learn the downside of living within scorching distance of the klieg lights of Camelot, but to the upside, we see quite a lot. It sizzles. With cameos by Truman Capote, the Kennedys, Peter Beard, Andy Warhol, Jawaharlal Nehru, Aristotle Onassis, Cecil Beaton, and other luminaries.
“One always looks up to older siblings for guidance. One tries to emulate them, and follow their achievements. That’s what I did with my sister.”
--Lee Radziwill