First Garden, Signed by C.Z. Guest to Horst P. Horst
[Signed to Horst P. Horst by C.Z. Guest] Guest, C.Z. First Garden. Revised Edition. 1987. Book and dust jacket are both in very good condition. Book is inscribed in Guest’s typical green pen, “Horst – Nicholas [Lawford], With love + affection, C.Z. Oct. ’87.” Introduction by Truman Capote; Drawings by Cecil Beaton.
C.Z. Guest, one of the most celebrated members of Old Guard New York and Palm Beach society, was once regarded as a snob. In the early 1950s, Ann Woodward observed that if C.Z. were introduced to someone with whom she had no interest, she would simply turn her head and pretend that person wasn’t there. C.Z. later explained that it wasn’t snobbery. She simply did not know what to say to people outside her circle. That all changed in 1976 when she published First Garden, becoming the first socialite to brand herself as a lifestyle guru. The ice was not only broken; it melted. First Garden made that possible. Her book would not have received such attention, however, had C.Z. not already become famous. That happened earlier, in 1962, when Time magazine put her on its cover. The photographer of that iconic shot was Horst P. Horst, to whom this copy is inscribed.
“Yet Guest graced the cover of Time magazine in 1962 at a time when it was almost unheard of for a woman to get such media real estate unless it was for a fashion magazine, looking fiercely blue-blooded in sleek equestrian gear in front of a mansion straight out of Jay Gatsby’s dreams.”
--Susanna Salk, C.Z. Guest: American Style Icon