The Rich and Other Atrocities by Charlotte Curtiss
Curtis, Charlotte. The Rich and Other Atrocities. Second Printing. 1976. Book is in very good condition; dust jacket is in very good minus condition—jacket shows minor edgewear and fraying.
There were few opportunities for female journalists beyond the women’s page in the era in which the New York Times’s society editor Charlotte Curtis came of age, but Curtis outsmarted them by slipping sharp social commentary to her reporting, subtle Easter eggs to be discovered by the discerning. The subjects of her interviews, expecting only hyperbole, were not amused. Explained Tom Wolfe, “It wasn’t anything she wrote that infuriated them. It was that she put down exactly what they said.” The book is a collection of her best work from the 1960s and 1970s, covering Truman and Capote’s Black and White Ball, the heyday and decline of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, the ever-changing rules of social advancement in America, a visit to La Leopolda, and much more.
“’I can never seat more than twenty-six at dinner,’ the duchess [of Windsor] said, shaking her head. ‘It’s really quite small.’”
--Charlotte Curtis