Going Once, a Memoir of Art, Society, and Charity, Signed by Robert Woolley
[Signed] Woolley, Robert. Going Once, A Memoir of Art, Society, and Charity. First Edition. 1995. Book and dust jacket are both in very good condition. Book is inscribed, “Dear Dolores, Enjoy! Woolley” on the page following the flyleaf and signed by Robert Woolley (without inscription) on the title page.
Robert Woolley was one of the most recognizable figures of New York’s Nouvelle Society era, equally at home at blockbuster auctions, at charity galas, and in the pages of the society columns that chronicled both. In this memoir, he recounts his rise from a middle-class upbringing to become Sotheby’s best-known auctioneer and one of the city’s most familiar social figures. Along the way he offers observations on art, philanthropy, collecting, and the often amusing rituals of high society. One reviewer dismissed the book as superficial. That judgment says less about Woolley than it does about the reviewer. Woolley understood that social life, at its best, is not merely a parade of parties and personalities but a complex world of ambition, taste, generosity, vanity, and human connection.
“What are three things beginning with the letter d that are good for the auction business? . . . death, divorce, and debt.”
--Robert Woolley