First Garden Signed by C.Z. Guest
[Signed] Guest, C.Z. First Garden. First Edition. 1976. Book and dust jacket are both in very good condition—there is edgewear to the jacket. Book is warmly inscribed in Guest’s typical green pen, “To John [Loring?], with great admiration, Happy gardening, C.Z. Guest, Jan ’79.” Introduction by Truman Capote. Drawings by Cecil Beaton.
They say that if you are thrown from a horse, you should get right back on. However, what if you are laid up in bed? Well, then write a bestselling gardening book. At least, that is what C.Z. Guest did back in 1976 after she took a tumble while riding. In doing so, she established a new archetype: the entrepreneurial socialite. It was her appearances on QVC that made it as acceptable for socialites to hawk tchotchkes on television as it was to chair fundraisers for the ABT. It was as groundbreaking as when Caroline Astor at long last added the Alva Vanderbilt to her guest list. This was Guest’s first of several books on gardening. It has become an American classic, much like C.Z. Guest herself.
“Not even politicians can tamper with the seasons! Think of what a mess they would make if they could.”
--C.Z. Guest