Post - Emily Posts Etiquette

So many people have been generous with their time and knowledge as theyve helped me with the creation of this book. It is with deep appreciation that I would like to acknowledge the following for their contributions:

Martha Hailey and Fred DuBose for their invaluable insights, creative talents, and hard work throughout this entire projectthey have been my right and left arms, from start to finish!

Cindy Post Senning, Elizabeth Howell, and Peter Post at The Emily Post Institute, and Katherine Cowles, our agent, for their steady support, ideas, and assistance.

Toni Sciarra, Greg Chaput, Diane Aronson, and Nick Darrell of HarperCollins, whose editing skills have been essential to the completion of the book, and Bill Ruoto, Leah Carlson-Stanisic, and Karen Lumley for their design and production expertise. Stephen Hanselman, Mary Ellen Curley, and the entire HarperCollins team for their constant support and creative ideas.

Alexis Flippin, Kathy Schwarz, Lynn Ferrari, and Anna Post, who have been a formidable research team; their efforts have helped me to assure the accuracy and completeness of the book.

Manners and customs vary from region to region and culture to culture. The following people were gracious in sharing their knowledge of various regions, cultures, and religions: Himi Akdag, Dr. Parveen Ali, Dr. Shaukat Ali, Robert Barnett, Sister Janet Baxindale, Andrew Benko, Hilton Caston, Mustafa Gundogan, Naomi Krauss, Father Nektarios Morrow, Father James G. Moskovites, Theo Nicolakis, Harold and Ilana Rabinowitz, Thomas A. Ranieri, Wanda Vasquez, Ersin Yazicioglu, and Erhan Yildirim.

Etiquette covers so many aspects of our lives and relationships that I have found myself drawing information from a myriad of people who had important contributions to the advice offered herein: Kimi Abernathy, Richard Bailey, Sarah Buchwald, Ashley Dixon Burns, Harriett Temple Caldwell, Josette Caruso, Evelyn Christman, Barbara and Allan Converse, Diana Dixon, Polly DuBose, Hope Egan, Royce Flippin, Steve and Cathi Fowler, Sue Beasley Fryer, Vera Gibbons, Joseph Gonzalez, Allegra Holch, Peter Hopkins, David Kornacker, Eileen Leong, Deborah Leslie, Amy Lin, Kevin Mack, Kalinda Matthews, Kathy Maycen, David Miner, Bob Moore, Karen Nelson, Megan Newman, John Parker, Angela Ponce, Casey Post, Teresa Reagan, Matthew Reagor, Kelly Regan, Barbara Richert, Eric Rutz, David Shields, Cindi Smith-Walters, Ph.D., Fay Spano, Evan Spingarn, James F. Sporrer, Kate Stark, Mark Teague, Ginger Van Wagenen, and David Walkinshaw.

And, finally but not least, I thank my family, who has always supported me in more ways than I can express: My father, Ferd Grayson; my parents-in-law, Bill and Libby Post; and the person who has always encouraged me and patiently understood my long hours at the computer and on the telephone while working on this book, my husband, Allen Post.

What a pleasure it is to bring you an all-new, completely rewritten edition of a book that has been a staple of American life for eighty-two years! Times are changing so rapidly its a challenge for most of us to keep up, but Im happy to assure you that helping people adapt has been a mainstay of the Emily Post philosophy from the beginning.

Emily knew when she wrote Etiquette: The Blue Book of Social Usage (1922) that it was time for a reappraisal of the Victorian rules of etiquette. As a result, her revolutionary book discounted manners as rigid rules, tied them instead to ethics and values, and saw them as belonging to people from all walks of life. She also stressed that manners should be fluid, adaptable not only to the times but to the situation at hand. The same is true today. Considering the stuffiness of the etiquette books that had gone before, my great-grandmother-in-law would probably have told her readers to lighten up! had the phrase been around in her day.