Sally Bedell Smith - Reflected Glory: The Life of Pamela Churchill Harriman

Praise for Reflected Glory

A treasure trove of scrupulous reporting, delicious details and elegant writing, presenting the fullest portrait of Harriman to date.

Karen Heller, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Reflected Glory is so painstakingly researched and thoroughly engrossing, it will keep the Itty Bitty Book Lights glowing in Georgetown town houses and Park Avenue aeries into the wee hours, working any readers who may have been on the receiving end of Mrs. Harrimans blunt sword into giddy paroxysms of Schadenfreude.

Alex Kuczynski, The New York Observer

Only one word can describe Sally Bedell Smiths new biography of Pamela Churchill Harriman. Delectable.

Deirdre Donahue, USA Today

Painstakingly reported, perfectly paced, completely believable, and oh what a guiltless gilt trip.

Mirabella

[Smith] has given this biography novelistic depth and historical resonance without losing her journalistic neutrality.

Clare McHugh, George

A deeply informed and revelatory study.

Publishers Weekly

A meticulously researched, well-written, definitive biography.

The Economist

Engaging, finely nuanced... Smith makes you feel pity, and even begrudging admiration, for Pamelas plucky ambition.... Glory is as juicy a read as a gossip column.

Paula Chin, People

Sally Bedell Smith, a remarkable biographer... tells the tale that Christopher Ogden only got near in his controversial biography.

Sherryl Connelly, New York Daily News

Excellently written, highly readable, hugely researched.

National Review

The definitive Pamela Harriman biography.

Sallie Motsch, GQ

It must have been tempting... to paint a disobliging portrait.... But Sally Bedell Smith was out to be fair. The blend of good and bad qualities in Harrimans makeup is compelling.

Alan Pryce-Jones, The Providence Journal-Bulletin

Covers Harrimans life in incredible detail.

Stellene Volandes, Vogue

The riveting adventure of... the last of the great courtesans.

Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Brash... fast-moving.

Stanley Weintraub, The Wall Street Journal

Relentless but scrupulously fair.

Florence King, The Washington Times

Thoroughly researched... Sally Bedell Smith has done a service by preserving the story of the most legendary seductress of the 20th century.

Jennifer Grossman, The Weekly Standard

Smith has put a monumental amount of work into the book.

Shirley Williams, Boston Sunday Globe

Seems to belong to another century, the 18th, or the 17th, or possibly as far back as the age of the Roman Empire.

Robert A. Lincoln, Richmond Times-Dispatch

Solidly researched, smoothly written, and full of tangy revelations.

Salon

A panoramic tale of a woman who made the most of what she got.

Leah Garchik, San Francisco Chronicle

Intimately detailed.... A robust portrait of a shrewd manipulator.

Margaret Flanagan, Booklist

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To my children, Kirk, Lisa, and David

Pamela Harrimans life is really the story of six lives: English debutante, wartime hostess, international femme fatale, show business wife, diplomats consort turned Washington power broker, and American ambassador. In writing her biography, I have tried to describe each of the societies in which she livedthe privilege of the provincial aristocracy in prewar England, the excitement and danger of wartime London, the luxury and decadence of postwar Paris, the high spirits and raging neuroses of Broadway, the power and influence in political Washington, and the ceremony and prestige of diplomatic Europe. The characters are presented in some depth, especially the men who supported Pamela and helped her get ahead. Above all, I sought to explain how things worked in these very different spheresfrom the intricacies of the debutante season to the financial dealings of political action committees. Besides reading histories, diaries, letters, and biographies, I interviewed many people who knew these worlds at first hand. Some preferred to remain anonymoustheir perspective often included intimate knowledge of Pamela Harrimanso I cannot thank them publicly. But they know how much they helped me, and I am enormously grateful for their patience in fielding numerous inquiries, large and small, over the last five years.

Others I can acknowledge for their information and insights. Two close friends, Maureen Orth and Sally Quinn, are discerning writers and acute social observers who instructed me in the social and political customs of Washington after I moved here in 1991. Frank Rich generously shared his knowledge of Broadway history and helped me find people who crossed paths with Pamela during her show business years. Hugo Vickers, who knows every nuance of English high society, explained the complicated web of relationships in the aristocracy and pointed me toward some wonderful sources. Marie-France Pochna did the same in Paris, and once even served as my translator during an alfresco lunch at a Bois de Boulogne restaurant as a polo game thundered nearby. Two lawyers were also very helpful: Dinsmore Adams, who advised me on Averell Harrimans will, and Roger Kirby, who suggested the title for this book. Although Pamela Harriman declined my requests for interviews, in the last two years she told various friends and close associates that they were free to talk to me.

Numerous fellow journalists and biographers offered me guidance. I am particularly indebted to three who allowed me to use transcripts of interviews: Marie Brenner with William Walton, and John Pearson and Marjorie Williams with Pamela Harriman. Sandra McElwaine turned over a file of very useful newspaper and magazine clippings she had been saving on my biographical subject. I would also like to thank Jill Abramson, Rudy Abramson, Leslie Bennetts, Amy and Peter Bernstein, Michael Beschloss, Patricia Bosworth, Peter J. Boyer, Peter Braestrup, Brock Brower, Christopher Buckley, Elisabeth Bumiller, Gail Russell Chaddock, Anne Chisholm, Gerald Clarke, Shirley Clurman, Michael Davie, Fran Dinshaw, Geraldine Fabrikant, John Fairchild, Arthur Gelb, Sarah Giles, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Judith Adler Hennessee, Reinaldo Herrera, Annie Holcroft, Nancy Holmes, Margot Hornblower, David Ignatius, Peter Kaplan, Elizabeth Kastor, Louise Kerz, Khoi Nguyen, Anthony Lejeune, Janet Maslin, William McBrien, Edmund and Sylvia Morris, Alexander and Charlotte Mosley, Anne-Elisabeth Moutet, Patricia OBrien, Maryann Ondovcsik, Joseph Persico, Ann Pincus, John Richardson, Martha Sherrill, A. M. Sperber, Annette Tapert, Evan Thomas, Susan Train, Carol Vogel, Tom Wallace, Sharon Walsh, and Susan Watters.

I conducted interviewsoften at length and in some cases repeatedlywith scores of individuals who I can name, and I would like to thank as many as I can, knowing that I am bound to overlook some sources whose forgiveness I ask in advance:

Slim Aarons, Elie Abel, Peter Abeles, Morton Abramowitz, Alice Acheson, Ed Acker, Gianni Agnelli, George Albright, Alexandre, Herv Alphand, Susan Mary Alsop, Jay P. Altmayer, Jan Cushing Amory, Walter Annenberg, Sherrell Aston, Brooke Astor, Louis Auchincloss, Rosemary Lady dAvigdor-Goldsmid, George Axelrod, Lauren Bacall, Jean de Baglion, Sarah Norton Baring (who also shared her prewar and wartime diary with me), Felicity Barringer, Perry Bass, Elizabeth Baxter, Marion Becker, Alexandre (Sandy) Bertrand, Joan Bingham, Mervin Block, Chris Boskin, John Bowles, David Boyd, Ben Bradlee, Georgina Brandolini, Wendy Breck, Ann Brower, J. Carter Brown, Janet Brown, Kathleen Brown, Nicholas Brown, Evangeline Bruce, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Diana Bunting, Amanda Burden, Luke Burnap, Richard Burt, Baronne Daisy de Cabrol, Baron Frdric de Cabrol, John J. Cafaro, Jesse Calhoon, Lady Jean Campbell, Emile Carlisi, Bill Carrick, Igor Ghighi Cassini, Zara Cazalet, Joan Challinor, Oatsie Charles, Winston Churchill, Countess Marina Cicogna, Clark Clifford, Alexander Cohen, Anita Colby, Clement Conger, Gary Conklin, Roderick Coupe, Consuelo Crespi, Esme the Countess of Cromer, Anna Crouse (who also gave me access to the diary of her late husband, Russel Crouse), Paul Curran, Jean Dalrymple, Frederick Davis, Peter Davis, Guy Della Cioppa, Anne-Marie dEstainville, Piers Dixon, Jimmy Douglas, William Drozdiak, Peter Duchin, Maureen Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava, Lady Mary Dunn, Stuart Eizenstat, Dick Eton, Clay Felker, Peter Fenn, Richard Fenton, Christy Ferer, Eileen Finletter, Mary Fisk, Robert Fisk, Joe Fogg, Michael Foot, Alastair Forbes, Kalman Fox, Lady Edith Foxwell, Bill Francisco, Alfred Friendly, Jr., Pie Friendly, Clayton Fritchey.