EMILY POST

Born: October 27, 1872
Died: September 25, 1960

"A little praise is not only merest justice but is beyond 
the purse of no one."

~ Emily Price was born in Baltimore, Maryland.

~ Her father, a wealthy architect, moved the family to New York when Emily was ten. 

~ An only child, Emily had a private tutor and attended finishing school. 

~ She traveled extensively with her father, sometimes to check on the progress of buildings he had designed.

~ At the age of 19, the debutante married banker Edwin Main Post, who came from a long line of high society in Long Island. They had two sons together, but the marriage ended in divorce four years later.

~ As a single mom, she added to her small income by writing short stories. Many were published in popular fiction magazines such as Ainslie's, Scribners and Colliers. 

~ She also wrote several novels. The Flight of a Moth was about a young American widow attracted to a crooked Russian nobleman.

~ A successful writer and a woman of social standing, she was encouraged by an editor to write a book about etiquette. 

~ The result, Etiquette: The Blue Book of Social Usage, was a huge success. At the time, most handbooks spoke to the wealthy, but Emily offered advice to the ordinary person. She disliked pretentious people, dirty silver and hostesses who served themselves first.

~ The book’s success led to a radio show as well as a syndicated column. It ran in 200 newspapers.

~ Emily liked to awaken early, but remained in bed where she wrote letters and her daily column. She always made her first appearance of the day at lunch, which was served promptly at one o'clock. 

~ She wrote other books besides those on etiquette, including The Emily Post Cook Book, The Personality of a House and Children Are People. 

~ At a society dinner in 1938, Emily spilled a spoonful of berries. Despite the press making a big deal of it, she simply laughed it off.

~ By 1945, requests for her Etiquette book were second only to the Rand McNally Atlas.

~ A year later, she founded the Emily Post Institute for the Study of Gracious Living. She trained the staff herself. 

~ In the last year of her life, Emily wrote a series of columns about road etiquette. Appalled by the thoughtlessness of drivers, she wanted to set down a few simple maxims of good manners to take the scowl and snarl out of driving in traffic. 

~ She died in her New York apartment after a brief illness. She was buried at Saint Marys-In-Tuxedo Church Cemetery.

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