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A gossipy look into Georgetown society |
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By The Hill Staff
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Posted: 11/18/03 12:00 AM [ET] |
Georgetown’s demise as the center of the social life of Washington, D.C., has been well-chronicled in newspapers and books, and it seems that the market for yet another examination of the subject would be quite small. C. David Heymann, a writer of popular history, has nonetheless written such a book, which one suspects will do little to expand interest in the subject.
The Georgetown Ladies’ Social Club covers a subject that is filled with compelling characters, political intrigue, gossip and plenty of sex. With stories that could have come out of a Jeffrey Archer novel, Heymann reinforces the adage that truth is often stranger than fiction. What Heymann does not do is break much new ground or convey things that were not articulated more elegantly in books such as Katharine Graham’s Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir Personal History.
Heymann tells the story of Georgetown’s social history through the lives of five prominent women who wielded great power to determine who was up or down among the higher echelons of society: Evangeline Bruce, Lorraine Cooper, Graham, Pamela Harriman and Sally Quinn. Though the book discusses some serious subjects, the author seems more interested in dishing dirt. The tone of the book is summed up nicely in the introduction:
“At the center of each of their lives can be found secrets so deep and dark they threaten to destroy everything these women worked so diligently to achieve. What these Georgetown ladies ultimately share is their ability to maintain a public purpose, to protect the image they sought to create, no matter what the cost, no matter what the burden.”
Heymann, a New York-based writer who has written biographies of celebrities such as Robert Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Elizabeth Taylor, gives us a book that is largely skin-deep and without as much historical context as there should be. Though there are references to ongoing political events, the book all too often focuses on who was sleeping with whom and who was angry about being snubbed.
The book, which gets its title from a phrase coined by former President Reagan, will satisfy political junkies’ voyeuristic side.
The author offers up titillating morsels such as speculation that Graham had an affair with Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and that McNamara used the relationship to influence The Washington Post’s editorials on Vietnam. Since the book came out, McNamara has denied the allegation, and of course Graham has been dead for more than two years and cannot defend herself.
Heymann also discusses, sometimes to excess, Harriman’s love affairs with a range of powerful men, the gory details of the open marriage that Bruce had with her husband, Ambassador David K. Bruce, and Quinn’s rather active love life before marrying former Washington Post Editor Benjamin Bradlee.
Heymann, whose own prose can best be described as nondescript, contends that Quinn’s writing skills were less than exemplary and that she specialized in profiles that disparaged her subjects.
“Quinn’s surgical skill at wielding a scalpel-like pen eventually began to catch up with her,” he writes. “Sally Quinn’s character assassinations helped establish her as a household name in Washington. Readers relished the blood and carnage.”
Though the book speaks favorably of Quinn’s charm and ability to put people at ease, one definitely comes away with an unfavorable impression of her.
Heymann seems to have a grudging respect for Graham and Harriman. While he criticizes Graham for putting up with the abusive behavior of her husband, he admires her leadership at the Post while at times disparaging her intelligence.
For much of the book, Harriman comes across as an opportunistic courtesan who sought power for its own sake. However, her eventual work at helping to revive the Democratic Party’s fortunes and her success as ambassador to France seem to impress Heymann more.
Heymann seems most taken with Bruce and Cooper, who are perhaps less well-known.
“Evangeline (Bruce) performed her job with such panache and aplomb that she became the country’s standard bearer as far as diplomacy went. … She had become the State Department’s last word on good taste,” he wrote.
Cooper, the wife of Sen. and Ambassador John Sherman Cooper (R-Ky.), comes across as very much her husband’s equal and someone who was in many respects a co-senator and co-ambassador. Her sense of style was so superb that Jacqueline Kennedy consulted her when decorating her new home in Georgetown after President Kennedy’s death.
Heymann’s descriptions of the parties these women gave are largely secondhand, as he was not in attendance at many of them. He culls many memoirs and newspaper accounts, and the result is lots of recycled material. And because his interview requests with all five women were turned down, there are no fresh recollections about the impact of their parties.
The result is a gossipy and only mildly interesting book that titillates the reader but covers little new ground on several fascinating decades of American political history.
Marx has written extensively about American politics and history.
Book reviewed:
The Georgetown Ladies’ Social Club
By C. David Heymann
380 pages; $26
Atria Books
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