The Woman Who Knew Everyone
The Power of Perle Mesta, Washington's Most Famous Hostess
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4.3 • 10 Ratings
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
A TOWN & COUNTRY MUST READ BOOK OF 2025
AN AMAZON BEST BOOK OF THE MONTH - BIOGRAPHIES & MEMOIR
A deeply researched biography of the socialite, political hostess, activist and United States envoy to Luxembourg, Perle Mesta, from New York Times bestselling author Meryl Gordon.
Perle Mesta was a force to be reckoned with. In her heyday, this wealthy globe-trotting Washington widow was one of the most famous women in America, garnering as much media attention as Eleanor Roosevelt. Renowned for her world-class parties featuring politicians and celebrities, she was very close to three presidents–Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower and Lyndon Johnson. Truman named her as the first female envoy to Luxembourg, which inspired the hit musical Call Me Madam, which starred Ethel Merman, ran on Broadway for two years and later became a movie. A pioneering supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment, she was a prodigious Democratic fundraiser and rescued Harry Truman’s financially flailing 1948 campaign.
In this intensely researched biography, author Meryl Gordon chronicles Perle’s lavish life and society adventures in Newport, Manhattan and Washington, while highlighting her important, but nearly forgotten contribution to American politics and the feminist movement.
"A lively, well-researched account of a powerful woman." ―Kirkus Reviews
"A reverent ode to an overlooked fixture of midcentury American politics." ―Publishers Weekly
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this winsome biography, Gordon (Bunny Mellon), a journalism professor at NYU, shines a light on the indefatigable Washington, D.C., socialite and activist Perle Mesta (1889–1975). Raised in Texas and Oklahoma, Mesta moved to D.C. with her husband, steel magnate George Mesta, in 1917, after he was asked to consult with the government's steel committee as the U.S. entered WWI. Mesta inherited her husband's fortune after his death in 1925 and became a fixture in society pages in the 1930s, her bon vivant lifestyle serving for many readers to "offset life's daily sorrows." Drawn into political activism late that decade by a friend who belonged to the National Women's Party, Perle used her connections to unsuccessfully push for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. She became a close friend of Sen. Harry Truman, whose ascent to the presidency elevated her to the status of elite Washington party host. Leveraging influence through her Rolodex, Mesta hosted lavish Democratic Party fundraisers, talked up Truman's initiatives to journalists, and served as diplomatic minister to Luxembourg in the early 1950s. Gordon's thoroughly researched account showcases how Mesta wielded social power as political power, resulting in a finely observed character study of a woman with an "uncanny ability to... artfully sway into compromising and working together." It's a reverent ode to an overlooked fixture of midcentury American politics.
