Bunny Mellon; The Life of an American Style Legend

New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2017. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. Bunny Mellon, and Nina Subin (author photograph). ix, [1], 516, [2] pages/ Illustrated endpapers. Frontis drawing. Illustrations. Sources. Bibliography. Index. Derived from a Kirkus review: A rapturous biography of heiress and celebrated landscape gardener Rachel "Bunny" Mellon (1910-2014). Vanity Fair contributor Gordon vividly details how Mellon, whose paternal grandfather developed Listerine, was raised in an ultrawealthy milieu of hunting, boarding schools, and balls. She was groomed to become a lady of excellent deportment; she was a "fresh blossom from a prominent family" who later married Paul Mellon (Mellon Bank), "the inheritor of a robber baron fortune." Gordon's journalistic skill is evident in her meticulous description of Mellon's lineage and long life, a portrait constructed through research into dozens of biographies, journals, and letters going back nearly a century. Readers will certainly enjoy her portrayals of the amusements, travels, and exploits of Mellon's peers; the author has shown great facility in recounting upper-class lives, especially those of women. Though Mellon was an acclaimed landscaper and gardener and was regarded as a woman with "an extraordinary eye and curiosity," she was hesitant when President John F. Kennedy and first lady Jackie implored her to redesign the White House Rose Garden. Gordon effectively details how Mellon transformed the "forlorn and outdated" garden into a courtyard showpiece by adding magnolia and an assortment of other trees. Gordon heeded Mellon's directive that, above all, she produce a "friendly, non-gossipy" memoir and "be kind" t and a window into 20th-century aristocracy. Meryl Gordon is the author of the New York Times bestselling Mrs. Astor Regrets and Phantom of Fifth Avenue, a Wall Street Journal bestseller. She is an award-winning journalist and a regular contributor to Vanity Fair. She is on the graduate journalism faculty at New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. She is considered an expert on "elder abuse" and has appeared on NPR, CNN and other outlets whenever there is a high-profile case. A new biography of Bunny Mellon, the style icon and American aristocrat who designed the White House Rose Garden for her friend JFK and served as a living witness to 20th Century American history, operating in the high-level arenas of politics, diplomacy, art and fashion. Bunny Mellon, who died in 2014 at age 103, was press-shy during her lifetime. With the co-operation of Bunny Mellon's family, author Meryl Gordon received access to thousands of pages of her letters, diaries and appointment calendars and has interviewed more than 175 people to capture the spirit of this talented American original. Rachel Lambert Mellon (August 9, 1910 - March 17, 2014), often known as Bunny Mellon, was an American horticulturalist, gardener, philanthropist, and art collector. She designed and planted a number of significant gardens, including the White House Rose Garden, and assembled one of the largest collections of rare horticultural books. Mellon was the second wife of philanthropist and horse breeder Paul Mellon. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy asked Mellon to redesign the White House Rose Garden. Mellon created more open space for public ceremonies and introduced American species of plants, as well as Magnolia soulangeana. She next began to work on the White House's East Garden, but her work was interrupted by Kennedy's assassination. After his funeral, for which Mellon arranged flowers, Lady Bird Johnson asked Mellon to resume her work on the White House grounds. After Jacqueline Kennedy left the White House, Mellon was asked to design landscapes for Kennedy's home in Martha's Vineyard, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, and River Farm, the headquarters of the American Horticultural Society. In France, Mellon created a landscape design for the home of Hubert de Givenchy and assisted with a restoration of the potager du Roi in Versailles.