Mrs Harris.The Death of the Scarsdale Diet Doctor

London England: Hamish Hamilton. Good/Fair. 1982. First Edition. Cloth. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall 0241108225 Hardback Hardback. First Edition. Slight browning to edges of pages through age. Waterstain mark to top edge of back D/J. Slight shelf wear to edges of D/J. On a stormy night in March 1980, Jean Harris, the fifty-six-year-old headmistress of a fashionable school in Virgina, made a last visit to her lover, Dr. herman Tarnower, the originator of the famous Scarsdale diet. Later, Mrs. Harris said she had come to bid Dr, Tarnower good-bye before committing suicide and that he had died in a 'tragic accident' as he struggled to take away her gun. After one of the longest trials in the history of New York State, she was convicted of murder. What was the evidence that persuaded a jury that Mrs. Harris had intentionally killed Dr. Tarnower? What kind of woman is the former headmistress? Is she the wounded bird that her lawyer described or was she driven by jealousy of Lynne Tryforos, the young divorcee who had replaced her in the doctor's affections? No one is better qualified than Diana Trilling to address these questions. Renowned for her pscyho;logical insight and her gifts of social observations, she was in daily attendance at Mrs. Harris's trial. She has written a riveting book about the tragedy which, like few cases in recent memory, captured the world's imagination. Taut, compassionate, illuminated by flashes of penetrating wit, this book combines a detailed courtroom chronicle with an extraordinary statement about present-day tastes and behaviour among America's privileged classes. Long after the Harris case has faded from the news, Mrs. Trilling's account of it will endure as a document of our times and as a beautifully crafted work of literary art. 341 pp. (We carry a wide selection of titles in The Arts, Theology, History, Politics, Social and Physical Sciences. academic and scholarly books and Modern First Editions ,and all types of Academic Literature.) .