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{{about|the writer on etiquette|the logician|Emil Post}}
{{Short description|American etiquette expert (1872–1960)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2013}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2022}}
{{Infobox writer
{{Infobox writer
| name = Emily Post
| name = Emily Post
| image = Emily Post cph.3b09855.jpg
| image = Emily Post cph.3b09855.jpg
| imagesize =
| imagesize =
| alt =
| alt =
| caption =
| caption = Post in June 1912
| pseudonym =
| pseudonym =
| birth_name = Emily Price
| birth_name = Emily Price
| birth_date = about {{Birth date|1872|10|27}}
| birth_date = {{circa}} {{Birth date|1872|10|27}}
| birth_place = [[Baltimore]], Maryland, U.S.
| birth_place = [[Baltimore]], [[Maryland]], U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1960|9|25|1872|10|27}}
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1960|9|25|1872|10|27}}
| death_place = New York City
| death_place = [[New York City]], U.S.
| occupation = Author, [[Entrepreneur|Founder]] of [[The Emily Post Institute]]
| occupation = Author, [[Organizational founder|Founder]] of [[The Emily Post Institute]]
| nationality = American
| nationality =
| citizenship =
| citizenship =
| education = Finishing school
| education =
| alma_mater =
| alma_mater =
| period =
| period =
| genre =
| genre =
| subject = [[Etiquette]]
| subject = [[Etiquette]]
| movement =
| movement =
| notableworks =
| notableworks =
| spouse = Edwin Main Post (1892–1905)
| spouse = {{marriage|Edwin Main Post|1892|1905|end=div}}
| partner =
| partner =
| children = 2
| children = 2
| relatives = [[Elizabeth Post]], [[Peggy Post]], [[Bruce Price]]
| parents = {{ubl|[[Bruce Price]]|Josephine Lee}}
| relatives = {{ubl|[[Elizabeth Post]] (granddaughter-in-law)|[[Peggy Post]] (great-granddaughter-in-law)}}
⚫
| awards =
| signature =
| awards =
| website =
| signature =
| portaldisp =
| website =
⚫
| portaldisp =
| resting_place = [[St. Mary's-in-Tuxedo Episcopal Church]] Cemetery, [[Tuxedo Park, New York]], U.S.
}}
}}


'''Emily Post''' (about October 27, 1872{{spaced ndash}}September 25, 1960) was an [[American literature|American author]] famous for writing on [[etiquette]].
'''Emily Post''' ({{née}} '''Price'''; {{circa}} October 27, 1872 – September 25, 1960) was an American author, novelist, and socialite famous for writing about [[etiquette]].
⚫
[[File:Brooklyn Museum - Emily Post - Emil Fuchs - overall.jpg|thumb|Brooklyn Museum – Emily Post – Emil Fuchs]]


==Early life and education==
==Background==
Post was born as '''Emily Price''' in [[Baltimore]], Maryland, possibly in October 1872<ref>http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/17/books/17book.html?_r=0</ref> (the precise date is disputed).{{efn|Primary documents conflict with the birthdate she usually gave, October 27, 1872. The burial records of her brother, William Lee Price, who died in infancy, give his dates as 18 April 1873-6 December 1875. But he can't have been born 5 months and 21 days after his sister. That she was born six months after him is equally unlikely. So something is awry, and it's unresolvable from primary records. However, it seems less likely that a contemporary burial record of a two year old got his birth year wrong than that an adult used an erroneous birth date.<ref name=EP>{{cite book |title= Emily Post: Daughter of the Gilded Age, Mistress of American Manners|last= Claridge |first= Laura|authorlink= |coauthors= |year=2008 |publisher= Random House|location= |isbn= 978-0-375-50921-6|pages= 18 |url= }}</ref>}} Her father was the architect [[Bruce Price]] and her mother was Josephine (Lee) Price of [[Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania]]. After being educated at home in her early years, she attended Miss Graham's [[finishing school]] in New York after her family moved there.
Post was born Emily Bruce Price in [[Baltimore]], [[Maryland]], possibly in October 1872.<ref name="Smith, Dinitia">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/17/books/17book.html?_r=0|work=The New York Times|date=October 16, 2008|title=BOOKS OF THE TIMES: She Fine-Tuned the Forks of the Richan Vulgars|author=Smith, Dinitia|access-date=February 24, 2017|archive-date=November 12, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161112041554/http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/17/books/17book.html?_r=0|url-status=live}}</ref> The precise date is unknown.<ref name=EP>{{cite book|title= Emily Post: Daughter of the Gilded Age, Mistress of American Manners|last= Claridge|first= Laura|year= 2008|publisher= Random House|page= [https://archive.org/details/emilypostdaughte0000clar/page/16 16]|isbn= 9780375509216|url= https://archive.org/details/emilypostdaughte0000clar/page/16}}</ref>{{efn|Primary documents conflict with the birthdate that she usually gave: October 27, 1872. The burial records of her brother, William Lee Price, who died in infancy, give his dates as April 18, 1873 to December 6, 1875, but he could not have been born five months and 21 days after his sister. That she was born six months after he was is equally unlikely. Therefore, something is awry and is unresolvable from primary records. It is less likely for a contemporary burial record of a two-year-old to have gotten his birth year wrong than for an adult to have used an erroneous birth date.<ref name=EP/>}} Her father was the architect [[Bruce Price]], famed for designing luxury communities. Her mother Josephine (Lee) Price of [[Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania]] was the daughter of Washington Lee, a wealthy coal baron and owner of a Pennsylvania mine.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Post, Emily (1872–1960) {{!}} Encyclopedia.com |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/post-emily-1872-1960 |access-date=2024-02-10 |website=www.encyclopedia.com}}</ref> After being educated at home in her early years, Price attended Miss Graham's [[finishing school]] in New York after her family moved there.<ref name="books.google.com">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xypn4djxVD4C&q=Price+attended+Miss+Graham%27s+finishing+school+Emily+Post&pg=RA2-PA224|title=Social History of the United States [10 volumes]|first1=Brian|last1=Greenberg|first2=Linda S.|last2=Watts|first3=Richard A.|last3=Greenwald|first4=Gordon|last4=Reavley|first5=Alice L.|last5=George|first6=Scott|last6=Beekman|first7=Cecelia|last7=Bucki|first8=Mark|last8=Ciabattari|first9=John C.|last9=Stoner|first10=Troy D.|last10=Paino|first11=Laurie|last11=Mercier|first12=Andrew|last12=Hunt|first13=Peter C.|last13=Holloran|first14=Nancy|last14=Cohen|date=October 23, 2008|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=9781598841282|via=Google Books|access-date=December 10, 2020|archive-date=May 5, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220505224229/https://books.google.com/books?id=xypn4djxVD4C&q=Price+attended+Miss+Graham%27s+finishing+school+Emily+Post&pg=RA2-PA224|url-status=live}}</ref>


''[[The New York Times]]''{{'}} Dinitia Smith reports, in her review of Laura Claridge's 2008 biography of Post,<ref name="Claridge, Laura 2008">{{cite book|author=Claridge, Laura|title=Emily Post: Daughter of the Gilded Age, Mistress of American Manners|year=2008|publisher=Random House}}</ref>
⚫
Price met her future husband, Edwin Main Post, a prominent banker, at a ball in a Fifth Avenue mansion. Following their wedding in 1892 and a honeymoon tour of Europe, they lived in New York's Washington Square. They also had a country cottage, named Emily Post Cottage in Tuxedo Park, which was one of four [[Bruce Price Cottage]]s that she inherited from her father. The couple had two sons, Edwin Main Post, Jr. (1893) and Bruce Price Post (1895).<ref name="Claridge"/>


<blockquote>Emily was tall, pretty and spoiled. [...] She grew up in a world of grand estates, her life governed by carefully delineated rituals like the [[Cotillion ball|cotillion]] with its complex forms and its dances—the Fan, the Ladies Mocked, Mother Goose—called out in dizzying turns by the dance master.<ref name="Smith, Dinitia"/></blockquote>
⚫
The couple divorced in 1905, because of her husband's affairs with [[chorus girl]]s and fledgling actresses, which had made him the target of [[blackmail]].<ref name="Claridge">{{cite book | last = Claridge | first = Laura | title = Emily Post | publisher = Random House | location = New York | year = 2008 | isbn = 978-0-375-50921-6 | pages = 3–5, 165–70}}</ref>


⚫
Price met her future husband, Edwin Main Post, a prominent banker, at a ball in a [[Fifth Avenue]] mansion. Following their wedding in 1892 and a honeymoon tour of Europe, they lived in New York's [[Washington Square Park|Washington Square]]. They also had a country cottage, named "Emily Post Cottage", in [[Tuxedo Park, New York|Tuxedo Park]], which was one of four [[Bruce Price Cottage]]s she inherited from her father. The couple moved to [[Staten Island]] and had two sons, Edwin Main Post Jr. (1893) and Bruce Price Post (1895).<ref name="Claridge"/>
==Writing career==
When her two sons were old enough to attend boarding school, Post began to write. She produced newspaper articles on architecture and interior design, as well as stories and serials for such magazines as ''[[Harper's]]'', ''Scribner's'', and ''The Century''. She wrote the following novels: ''Flight of a Moth'' (1904), ''Purple and Fine Linen'' (1906), ''Woven in the Tapestry'' (1908), ''The Title Market'' (1909), and ''The Eagle's Feather'' (1910).


⚫
Emily and Edwin divorced in 1905 because of his affairs with [[chorus girl]]s and fledgling actresses, which made him the target of [[blackmail]].<ref name="Claridge">{{cite book | last = Claridge | first = Laura | title = Emily Post | publisher = Random House | location = New York | year = 2008 | isbn = 978-0-375-50921-6 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/emilypostdaughte0000clar/page/3 3–5, 165–70] | url = https://archive.org/details/emilypostdaughte0000clar/page/3 }}</ref>
She wrote in various styles, including humorous travel books, early in her career. In 1922 her book, ''[[Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics, and at Home]]'' (frequently referenced as ''Etiquette'') became a best seller, and updated versions continued to be popular for decades. After 1931, Post spoke on radio programs and wrote a column on good taste for the Bell Syndicate; it appeared daily in some 200 newspapers after 1932.


==Career==
⚫
In 1946, she founded [[The Emily Post Institute]], which continues her work. She died in 1960 in her New York City apartment at the age of 88.
⚫
[[File:Brooklyn Museum - Emily Post - Emil Fuchs - overall.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Post by [[Emil Fuchs (artist)|Emil Fuchs]], now housed in the [[Brooklyn Museum]]]]


Post began to write once her two sons were old enough to attend [[boarding school]]. Her early work included humorous travel books, newspaper articles on architecture and interior design, and magazine serials for ''[[Harper's]]'', ''[[Scribner's Magazine|Scribner's]]'', and ''[[The Century Magazine|The Century]]''. She wrote five novels: ''Flight of a Moth'' (1904), ''Purple and Fine Linen'' (1905), ''Woven in the Tapestry'' (1908), ''The Title Market'' (1909), and ''The Eagle's Feather'' (1910).<ref name="books.google.com"/> In 1916, she published ''By Motor to the Golden Gate—''a recount of a road trip she made from New York to San Francisco on the [[Lincoln Highway]] with her son Edwin and another companion.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Post|first1=Emily|title=By Motor to the Golden Gate|url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924028743015|date=1916|publisher=D. Appleton and Company|location=New York and London}}</ref>
==Family==


Post wrote her first etiquette book ''[[Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics, and at Home]]'' (1922, frequently referenced as ''Etiquette'') when she was 50.<ref name="Smith, Dinitia"/> It became a best-seller with numerous editions over the following decades.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.infoplease.com/people/who2-biography/emily-post|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304034840/https://www.infoplease.com/biography/var/emilypost.html|url-status=dead|title=Emily Post|archive-date=March 4, 2016|website=InfoPlease}}</ref> After 1931, Post spoke on radio programs and wrote a column on good taste for the [[Bell Syndicate]]. The column appeared daily in over 200 newspapers after 1932.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|date=September 27, 1960|title=Emily Post Is Dead Here at 86; Writer Was Arbiter of Etiquette|work=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1960/09/27/99807917.html|url-access=subscription|access-date=September 25, 2021|archive-date=May 5, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220505224230/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1960/09/27/99807917.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
[[Peggy Post]], wife of Emily's great-grandson, is the current spokeswoman for The Emily Post Institute—and writes etiquette advice for ''[[Good Housekeeping]]'' magazine, succeeding her mother-in-law, [[Elizabeth Post]]. She is the author of more than twelve books.


In her review of Claridge's 2008 biography of Post,<ref name="Claridge, Laura 2008"/> ''The New York Times''{{'}} Dinitia Smith explains the keys to Post's popularity:<ref name="Smith, Dinitia"/>
Peter Post, Emily's great-grandson, writes the "Etiquette at Work" column for the Sunday edition of ''[[The Boston Globe]]''. He is the author of the best-selling book ''Essential Manners for Men'', ''Essential Manners for Couples'' and co-authored ''The Etiquette Advantage in Business'', which is in its second edition.


<blockquote>Such books had always been popular in America: the country's exotic mix of immigrants and [[Nouveau riche|newly rich]] were eager to fit in with the establishment. Men had to be taught not to blow their noses into their hands or to spit tobacco onto ladies' backs. [[Arthur M. Schlesinger]], who wrote ''Learning How to Behave: A Historical Study of American Etiquette Books'' in 1946, said that etiquette books were part of "the [[experience point|leveling-up]] process of democracy," an attempt to resolve the conflict between the democratic ideal and the reality of class. But Post's etiquette books went far beyond those of her predecessors. They read like short-story collections with recurring characters: the Toploftys, the Eminents, the Richan Vulgars, the Gildings, and the Kindharts.</blockquote>
Cindy Post Senning, Ed.D. is Emily Post's great-granddaughter and a director of The Emily Post Institute. She is also the author, with Peggy Post, of two recent illustrated books for children: ''Emily’s Christmas Gifts'' (2008) and ''Emily’s Sharing and Caring Book'' (2009).


⚫
In 1946, Post founded [[The Emily Post Institute]], which continues her work.
Anna Post is Emily Post’s great-great-granddaughter. She is the author of ''Do I Have to Wear White? Emily Post Answers America’s Top Wedding Questions'' (Collins 2009), as well as ''Emily Post’s Wedding Parties: Smart Ideas for Stylish Parties, From Engagement to Reception and Everything in Between''. She is the wedding etiquette expert for Brides.com and ''Inside Weddings'' magazine. She speaks at bridal shows and other venues providing wedding etiquette advice and tips.


⚫
==Death==
Lizzie Post, another of Emily's great-great-granddaughters, is the first member of the fourth generation of Posts. Her book is titled ''How Do You Work This Life Thing?'' (Collins 2007). Lizzie also writes about twenty-something life and etiquette at her blog Not Gonna Lie….
Post died in her [[New York City]] apartment in 1960 at the age of 87.<ref name=":0" /> She is buried in the cemetery at [[St. Mary's-in-Tuxedo|St. Mary's-in-Tuxedo Episcopal Church]] in [[Tuxedo Park, New York]].


==Legacy==
==Cultural legacy==
A portrait of Emily Post by [[Emil Fuchs (artist)|Emil Fuchs]] (ca. 1906) is in the collection of the [[Brooklyn Museum]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Brooklyn Museum|url=https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/407|access-date=September 25, 2021|website=www.brooklynmuseum.org|archive-date=July 22, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160722184241/https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/407|url-status=live}}</ref>
Emily Post's name has become synonymous, at least in North America, with proper etiquette and manners. More than half a century after her death, her name is still used in titles of etiquette books.<ref>http://weddings.emilypost.com/</ref> In 2008, [[Laura ''Emily Post: Daughter of the Gilded Age, Mistress of American Manners'', the first full-length biography of the author.<ref>''The New Yorker'', "Place Settings", Kolbert, Elizabeth. October 20, 2008.</ref>


Post's caricature (emerging from her etiquette book and scolding England's King [[Henry VIII of England|Henry&nbsp;VIII]] about his lack of manners) was featured in [[Frank Tashlin]]'s 1938 [[cartoon]] ''[[Have You Got Any Castles?]]''. As a joke, she is called "Emily Host". The [[USPS]] issued a stamp of face value 32¢ on May 28, 1998 as part of the [[Celebrate the Century]] stamp sheet series.
[[Frank Tashlin]] featured Post's caricature emerging from her etiquette book and scolding England's King [[Henry VIII of England|Henry VIII]] about his lack of manners in the [[cartoon]] ''[[Have You Got Any Castles?]]'' (1938).


''[[Pageant (magazine)|Pageant]]'' in 1950 named her the second most powerful woman in America, after [[Eleanor Roosevelt]].<ref name="Smith, Dinitia" />
A portrait of Post by [[Emil Fuchs (artist)|Emil Fuchs]], (ca.1906) can be found in the [[Brooklyn Museum]].

On May 28, 1998, the [[United States Postal Service]] issued a 32¢ stamp featuring Post as part of their [[Celebrate the Century]] stamp sheet series.<ref>{{Cite web|date=July 2021|title=Women Subjects on United States Postage Stamps|url=https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/women-stamp-subjects.htm|url-status=live|access-date=September 25, 2021|website=[[USPS]]|archive-date=October 6, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151006100347/http://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/women-stamp-subjects.htm}}</ref>

In 2008, [[Laura Claridge]] published ''Emily Post: Daughter of the Gilded Age, Mistress of American Manners'', the first full-length biography of the author.<ref>{{cite magazine|author=Kolbert, Elizabeth|date=October 20, 2008|title=Place Settings|magazine=The New Yorker|url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/10/20/place-settings|access-date=January 25, 2016|archive-date=March 5, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305071823/http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/10/20/place-settings|url-status=live}}</ref>


== See also ==
== See also ==
Line 73: Line 79:
* [[Adolph Freiherr Knigge]]
* [[Adolph Freiherr Knigge]]
* [[Amy Vanderbilt]]
* [[Amy Vanderbilt]]
* [[Book of the Civilized Man]]
* ''[[Book of the Civilized Man]]''
* [[Brad Templeton]] — who posted ''Emily Postnews Answers Your Questions on netiquette'' on Usenet
* [[Brad Templeton]]—who posted ''Emily Postnews Answers Your Questions on netiquette'' on Usenet
* [[Letitia Baldrige]]
* [[Letitia Baldrige]]
* [[Miss Manners]]
* [[Miss Manners]]
* [[Miss Porter's School]]
* [[Lillian Eichler Watson]]—Post's primary competitor from the 1920s through the 1950s


== Explanatory notes ==
⚫
==Notes==
{{notelist}}
{{Notelist}}


==References==
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Claridge, Laura. ''Emily Post: Daughter of the Gilded Age, Mistress of American Manners'' (Random House, 2008), a standard biography
* Gale, Robert L. "Post, Emily" ''American National Biography'' (1999) [https://doi.org/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1601317 online], a short scholarly biography
* Hall, Dennis. "Modern and Postmodern Wedding Planners: Emily Post's" Etiquette in Society"(1937) and Blum & Kaiser's" Weddings for Dummies"(1997)." ''Studies in Popular Culture'' 24.3 (2002): 37-48. {{Jstor|23414965}}
* Myers, Nancy. "Rethinking Etiquette: Emily Post's Rhetoric of Social Self-Reliance for American Women." in ''Rhetoric, History, and Women's Oratorical Education'' (Routledge, 2013), pp 189–207.
* Post, Edwin M. ''Truly Emily Post'' (1961), a standard biography


==External links==
==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* [http://www.emilypost.com The Emily Post Institute]
* [http://www.bartleby.com/95/ Emily Post's ''Etiquette'' (1922), at Bartleby.com]
* {{Cite web|url=http://www.emilypost.com|website=EmilyPost.com|title= The Emily Post Institute}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=5466| name=Emily Post}}
* [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14314/14314.txt Online version of her 1922 ''Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics and at Home'']
* {{gutenberg author| id=Emily+Post | name=Emily Post}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Emily Post}}
* {{Find a Grave|829}}
* {{Librivox author |id=4375}}
* {{Cite book |last=Post |first=Emily |year=1922 |title= Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics and at Home |url=http://www.bartleby.com/95 |via=[[Bartleby.com]]}}
* {{Cite book |last=Post |first=Emily |year=1922 |title=Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics and at Home |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/14314/14314.txt |via=Project Gutenberg}}


{{Authority control|VIAF=45102791}}
{{Authority control}}


{{Persondata <!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]]. -->
| NAME = Post, Emily
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
| SHORT DESCRIPTION = American etiquette expert
| DATE OF BIRTH = October 27, 1872
| PLACE OF BIRTH = Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
| DATE OF DEATH = September 25, 1960
| PLACE OF DEATH = New York City, U.S.
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Post, Emily}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Post, Emily}}
[[Category:1872 births]]
[[Category:1872 births]]
[[Category:1960 deaths]]
[[Category:1960 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century American novelists]]
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[[Category:20th-century American short story writers]]
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[[Category:20th-century American women writers]]
[[Category:American information and reference writers]]
[[Category:American information and reference writers]]
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[[Category:American short story writers]]
[[Category:American travel writers]]
[[Category:American travel writers]]
[[Category:American women novelists]]
[[Category:American women novelists]]
[[Category:American women writers]]
[[Category:American women short story writers]]
⚫
[[Category:American women travel writers]]
[[Category:Etiquette writers]]
[[Category:Etiquette writers]]
[[Category:People from Baltimore, Maryland]]
[[Category:Novelists from Maryland]]
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[[Category:Novelists from New York (state)]]
[[Category:People from Staten Island]]
[[Category:People from Staten Island]]
[[Category:Writers from Maryland]]
[[Category:Writers from Baltimore]]
⚫
[[Category:Writers from New York]]
⚫
[[Category:Women travel writers]]
⚫
[[Category:Women short story writers]]

Latest revision as of 04:00, 13 December 2024

Emily Post
Post in June 1912
Post in June 1912
BornEmily Price
c. (1872-10-27)October 27, 1872
Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
DiedSeptember 25, 1960(1960-09-25) (aged 87)
New York City, U.S.
Resting placeSt. Mary's-in-Tuxedo Episcopal Church Cemetery, Tuxedo Park, New York, U.S.
OccupationAuthor, Founder of The Emily Post Institute
SubjectEtiquette
Spouse
Edwin Main Post
​
​
(m. 1892; div. 1905)​
Children2
Parents
Relatives

Emily Post (née Price; c. October 27, 1872 – September 25, 1960) was an American author, novelist, and socialite famous for writing about etiquette.

Early life and education

[edit]

Post was born Emily Bruce Price in Baltimore, Maryland, possibly in October 1872.[1] The precise date is unknown.[2][a] Her father was the architect Bruce Price, famed for designing luxury communities. Her mother Josephine (Lee) Price of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania was the daughter of Washington Lee, a wealthy coal baron and owner of a Pennsylvania mine.[3] After being educated at home in her early years, Price attended Miss Graham's finishing school in New York after her family moved there.[4]

The New York Times' Dinitia Smith reports, in her review of Laura Claridge's 2008 biography of Post,[5]

Emily was tall, pretty and spoiled. [...] She grew up in a world of grand estates, her life governed by carefully delineated rituals like the cotillion with its complex forms and its dances—the Fan, the Ladies Mocked, Mother Goose—called out in dizzying turns by the dance master.[1]

Price met her future husband, Edwin Main Post, a prominent banker, at a ball in a Fifth Avenue mansion. Following their wedding in 1892 and a honeymoon tour of Europe, they lived in New York's Washington Square. They also had a country cottage, named "Emily Post Cottage", in Tuxedo Park, which was one of four Bruce Price Cottages she inherited from her father. The couple moved to Staten Island and had two sons, Edwin Main Post Jr. (1893) and Bruce Price Post (1895).[6]

Emily and Edwin divorced in 1905 because of his affairs with chorus girls and fledgling actresses, which made him the target of blackmail.[6]

Career

[edit]
Portrait of Post by Emil Fuchs, now housed in the Brooklyn Museum

Post began to write once her two sons were old enough to attend boarding school. Her early work included humorous travel books, newspaper articles on architecture and interior design, and magazine serials for Harper's, Scribner's, and The Century. She wrote five novels: Flight of a Moth (1904), Purple and Fine Linen (1905), Woven in the Tapestry (1908), The Title Market (1909), and The Eagle's Feather (1910).[4] In 1916, she published By Motor to the Golden Gate—a recount of a road trip she made from New York to San Francisco on the Lincoln Highway with her son Edwin and another companion.[7]

Post wrote her first etiquette book Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics, and at Home (1922, frequently referenced as Etiquette) when she was 50.[1] It became a best-seller with numerous editions over the following decades.[8] After 1931, Post spoke on radio programs and wrote a column on good taste for the Bell Syndicate. The column appeared daily in over 200 newspapers after 1932.[9]

In her review of Claridge's 2008 biography of Post,[5] The New York Times' Dinitia Smith explains the keys to Post's popularity:[1]

Such books had always been popular in America: the country's exotic mix of immigrants and newly rich were eager to fit in with the establishment. Men had to be taught not to blow their noses into their hands or to spit tobacco onto ladies' backs. Arthur M. Schlesinger, who wrote Learning How to Behave: A Historical Study of American Etiquette Books in 1946, said that etiquette books were part of "the leveling-up process of democracy," an attempt to resolve the conflict between the democratic ideal and the reality of class. But Post's etiquette books went far beyond those of her predecessors. They read like short-story collections with recurring characters: the Toploftys, the Eminents, the Richan Vulgars, the Gildings, and the Kindharts.

In 1946, Post founded The Emily Post Institute, which continues her work.

Death

[edit]

Post died in her New York City apartment in 1960 at the age of 87.[9] She is buried in the cemetery at St. Mary's-in-Tuxedo Episcopal Church in Tuxedo Park, New York.

Cultural legacy

[edit]

A portrait of Emily Post by Emil Fuchs (ca. 1906) is in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum.[10]

Frank Tashlin featured Post's caricature emerging from her etiquette book and scolding England's King Henry VIII about his lack of manners in the cartoon Have You Got Any Castles? (1938).

Pageant in 1950 named her the second most powerful woman in America, after Eleanor Roosevelt.[1]

On May 28, 1998, the United States Postal Service issued a 32¢ stamp featuring Post as part of their Celebrate the Century stamp sheet series.[11]

In 2008, Laura Claridge published Emily Post: Daughter of the Gilded Age, Mistress of American Manners, the first full-length biography of the author.[12]

See also

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Explanatory notes

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  1. ^ Primary documents conflict with the birthdate that she usually gave: October 27, 1872. The burial records of her brother, William Lee Price, who died in infancy, give his dates as April 18, 1873 to December 6, 1875, but he could not have been born five months and 21 days after his sister. That she was born six months after he was is equally unlikely. Therefore, something is awry and is unresolvable from primary records. It is less likely for a contemporary burial record of a two-year-old to have gotten his birth year wrong than for an adult to have used an erroneous birth date.[2]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Smith, Dinitia (October 16, 2008). "BOOKS OF THE TIMES: She Fine-Tuned the Forks of the Richan Vulgars". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 12, 2016. Retrieved February 24, 2017.
  2. ^ a b Claridge, Laura (2008). Emily Post: Daughter of the Gilded Age, Mistress of American Manners. Random House. p. 16. ISBN 9780375509216.
  3. ^ "Post, Emily (1872–1960) | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved February 10, 2024.
  4. ^ a b Greenberg, Brian; Watts, Linda S.; Greenwald, Richard A.; Reavley, Gordon; George, Alice L.; Beekman, Scott; Bucki, Cecelia; Ciabattari, Mark; Stoner, John C.; Paino, Troy D.; Mercier, Laurie; Hunt, Andrew; Holloran, Peter C.; Cohen, Nancy (October 23, 2008). Social History of the United States [10 volumes]. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781598841282. Archived from the original on May 5, 2022. Retrieved December 10, 2020 – via Google Books.
  5. ^ a b Claridge, Laura (2008). Emily Post: Daughter of the Gilded Age, Mistress of American Manners. Random House.
  6. ^ a b Claridge, Laura (2008). Emily Post. New York: Random House. pp. 3–5, 165–70. ISBN 978-0-375-50921-6.
  7. ^ Post, Emily (1916). By Motor to the Golden Gate. New York and London: D. Appleton and Company.
  8. ^ "Emily Post". InfoPlease. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016.
  9. ^ a b "Emily Post Is Dead Here at 86; Writer Was Arbiter of Etiquette". The New York Times. September 27, 1960. Archived from the original on May 5, 2022. Retrieved September 25, 2021.
  10. ^ "Brooklyn Museum". www.brooklynmuseum.org. Archived from the original on July 22, 2016. Retrieved September 25, 2021.
  11. ^ "Women Subjects on United States Postage Stamps". USPS. July 2021. Archived from the original on October 6, 2015. Retrieved September 25, 2021.
  12. ^ Kolbert, Elizabeth (October 20, 2008). "Place Settings". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved January 25, 2016.

Further reading

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  • Claridge, Laura. Emily Post: Daughter of the Gilded Age, Mistress of American Manners (Random House, 2008), a standard biography
  • Gale, Robert L. "Post, Emily" American National Biography (1999) online, a short scholarly biography
  • Hall, Dennis. "Modern and Postmodern Wedding Planners: Emily Post's" Etiquette in Society"(1937) and Blum & Kaiser's" Weddings for Dummies"(1997)." Studies in Popular Culture 24.3 (2002): 37-48. JSTOR 23414965
  • Myers, Nancy. "Rethinking Etiquette: Emily Post's Rhetoric of Social Self-Reliance for American Women." in Rhetoric, History, and Women's Oratorical Education (Routledge, 2013), pp 189–207.
  • Post, Edwin M. Truly Emily Post (1961), a standard biography
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