Organize Your Life

I’ve always been a fan of Amy Vanderbilt. She was the modern gal’s Emily Post and one of the (distant cousins of) those Vanderbilts to boot. For years, she provided us with “Everyday Etiquette,” the kind that you could use when, say, serving canapés to 50 or 60 of your closest, most distinguished friends. Until one day all of that etiquette went to her head and she fell out of a window and fractured her skull and died. Grisly.

But before then she wrote, among other things, The AMY VANDERBILT SUCCESS PROGRAM FOR WOMEN. Many luscious photos from the series are available here. One of these treasures (not pictured there) has just been given to me. It is called Organize Your Life and is beautifully, simply written, so that in a mere 54 pages everything that needs to be said on the subject has been said.

Here’s condensed version:
become a mistress of your own destiny, or your husband will find his own (mistress and destiny)
babies last a short while; husbands are forever
take advantage of your womanly cycle
refuse to be the victim of droopy parsley
store three quarters of your Japanese objets d’art at any given time.
sensible women carry calling cards
always serve herrings and flatbrod at your parties; pay small children to wear suits and sit in the closet.
elevators are overdone; steps are stimulating.
make sure you know where the shut off valve is.

Many thanks, dear J, for the treasure.