Photo credit: Janet Donovan
“I really have lots of people to thank,” said Myra MacPherson at a book party in her honor at the Cosmos Club. “Among them are the women that crawled up to the second floor here which we were not allowed to do until 1980 something. And, I might add that when they did come forth with the idea that maybe women could be here and even be members, it was not for a great egalitarian move, but because they were afraid of losing their liquor license.”
Martin Walker, Karen Fawcett and Mark Shields
The tone of the evening was both fun and historically important – the guest list like a seating chart for some of the most accomplished journalists of our time.
William Dunlap, Linda Burgess and Twelve Books headlined the event in celebration of MacPherson’s latest tome: The Scarlett Sisters: Sex, Suffrage and Scandal in the Gilded Age.
Photo credit: Neshan H. Naltchayan
“Ordinarily, one would look to the fiction of Twain or Dickens to find a nineteenth-century tale to match the real-life saga of the sisters Claflin-Woodhull. Happily, Myra MacPherson has rediscovered these proto-feminists. Their rebellion against Victorian sexual enslavement and the power of white males captivated and infuriated their contemporaries for good reason, and left a mark that resonated today.” Carl Bernstein, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and co-author of All the President’s Men with Bob Woodward.
Bob Woodward (left)
“So she had a thing with JFK,” said Senator Tom Harkin determined to start a rumor. “So here’s this young, vivacious, attractive, personally magnetic young woman who just interviewed JFK. Now here’s how rumors get started. I’m about to start a rumor: It’s been rumored that maybe that the interaction didn’t just stop at the interview now that we know more about JFK.”
Myra MacPherson with Senator Tom Harkiin. Photo credit: Neshan H. Naltchayan
Slider photo credit: Neshan H. Naltchayan
“We only write books for the party,” said MacPherson. So here it is:
