Her name was Rosamond Pinchot. She was called the Loveliest Woman in America. Niece of the Governor of Pennsylvania. The "It" girl of Manhattan. She was first cousin to Warhol superstar, Edie Sedgwick. Half sister to JFK lover, Mary Pinchot Meyer. Friend to Eleanor Roosevelt, Harpo Marx and Elizabeth Arden. Playwright John Guare described her as the "Madonna of 1930's Manhattan."19 year-old ingenue, Rosamond Pinchot, was discovered by Europe's top theatrical producer aboard a cruise ship coming back from France, and cast as a Nun in Broadway's largest production, The Miracle, a massive spiritual production was staged at the Century Theatre on Central Park West. At 23 years old, she married the playboy scion of Boston's most prominent political family, had two sons, and while her husband disappeared into the arms of countless actresses and New York notables, Rosamond bravely went west with her two children to star in the 1937 film version of The Three Musketeers.But nothing could stop her from loving the one man who would not love her back.On the opening night of Thornton Wilder's Our Town, in a sudden and mysterious act, Rosamond Pinchot took her own life and left behind a thousand questions for the generations she left behind.In 2003, Bibi Gaston, her granddaughter, a noted landscape architect in New York City whose work includes numerous restoration projects in Central Park, received Rosamond's diaries. Just released by William Morrow, a soaring memoir about Bibi's discovery of the the story of her grandmother, a woman who was never spoken about in her own family. "The Loveliest Woman in America," is a book about women," says Bibi, "about our mothers, about our grandmothers, about tragedy and glamour and life and death. About letting go, about the men we love, about beauty, about diets, about buttermilk and lettuce! About making every moment count and living life to the fullest. Yes, all those thing. But mostly it is about me and you and how we make the most of our brief but beautiful lives."
Her name was Rosamond Pinchot. She was called the Loveliest Woman in America. Niece of the Governor of Pennsylvania. The "It" girl of Manhattan. She was first cousin to Warhol superstar, Edie Sedgwick. Half sister to JFK lover, Mary Pinchot Meyer. Friend to Eleanor Roosevelt, Harpo Marx and Elizabeth Arden. Playwright John Guare described her as the "Madonna of 1930's Manhattan."19 year-old ingenue, Rosamond Pinchot, was discovered by Europe's top theatrical producer aboard a cruise ship coming back from France, and cast as a Nun in Broadway's largest production, The Miracle, a massive spiritual production was staged at the Century Theatre on Central Park West. At 23 years old, she married the playboy scion of Boston's most prominent political family, had two sons, and while her husband disappeared into the arms of countless actresses and New York notables, Rosamond bravely went west with her two children to star in the 1937 film version of The Three Musketeers.But nothing could stop her from loving the one man who would not love her back.On the opening night of Thornton Wilder's Our Town, in a sudden and mysterious act, Rosamond Pinchot took her own life and left behind a thousand questions for the generations she left behind.In 2003, Bibi Gaston, her granddaughter, a noted landscape architect in New York City whose work includes numerous restoration projects in Central Park, received Rosamond's diaries. Just released by William Morrow, a soaring memoir about Bibi's discovery of the the story of her grandmother, a woman who was never spoken about in her own family. "The Loveliest Woman in America," is a book about women," says Bibi, "about our mothers, about our grandmothers, about tragedy and glamour and life and death. About letting go, about the men we love, about beauty, about diets, about buttermilk and lettuce! About making every moment count and living life to the fullest. Yes, all those thing. But mostly it is about me and you and how we make the most of our brief but beautiful lives."
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