Bunny Mellon

August 14, 2017
Gordon (Mrs. Astor Regrets) illuminates the virtues and contradictions of socialite Bunny Mellon (1910–2014) in this entertaining tell-all chronicle. Making use of newly available private papers, Gordon paints her subject as an entitled woman with a green thumb and a complex patriotic streak. Over the course of the book, the Listerine-fortune heiress, born Rachel Loew Lambert, evolves from shy schoolmate of interior designer Sister Parish at Foxcroft preparatory school to staunch Democrat and “first friend” during Camelot’s heyday to a centenarian planning her own funeral, with a role for Bette Midler singing “The Rose.” (When the time came, Midler complied.) Mellon’s most celebrated attribute—her aptitude for landscaping—resulted in a request from Pres. John F. Kennedy to design the White House Rose Garden. She had many contradictions. While she flaunted her friendship with Hubert de Givenchy, an overtly gay fashion designer, it took decades for her to accept her daughter’s sexual orientation. Despite her generosity to such public figures as John Edwards—she donated millions to his 2008 presidential bid—she wrote a parsimonious will that disappointed her heirs. Gordon peppers the book with interviews with intimates of Mellon’s such as her goddaughter Caroline Kennedy, who recalls that Mellon “and Mummy were best of friends... with their own special language.” The result is a juicy behind-the-scenes tale of American aristocracy. Photos.

September 15, 2017

From her birth into the Lambert pharmaceutical family through her second marriage to billionaire Paul Mellon, Bunny Mellon's life was one of privilege. Her friends and associates comprised a who's who of politicians, dignitaries, financiers, and socialites, while Mellon herself drew recognition as an art collector, philanthropist, style innovator, and, particularly, landscape designer (one of her renowned accomplishments was designing the White House Rose Garden at the request of close friend and former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy). Gordon (Mrs. Astor Regrets; The Phantom of Fifth Avenue) captures the multiple components of this memorable woman's life, skillfully setting the stage with absorbing details about the family, cultural, and historical elements that helped shape Mellon's world, engagingly sharing the many facets of her 103 years and event-filled journey. The essence of Mellon's personality--independent and deeply enigmatic--shines throughout. The exhaustive and original research, drawn from journals, letters, personal interviews, and previous conversations with Mellon, is smoothly integrated into this admirable work. More than a biography, this title also reflects the people, places, trends, and events of the 20th century and beyond. VERDICT This well-written work transcends one woman's story to present keen insights into the complex fabric of American culture and history. It should appeal to a broad audience.--Carol J. Binkowski, Bloomfield, NJ

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

A rapturous biography of heiress and celebrated landscape gardener Rachel "Bunny" Mellon (1910-2014).Vanity Fair contributor Gordon (The Phantom of Fifth Avenue: The Mysterious Life and Scandalous Death of Heiress Huguette Clark, 2014, etc.) vividly details how Mellon, whose paternal grandfather developed Listerine, was raised in an ultrawealthy milieu of fox hunting, posh boarding schools, and debutante balls. She was groomed to become a lady of excellent deportment; as adoringly described by the author, she was a "fresh blossom from a prominent family" who later married Paul Mellon (Mellon Bank), "the inheritor of a robber baron fortune." Gordon's journalistic skill (she teaches at NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute) is evident in her meticulous description of Mellon's lineage and long life, a portrait constructed through research into dozens of biographies, journals, and letters going back nearly a century. Readers of Gordon's other books will certainly enjoy her portrayals of the amusements, travels, and exploits of Mellon's peers; as demonstrated by both Mrs. Astor Regrets and The Phantom of Fifth Avenue, the author has shown great facility in recounting upper-class lives, especially those of women. Though Mellon was an acclaimed landscaper and gardener and was regarded as a woman with "an extraordinary eye and curiosity," she was hesitant when President John F. Kennedy and first lady Jackie implored her to redesign the White House Rose Garden. (Jackie lauded Mellon as "a visual genius.") Gordon effectively details how Mellon transformed the "forlorn and outdated" garden into a courtyard showpiece by adding magnolia and an assortment of other trees, but her admiring descriptions are occasionally overwrought. Ultimately, Gordon heeded Mellon's directive that, above all, she produce a "friendly, non-gossipy" memoir and "be kind." A reverential biographical portrait and a window into 20th-century American aristocracy.

COPYRIGHT(2017) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. (Online Review)

Starred review from September 1, 2017
Journalist Gordon, author of Mrs. Astor Regrets (2008) and The Phantom of Fifth Avenue (2014), again fascinatingly chronicles the remarkable life of an elite twentieth-century American woman. Born Rachel Lambert in 1910, Bunny, as she was always known, lived to be 103, and live she did. Her first marriage irreparably damaged during WWII, in 1948 Bunny married heir and philanthropist Paul Mellon, with whom she shared a voracious appetite for collecting art. For years, Bunny spent the equivalent of $1 million annually on a Balenciaga wardrobe while she collected homes, all fully staffed, in Virginia, Cape Cod, Antigua, New York, Nantucket, and Paris. But it was Bunny's abiding love for nature and gardening, nursed from childhood, that would remain her greatest joy and the showcase for her unrivaled talent. Close companion to Jackie Kennedy, Bunny designed the White House Rose Garden in 1961 and experienced the ensuing turbulent years alongside her friend. Readers interested in gardening, art, and interior design will drool over Bunny's fine tastes, and her ease at fulfilling every one of them, but all lovers of biographies will marvel at Gordon's portrayal of Bunny's long life, and the significant figures who buzzed in and out of it.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)