Family Portrait

Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company, 1970. First edition. Stated. Presumed first printing. Hardcover. Good/Good. xvi, 301 pages. 25 cm. Illustrations, Portraits. Signed by author. Inscription signed, on half-title, Kitty (and with initials C.D.B. ) DJ, in plastic sleeve, has some wear, soiling and edge tears/chips. "An Atlantic Monthly Press book. " A memoir of the author's Philadephia-based family. Derived from a Kirkus review: Drawing upon her easy affinity for the vagaries of unusual and restlessly contributive personalities, Mrs. Bowen has recreated a time and mores in these affectionate but clear-eyed family portraits. In 1905 the Drinker family moved to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where the author's father was President of Lehigh University . A man of driving energy, Dr. Drinker smoothly assumed the paternal supervision of over five hundred boys and his own four but he was nervously offhand about the upbringing of the two girls which he delegated to his wife. Mrs. Bowen briefly traces the career of Cecilia Beaux, her beautiful, bristly, and famous aunt, from a feisty girlhood through some elderly regal entrances. Catherine Drinker Bowen (January 1, 1897 in Haverford, PA - November 1, 1973 in Haverford) was an American writer best known for her biographies. She won the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 1958. Her earliest biographies were about musicians. Bowen did all her own research, without hiring research assistants, and sometimes took the controversial step of interviewing subjects without taking notes. A number of Bowen's books were chosen as Book of the Month Club selections, including Beloved Friend (1937), Yankee from Olympus (1944) and John Adams and the American Revolution (1950). In 1958 she won the U.S. National Book Award for Nonfiction[2] for The Lion and the Throne: The Life and Times of Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634), a biography of the prominent lawyer of Elizabethan England. In addition, Ms. Bowen received the 1957 Philadelphia Award and the 1962 Women's National Book Association award. Her last book, Family Portrait, received critical acclaim, and was a Literary Guild selection. During her lifetime, she was the recipient of numerous awards, including the Philadelphia Award. In 1962, she became the first woman to receive an honorary degree from Lehigh University.