New York: The Penguin Press, 2005. First Edition, First Printing. Hardcover. 529p. A hardcover book in fine condition with a like dustjacket. The story of two Russian expatriates in Paris, told by their daughter.

Synopsis

Tatiana du Plessix, the wife of a French diplomat, was a beautiful, sophisticated "white Russian" who had been the muse of the famous Russian poet Vladimir Mayakovsky. Alexander Liberman, the ambitious son of a prominent Russian Jew, was a gifted magazine editor and aspiring artist. As part of the progressive artistic Russian émigré community living in Paris in the 1930s, the two were destined to meet. They began a passionate affair, and the year after Paris was occupied in World War II they fled to New York with Tatiana's young daughter, Francine. There they determinedly rose to the top of high society, holding court to a Who's Who list of the midcentury's intellectuals and entertainers. Flamboyant and outrageous, bold and brilliant, they were irresistible to friends like Marlene Dietrich, Salvador Dalí, and the publishing tycoon Condé Nast. But to those who knew them well they were also highly neurotic, narcissistic, and glacially self-promoting, prone to cut out of their lives, with surgical precision, close friends who were no longer of use to them. Tatiana became an icon of New York fashion, and the hats she designed for Saks Fifth Avenue were de rigueur for stylish women everywhere. Alexander Liberman, who devotedly raised Francine as his own child from the time she was nine, eventually came to preside over the entire Condé Nast empire. The glamorous life they shared was both creative and destructive and was marked by an exceptional bond forged out of their highly charged love and raging self-centeredness. Their obsessive adulation of success and elegance was elevated to a kind of worship, and the high drama that characterized their lives followed them to their deaths. Tatiana, increasingly consumed with nostalgia for a long-lost Russia, spent her last years addicted to painkillers. Shortly after her death, Alexander, then age eighty, shocked all who knew him by marrying her nurse. Them: A Portrait of Parents is a beautifully written homage to the extraordinary lives of two fascinating, irrepressible people who were larger than life emblems of a bygone age. Written with honesty and grace by the person who knew them best, this generational saga is a survivor's story. Tatiana and Alexander survived the Russian Revolution, the fall of France, and New York's factory of fame. Their daughter, Francine, survived them.

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Details

Bookseller: Kubik Fine Books Ltd, ABAA (US)
Bookseller's Inventory #: 181579
Title: THEM: A Memoir of Parents
Author: Francine du Plessix Gray
Format/Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: Used
Quantity Available: 1
Edition: First Edition, First Printing
ISBN 10: 1594200491
ISBN 13: 9781594200496
Publisher: The Penguin Press
Place of Publication: New York
Date Published: 2005

Terms of Sale

Kubik Fine Books Ltd, ABAA

Shipping within the USA: Standard shipping is $6.00 for the first book and delivery is via US Media Mail. Delivery usually takes 1-2 weeks. Expedited shipping is $12.00 and is by either priority Mail or UPS. Delivery is within 2-6 business days and includes tracking and insurance. Orders of multi-volume sets and unusually heavy books may incur additional charges. You will be notified before the order is processed. Sales tax of 7.50% is added to shipments within Ohio. Payment is accepted by check, major credit card, or paypal. Items may be returned within 10 days of receipt with advance notification; the cost to return items is your responsibility and s/h charges are non-refundable. Books are graded according to the condition terms described on our tutorial at http://www.kubikbooks.com/tutorial.html. Shipments Outside the USA are delivered via air mail; rates begin at $25 per book and vary by size/weight.

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Kubik Fine Books Ltd, ABAA

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About Kubik Fine Books Ltd, ABAA

Store located at 24 Park Avenue in Dayton, Ohio. Open Monday-Friday 10am-4:30pm and on Saturdays by chance/appt. We have over 50,000 books of all types - specialities include Roman Catholic theology and culture, military history, ancient and medieval studies, and general rare books in all fields. Company president Owen D. Kubik has been a full-time bookseller for over 35 years.

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