From the Silent Earth: A Report on the Greek Bronze Age - John ALSOP (Inscribed to Lady Diana Cooper)
Love and Politics: a fascinating insight into 20th-century Anglo-American relations.
ALSOP, Joseph. From the Silent Earth: A Report on the Greek Bronze Age. New York: Harper & Row, 1964.
First edition. Signed presentation from the author to Lady Diana Cooper: ‘For dearest Diana, with infinite admiration & much love.’ ' From the library of Lady Diana’s son, John Julius Cooper, 2nd Viscount Norwich (1929-2018), with his bookplate. Lady Diana Cooper (née Manners; 1892-1986) was a star of the early twentieth-century stage, screen and social scene. She married Alfred Duff Cooper, 1st Viscount Norwich, one of the Second World War’s key politicians.
Joe Alsop (1910-1989) was an enormously influential and powerful American syndicated political columnist, close confidante to presidents, senators, secretaries of state—and secretly gay. Alsop married Susan Mary (1918-2004), a descendant of founding father John Jay. The couple became a fixture in Washington society and Susan Mary reigned as J.F.K.'s favourite Georgetown hostess. Joe Alsop was very well read, and he wrote books on politics, as well as on subjects as archaeology and art, including the present book.
During her first marriage to American diplomat William Patten, Susan Mary spent 15 years in Paris, hosting parties and entertaining people such as writer Jean Cocteau, British Ambassador Duff Cooper and Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Susan Mary had a complex relationship with Diana and Duff Cooper (“les Duffs”), as she was Lady Diana’s protégée and Duff’s lover. Mary Susan’s affair with Duff Cooper produced a son, Bill Patten. In 2008, Bill Patten published My Three Fathers, a fascinating memoir about his extraordinary upbringing, his stylish mother, and the trio of powerful men who shaped him – William Patten, Duff Cooper and Joe Alsop.
296 pp, b/w illus. Original cloth. Very good in good dust jacket (tear to bottom of front face, neatly repaired with tape; in clear, removable protective sleeve)