Okay. I think were going to go ahead and get started. Thank you everyone so much for coming. My name is cody and help with the events are at book culture and we are so pleased to be hosting meryl gordon tonight. This conversation on the life of an americanstyle legend, bunny mellon. Maybe a quick show of hands that this is your first time to book culture. Well, welcome. We are nestled here on the west side and we have been almost three years. Some of may remember this 20 years ago. So we are so happy to be here and to be as basis of a great and important work. Do take note of it cspan booktv recording the talk, so tonight discussion and q a can live on in perpetuity. During the q a session after meryl speaks, if youll give us a a couple seconds to run the microphone to you so that when we can record your end of the conversation so she is not talking to no one on the recording. And then after the talk either give us a couple of seconds to set up, we will have signing queue up at the front by the registers. I do encourage you to pick up a copy or two or three of the knights books we can continue to be and to celebrate great and important work. Meryl gordon is the author of the New York Times bestselling book and phantom of the avenue, and wall street journal bestseller. A pretty good solid for us, too. She is an awardwinning journalist, a regular contributor to vanity fair pictures on the graduate journalism faculty are and why you, and Arthur L Carter journalism institute. Shes considered an expert on elder abuse and is appeared on npr, cnn and other outlets wherever theres a high profile case. We are so pleased to have her, and please join me in welcoming meryl gordon. [applause] thank you all for being here. It is incredibly exciting to look around the room and sees only people i know and i care about my nyu students to my neighbors to my longtime friends. Im really happy you could be a tonight, and you can share in this incredibly exciting moment. I just discovered as a can opener that the book is going to be on the New York Times bestsellers list. [applause] the great thing is a hasnt even been reviewed yet. Its going to be reviewed in this sundays New York Times at the following is when the bestsellers list will be out so im thrilled. Thank you for being you. There are two of the people of what you think you are here tonight. What is my husband Walter Shapiro who many of you know. [applause] now, walter isnt is not ona great spouse but a great book spouse. He encouraged me to do this. He read every draft and you save me from some truly embarrassing historical errors. Then i want to thank my editor, gretchen young, of grand central. Christian was excited [applause] she was excited about this idea from day one, and not only did she make contributions in shaping the mansion but she was inspired by bunny mellon. She wanted this book to be as pretty as possible so she did all sorts of special things so that bunny mellon sketches illustrate every chapter. There are twice as many photos and her sketches are part of the book. So thank you gretchen for making this all especially lovely. [applause] now, i want to tell you my reporting adventures for this book. This is my third book about the social register and each reporting experience has been completely different. My first book was about brooke astor, the new york philanthropist who died at the age of 105. By second book was about the copper errors and reckless. Bunny mellon was 103 when she died. I think youre seeing a pattern in my work. They had similarities and they had differences. They were all worth more than 300 million. Brooke astor made her money. Her third husband was very rich. Clark inherited money from her father. Bunny mellon had the good fortune to be both born rich and mary money. Her estate was worth more than 769. I i doubt i will ever reach that level but good to know. They had other things in common which was they all married and divorced princeton men. Given the fact that were not the many divorced her, i was what was going on in princeton during that time. They also essentially all ended up having some kind of scandal towards the end of their lives, which of course made it more interesting for me to want to write the books. When youre writing a biography you try to immerse yourself in the life of the person youre writing about and reporting as i said was very different. With brooke astor is going to blacktie galas so i could meet her friends. I i was taking oliver park avene and fifth avenue and that spending months at the courthouse where son was on trial for losing his mothers estate. Clark was a much harder story because as some of you know, she spent the last 20 years of her life in a a hospital room, even though she was not ill. That was claustrophobic paraphilia strapped in that hospital room with her. With bunny mellon i spent the last year three years immersed in beauty. She really, she lived an exquisite luxury. In her farm appling and iberville ship this desire to improve upon nature so that she moved trees, she moved to everything had to be particularly lovely and beautiful. She had Amazing Taste in art and even though about of her breast artworks with all to sail, nonetheless, the library so at some extraordinary pieces. I got the unusual pleasure experiencing her lifestyle. Bunny and her husband paul owned an enormous the state on cape cod. She sold that a state but she held on to two properties now inherited by her two grandsons. One of them is this twobedroom cottage getaway that bunny felt when she literally wanted to get away from the help, from her husband, from her friends. She would sneak over there to paint, to just daydream. Thats the house where she and jackie spend an evening, jackie kennedy, looking out at the stars and discussing whether jackie should marry a nasa spirit will know the answer to that question but you would have ended. My husband and i had the good fortune to spend a couple day staying and that amazing little cottage. It was almost like bunny had left a dry flowers are still on the table. I felt like i was getting too brief her air and see what its like to live in amazing beauty. I want to roll back in time and tell you how i began writing this book. In the summer of 2011 newsweek asked me to write an article of bunny mellon. At that time, what i knew at that point was she designed the white house rose garden for her good friends the kennedys, and she lived an amazing luxury. Her husband have been present at the National Gallery of art by the summer all hell has broken loose. Shed given a lot of money to john edwards, the disgraced president ial candidate. He was being, he had been indicted for using her money to support his pregnant girlfriend and their baby. Suddenly bunny mellon could bend its obscure person for decades was in the news. News we called me and said talked her, sure. Shell talk to me. But ive made my previous two books, this is not a a war of machines pick you dont ask, you dont text, you dont email. You write on beautiful monogrammed stationary, and thats what i did. I sent bunny mellon a letter, and i had this sort of hilarious morning. Theres a wonderful Farmers Market on the Upper West Side, 97 street. I went to the Farmers Market, got out of the have, the doorman was opening the door of one of her more famous tenants in the building, matt damon. I did the new york thing. He knew that i knew that he knew, but no discussion. I go upstairs, still carry these packages. My cell phone rings and theres this very highpitched voice on the phone, and it was bunny mellon. She said to me, you wrote me such a nice note that i decided to call you myself to tell you that im not going to talk to you. [laughing] well, she clearly wanted to talk to we did the interview. She was happy with it. Six months later on thanksgiving i thought how many 101yearolds do i know . I called her and wished her happy thanksgiving. We had a lovely conversation. Fastforward, in march 2014 when bunny died, her grandson thomas was kind enough to invite me to attend her funeral. My husband played a a major roe at this moment because i had erred tickets to floated that we can to visit my parents who were in their 90s. Walter said, your parents love you very in good health. They could wait. Side pushed up i take over 24 hours, went to the funeral and thats reception on funny sound, her grandson came at me and said would love you to write the book. So thats how i got started. Let me say even with that permission going in, this is not an authorized book. I didnt get permission from anyone, i didnt have to show my manuscript. So the amazing expense of getting incredible access without having anything to hold me back, they got the book when the book came out in hardcover. I was able to spend a lot of time going down to her library and farm. This is woman who her family kept everything and she kept everything. There were letters from her grandfather when she was two years old. Ever five boxes of letters from her great friend. One of the things i loved, her husbands were letters from world war ii letters. I got to read all this victory. I cant read her diaries and her journals and then i love to do interviews, as my students to nothing makes me happier than going up talking to other people. People. I talked to 175 people for this book. So thats what i bring to this. One of the things that interested me when i begin working on this, there were so many contradictory stories about money that i heard. She could be regal and intimidating the she could be mischievous and witty. She could be capable of great generosity but she could be cruel to her family and her friends. She would drop paper without any explanation. She spent decades [inaudible] she consulted astrologers and witches. On one scrap of paper she will, i believe in god but i also believe in witches. I did. I did get to talk to her psychic for 30 years, one of my favorite interviews for the entire book. Bunny displayed the comic after centuries of wealthy women obsess with the vision of perfection and the means to get away. [inaudible] she ordered the gardens to rake up all the ladies and put the pretty ones back. She put in a pool ladder cape cod home and then she decide should make them dig it out and start all over again. She also someone who had sort of, she also saw beauty in nature everywhere here she asked a friend to carry this beautiful little package. The friend was going to paris, could her friend carry this package . The friend said, bunny arranged to have the car and driver pick her up in pairs so he could drop her off and drop the package up. Later in week she could help but ask him what was in the package . Bunny had found the perfect stone on the beach. That was it. That was what was in the package. It was in cosmetics, it was anything fallible but she said she was thrilled. This is something bunny thought he would love. What i also found was bunny was an american aristocrat but she wasnt a snob. She liked to spend time with creative people rather than be a lady who lunch. She called it an air of mystery. Theres so much i want to tell you about money but of what to limit myself to some high points so i can make time for your questions. Let me start with a Little Family background which i was not aware of when i began this book. In 1879 bunnys grandfather jordan license the right to develop come to market new develop antiseptic. It was in to be used in surgery. He lived in st. Louis but he went to london to ask a pioneer surgeon to a been knighted by the queen to understand to be used on the product. That physicians name dr. Joseph lister, hence listerine was born. Bunny saw and advertising genius. In the 1920s sales are dropping a a blistering and is trying to figure out what would help, and he discovered that one of the scientists at the firm said blistering was also good for bad breath. And then the psychic mention the lapsed in latin word was halitosis. Yet this brainstorm. He picked up a poster of growth and he drew up this Advertising Campaign of the growth that all the advantages of life except she had halitosis and no one would tell her. It went on to be always a bridesmaid, never a bride. These hall of shame ads and stn listerine into enormous bestseller made the family very rich. Her father was such great character i had to fight to kep him from taking over the book because he did so many interesting things. He was a yachtsmen. He sailed around the world for the world cup. He sort of independent or help popularize political polling of fdr. He made one very great decision in 1928. The stock was doing really well. The world was great. He sold his company for 28 million, which was 349 today. So in 1929, the weekend that bunny had her Debutante Party was a week in the stock market crashed. But her father did have to worry how to pay for the band and the caterers and Everything Else because he was a very rich man. So she came in to the world rich and she was wealthy. She was born in 1910, the firstborn and her family, and she always said which is very set to become she felt like the odd one out compared to her sickly younger brother gerard junior and a beautiful sister lily. Money always had her mother adored her brother gerard, that her father adored lily, nobody paid much attention to her. I think that led to tremendous insecurities that lasted all of her life. And essentially influenced how she behaved towards other people. She did have one childhood champion, her maternal grandfather arthur lowe. He was a manufactured smalltown not just a politician. He owned a farm, the New Hampshire farm. Bunny with spent two or three weeks with him every summer. At home her grandfather made get up in the morning and pump the water. He loved nature. He took on hikes. He taught her to look at the stars. He and culture to start her first card garden for a life se would always suck but how important her grandfather was to her. Her father built an amazing estate and princeton, and he hired the best gardeners. The names may ring a bell. It was the olmsted brothers, who designed central park. These were his sons. Bunny as a teenager, they gave her Important Information back and we should begin to design her own gardens. Bunnys like horses and she convinced her princeton letter ten the boarding school in virginia were writing was considered one of the three rs. Our room it was a woman whose name they eventually ring a bell. Her name was dorothy, wealthy new jersey family. We would later know her as sister paris one of the leading decorators. Should one of the best childhood nicknames where bunny was born rachel, the ken bone. Sister was born dorothy. I love the idea of these two women who would become the icons of the 20th century style would be sleeping on heated front porches in the middle of nowhere. Bunny went on to attend college and one of the saddest things when i got her High School Yearbook and it turned out half of the student she would to school did go to college, very good schools. Bunnys father wanted her to get it mrs. Degree stay. He would not let her go to school and they became a raging integrity for also. She was very well read but it always bothered her she didnt have a degree. One of the things i found most compelling as i was reporting the book, bunny wore the finest garments. Shes been 150,000, talking 1960, a close. So there are rooms and rooms at her estate of clothes. But when she was in her late 90s, she got an Honorary Degree from the school of design. She chose to be buried in her graduation gown. So that was a real way of saying dad, you know, i made it. In 1932 bunny married a man, a princeton graduate from a prominent philadelphia family. She was attracted to she was never beautiful. Oh my god, stacy. The pictures in the book, and clearly goodlooking man. He was the president of the icy club, star athlete. Bunny felt she won the lottery. He was doing pretty well as well. They begin married life in virginia. Her father owned and antebellum mansion called carter also the start out there and then he moved to their own place. One would going to have two children, the first was a son named stacy the third but he was born a blue baby, umbilical cord wrapped around his neck and his father called him tough, for tough baby. I have to say for tough he was tested for all of his life. This was a family, you got a nickname, you got to live with it. Their daughter was named eliza. Now, geography can be everything as all know and bunny became very close to the horse country neighbors who also a two young children. As some of you may know paul mellon father was Andrew Mellon who was a robber baron with a fortune. It was a treasury secretary under three different president s including Herbert Hoover and he started the national counterpart. He was a very austere and autocratic man who forced his son to work for the family business, pittsburgh conglomerate. Paul bought this we can place in virginia and after his father died he moved to the place fulltime. He had racehorses and use enjoying the resources. During world war ii bunny suzman and paul mellon were both in the osf, which as you probably know was a predecessor to the cia. They were both station in london and they ring together. We are talking really small world. Stacy was a major war hero doing daredevil stuff. Paul was in a funny way nobody want to give them a serious post kassie was so wealthy. He began the work teaching horse riding infantry in kansas. He begged to go overseas. They sent him to england to work on victory gardens. He finally gets to the oss. They put him in a paper pushing chapter here are these two men rooming together and having interesting time of it. As i mentioned these world war ii letters were a lot of fun because it was like really all of this gossip, bombs are falling, stacy is writing home about this terrible gold digger named pamela churchill. Invention also at home to bunny about paul melons affairs so bunny was very aware paul had another life. After the war both men came home and the marriages were troubled. Bunny was convince her husband have been having affairs overseas and lets face it, he was gone for so years and he was a goodlooking man and anything is possible. And she was having a hard time with it. She was unclear whether the marriage would last. Where am i here . Paul melons life was allergic to horse of the ship into analysis with carl young to try dot analysis would help her. Doctor told her she should stop writing. But her husband loved horses and you want to stay married to them and she thought staying married mitt trotting along beside him. She was trotting along one day when she had horrible asthma attack he got her own and she died within an hour. Bunny and her husband were very solicitous of the friend, and bunny was especially he was a widower, two young children. He did them how to handle things. She looked long and hard in the mirror at her marriage was troubled and this is one of the wealthiest man in the country, and she knew when he came out of his funk there will be a lot of opportunities for him. So she made herself indefensible. And you can imagine since you know the name of the book, bunny mellon, she divorced her husband and she married paul. Her husband stacy was devastated. Her children were devastated. Paul melons own children were kind of four owe five the father would get remarried within two years of their mothers death. There was not smooth sailing ahead for this couple. In the early years paul and bunny were relatively happy together. They traveled constantly on his private plane and leaving the chilled to be cared for by service. Paul was a billionaire by todays dollar. You can imagine what you do with their life. Bunny could afford anything she wanted and she wanted pretty much everything. They went on an art buying spree. Go to any of the museums that paul mellon has given bunny too, the National Gallery in washington, the arts museum in richmond, what you see is paul loved sporting pictures. Horses, dogs, and there will be the friends of sporting pictures. Then you walk into the next room and your eyes which is blossomed because bunny loved impressionists. He always credited her with she changed his case. They bought millions and millions of dollars worth of art which is in museums around the country. Takes to her marriage to paul mellon bunny was thrust into a National Stage 1957 queen elizabeth, should just been crowned queen, came to the u. S. And she went to one private home, bunny mellon. Money and falls. Some 30 years later when bunny and paul. When Prince Charles went to introduce prince diana to the wood. They went to bunnys house. She was operating at the highest level of society. They made her gardening outfits. Im sure all your gardening outfits are couture also. When Truman Capote gave his famous blackandwhite ball, f course bunny was invited. Bunny like to build and decorate homes. She created a series of show places. The name home was a 5000acre farm in virginia which has stables appalls resources. Their homes in antigua, paris, washington, cape cod, and nantucket. I know its closer cape cod but had to have another place on nantucket and also to place on east 70th street in new york. They had more than 200 employees to care to their every whim. And they had their private plane. The advantage of having a lot of these homes is they didnt have to be together if they were not getting along. After the first couple years of marriage, it showed just how different they were. The marriage was trouble for decades. Paul mellon carried on an affair for more than 30 years with a woman named dorothy who owned a georgetown dress shop. All of the friends knew. Everyone at the National Gallery new. People cant say bunny and paul will come to invention dorcas came. Nobody said anything. One of the things that got to me, bunny wrote an entry into her diary about attending an event at the National Gallery with paul and she wrote, she just had [inaudible] pardon my awful french. Bunny wrote, quote were a lovely black dress that you dare do something felt protected and pretty and able to view other women from inside its little fortress. Painful, but bunny made her decision. Paul asked for a divorce. She wanted to be mrs. Paul mellon and she had her own affairs which i describe in the book but she mostly spent a lot of time with the game in decorators, talented people who shared her aesthetic interest and her eye for beauty. She is famous for her breast bet friend, jackie kennedy. They became so emotionally connected that jackies sister said jackie and bunny were like sisters. Caroline kennedy wrote of her mother in bunny, they were like a pair of twins with her own special language, their own love of mischief at the own special combination of respect for tradition, with a complete disregard for convention. Thanks to a friendship with bunny, thanks for friendship with jackie bunny had a front row seat to american history. Shell decorate the white house rose garden and she was also there for jacket every kind of major moment in her life. After president kennedy was assassinated, jackie summoned bunny to the widest white housd asked her to do the flowers for the capital, for the church and also for arlington cemetery. Bunny was not a federal employee so in the role it was amazing somebody should be helped by the army, she wrote an amazing account at that experience which i have in the book. When Martin Luther king was murdered bunny also accompanied jackie to the funeral and also have an account of that day. There are things in it that bunny described the moment when she and jackie went to the church and begin to fill up with all the vips. Richard nixon was seated behind him and tried to talk to jackie and jackie finally turned to bunny and said, make him stop. These two women remained Close Friends until the end of their lives. When writing a book about a woman who lived until 103, its reasonable to assume by the time he reached the 90 the will not be much left to say. I got to her 90s and i thought oh, my god, i have three more chapters to write. A subject total is to to make bunny mellon tales is exception. Bejesus scandal arrives near the end. These are the chapters detailed with john edward. She gave him more than 725,000 at a time when he trying to keep his girlfriend and their baby secret from the world. One of the fun parts of all interviews i got to do was to fly down to raleigh and i spent time with amending chuck was if the agent but investigated the case, has recently tired to get to spend four hours with him talking through everything. He had gone up to interview bunny for the fbi investigation to he was talking about, norman adrian fbi agent and you knocking somebody store there like oh, my god. Bunny was like happy to see him. She thought it was great that she was relevant. She said im here to defend john edwards. It was an interesting part of her life. She didnt have to testify and after the jury deadlocked that judge declared a mistrial in the prosecution dropped the case. Bunny reminisced with her difft edwards who had been involved with her this whole process, didnt we have fun . So she never regretted it. If you spend three years in someone elses world there are things that stay with you. Her love of nature. She looked towards nature whenever bad things happen in life to comfort her. She sketched trees and flowers and birds. She wrote wonderful descriptions to her friends about the due in the grass, the site of the deer in the snow. When i was working on this book and begin to look at, i live on the 11th floor of an Upper West Side Apartment Building so unless, nature and grass are not a part of my daily life. But i check every day to see when the sun was setting, and my students are all smiley in the back because i kept on the last both that they should join in the sunset project. I would go it what a look at te center it was a gift from bunny everyday that i would see the beauty in nature for one particular moment of the day. As some of you know her possessions were sold at some of these for 700 million. It was astonishing because i sat with a friend who would give her some inexpensive gifts. There was a 20 blue basket he had gotten and then there was an iron shape of the bunny he got for 200 at a decorators shall be. 20 basket went for 4000. The 200 bunny went for 40,000. We nearly fell off our seats. As you can imagine i couldnt afford anything in the auction. But i have one momento that i cherish. When i was going through some of her letters to her daughter eliza who is now dead, i found a little stone that bunny had painted in an image on. As i mentioned, her grandson told me to keep it. It has a heart on once i figure its been sitting on my desk for the last three years in helping me write this book. So thank you for coming, and happy to answer questions. [applause] [inaudible] great. Theres some seats up front if somebody wants to stick and before we get started with questions. Come on up. There are two over here. Great. So, questions. Yes . Meryl, did you interview any of her servants . Oh, yes. One of the sort of, this trip to cape cod that it took and i was staying in her place, by knees grandson invited him to stop by like to be interviewed by me. So i sat there and the carter turned up in the housekeeper turned up. These are people whod worked for bunny often on for 20 or 30 years. The down and virginia is able to talk to her gardener for almost a half a century. Working for the balance was pretty great. They had health insurance. They were good to their employees. It was so complicated, people both laughter and then they were also heartbroken by you. I was trying to figure out why and what was that all about. First question. Can i get back the 25 25 i go john edwards . I feel, i feel cheated. My second question is, was there evidence that paul laughter at any point, or was she just convenient . It was interesting. One of the people i got to spend time with was a woman named Nancy Collins who was pauls nurse and then bunnys nurse. She worked for them for close to 20 is and now is working in their library. She was talking about towards the end of pauls life they had, there was an Anniversary Party and at the end paul turned to manage to say im so glad i stayed married to bunny. I think they did really care about each other deeply but i also think they were both from repressed world. There are so many things they didnt deal with to some extent. And have different interests and backgrounds. I really do think paul loved his mistress very close to her. But they had different emotional things they gave you. As for the john edwards, i understand your feelings. Can you tell us about dacey lloyd after the divorce . Ddg disappear altogether or did they keep a friendship . Stacy remarried a couple years after bunny did picky married a young woman who was 20 years younger. He started a Newspaper Publishing business called the chronicles of the horse which he continued to run, and she was a writer. They get married, she had a son and then she can get a polio and she end up being partially paralyzed. They moved down to the virgin islands. He and bunny stayed friends. Bunny, i dont want to spoil the book, but i think that she never fell out of love with her first husband. She didnt regret the bargain to me but i think she always loved stacy. She wrote to him and is an antiques dealer like to interview named malcolm who has a fabulous bunny antique store which is right near carter hall which is where bunnys fathers voice was. Malcolm said when they were in their 80s, stacy and bunny used to go out to lunch together. It would meet at his shop, it was not of the sympathy wanted to be together and it was kind of nice that theyre able to stay friendly. I was wondering is bunny her real name i was at a nickname . Her mother was rachel and bunny was named rachel butter nurse called her bunny. I assume it was like what a cute little bunny, and she kept the name. On did you copy that you talk about, where they lived, the fortune of the milk in pittsburgh, was it ever any [inaudible] did they ever go there i was at just kind of ancient history for them . Ill tell you whats funny about that. The first year bunny made the best dressed list, the only people got excited that was the pittsburgh newspaper. They thought that was great. Bunny didnt like pittsburgh. Paul was there all the time for business and obvious he gave a ton of philanthropy there but is not much part of her orbit. What was the relationship with her children by the end of her life . So complicated. Where do you start . There both dead now. Her daughter eliza, bunny was a bit of a hover mother with allies was a cheerful, lovely girl, but school was hard for her. Bunny was thrilled when allies went off to europe and came home with she was engaged. On the morning of the wedding, by knees daughter came to i dont want to get married. I really dont want to get married. I dont know exactly what she said but she definitely said she didnt want to get married. Bunny is it they are all there, here at the church, youre getting married. She got married and she got divorced a couple years later. She was gay. It took a long time before she felt comfortable bring her girlfriend around ran to meet r mother. They had a a tortuous relationship. At times they were very close, but didnt speak during her to time. I was able to return years of her letters to our allies of the is almost this plain tone of trying to woo her daughter back to her. Finally became very close and eliza was very involved with her mother, and then allies had a terrible accident. She was crossing a street and a truck didnt see her, hit her. Taken to the hospital, she had an old id with her which didnt have her current address so for 24 hours she was at st. Vincent hospital, nobody knew where she was. Nobody knew who she was. At the time to figure it out the doctors chose not operate on whether that was a comatose young woman. By the time she was identified as they did operate, it was too late. She lived for eight more years but she was never able to speak. She couldnt walk. Bunny brought her back to the farm and nursed her for eight years, did everything, music therapy, and the kind of therapy you could have. Eliza did have some recognition, so that was the sad story of eliza. And her son, toughy, stacy the third, was more neglected by his mother. It may be really sad because he had a yearning for a deeper and close relationship that he just didnt get to have with her. She also did stuff that was just weird. She asked him to move down to her farm. She fixed up the house for him. There were like 27 different houses on this i thousand estate, then in advance of the will he discovered she was not giving him the house. He has lifetime use but he cant give it to his children none of this property would have go to anyone in the family. And he cant believe his mother once again kind of, you know, giving him, taking away at the same time. As an average typical reader, i just want to know more about how the white house rose garden came about, and how someone who went no formal gardening training and no government position got to great such an iconic spot. For the all air viewers, that was my husband Walter Shapiro who want to make sure i mentioned the rose garden. [laughing] i have to say i knew i had to write part of this book i was really kind of panic because he kept thinking what could i possibly say that hasnt already been said . And bunny thought about writing a biography but she never finished it. She would write on scraps of paper and i was like, you know, given hundreds of pages of scraps of paper. There was something that began with bunny talk about the day her son was born and suddenly shes writing about, shes on cape cod. Its 1961. The phone rings pursing in the morning. Its jackie kennedy. Jackie and the present were going to be coming for lunch that day and jackie said i cant talk long, were going to church. Jack will ask you to do something today. You have to do it. What . Design the white house rose garden. Got to go. Bunny was described as she sat there and then thought, i have no formal training. I dont know how going to do this. I cant imagine this. Then as i mentioned she always thought of her grandfather at important moments and she thought her grandfather does it if you can do anything to help your country, you should do this. And so president came that afternoon. Youll see theres a photo in the book, capture the moment. Catherine could not have known this but she captured the moment in history when bunny was asked to design it. She did all sorts of interesting and unusual things. She found the perfect tree she wanted but it happened to be in the tidal basin, one of the most scenic spots in washington. She wanted it moved. It got moved. It was also one of these, i was able to look at some of the letters written by a landscape gardener, very famous in washington who bunny asked to appear she was resting up before the big push. I dont think we should be taken of these corners of the card because there might be an electronic equipment but i said if we didnt do you have to change the entire design. So they began digging and they cut off the court for the Strategic Air command literally. They put the country on a war alert for 24 hours. Jackie kennedy gave bunny this wonderful scrapbook which is now at the library, of all the experiences they had together. She ended it by saying jack will always be things for grading the place that is most loved, and you will be, too. Im just curious. I read the phantom of fifth avenue as well, and with that book and with this one im just curious to know how you can get close with to family and learno much about someones life and yet it seems you remain very objective in how you view them and you are able to put your personal feelings aside. And i just wonder if thats difficult and how you manage it . Or if you just going to like reporter mode, and thats a very different thing . Thank you. Thats one of my students over in the corner who is graduating off into the world. This is my third book which ive had to deal with, i say have come but wish, ive dealt with the families. Its really complicated. I have to say i am from a middleclass jewish family in rochester. Im not from the social, not my life. Mom and dad were great at her look at some of these very wealthy families. In general, as a journalist if people believe youre going to be honest, youre not out there to hurt them for any particular reason, usually at the end of the day people will trust you. In the beginning of this book like with all my books the were people i contacted who wouldnt speak to me. My husband has his favorite phrase goes says, they will talk to you. They just dont know it yet. So ive been lucky that people eventually come through. So after she died, who got bunnys money . Well, its interesting. She left most of her money to her library. She built this library, well, im sure you would all do the same thing, the books are too big of a household courtship to build a library she built a library. There are now 10,000 books in it, there are various points which would you talk to the National Gallery of art at this morning about the smithsonian. What bunny did is left most of her estate to cover the cost of her library which also is becoming a charitable organization, look at environmental grants, she left her son 20 million. This is a woman worth 760 million. She left her grandsons 2 million each. They also, there was a family through her father they would get inherited, small percentage compared to that. At the end of the day she was charitable and the money, she also left grants to the audubon society. She did some good things with the property and her money. So i guess, thank you all for coming tonight. Really appreciate it. [applause] so thank you, everybody. If you give us a couple of seconds to set up and the signing queue up at the front. Again, thank you, everybody, and thank you, meryl. [applause] you are watching booktv on cspan2 with top nonfiction books and authors every weekend. Dd, television for serious readers. And later this afternoon, the center for strategic and International Studies takes a look at u. S. Investment in developing countries. Cspan, where history unfolds daily