Life of the Party: The Biography of Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman

by Christopher Ogden

Overview

Examines the life of the English-born American political activist for the Democratic Party, diplomat, and socialite.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316633765
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	05/16/1994
Edition description:	1st ed
Pages:	512
Sales rank:	403,482
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.50(d)

Editorial Reviews

In this captivating, gossipy, withering biography, Time writer Ogden portrays Harriman--a major Democratic fund-raiser, backer of Clinton and currently U.S. ambassador to France--as a coolly calculating opportunist who parlayed her ambition into vast wealth and political clout by targeting rich and famous men. An English baron's daughter, Pamela Digby in 1939, at age 19, wed hedonistic, alcoholic Randolph Churchill and moved into Downing Street, where she helped her father-in-law, Sir Winston, by acting as an intelligence broker during WW II. Her second marriage to ebullient, barbiturate-addicted Broadway producer Leland Hayward put her in the vortex of the golden age of the American musical. She used the wealth of her third husband, the late statesman Averell Harriman, to resuscitate the Democratic Party's fortunes. Ogden catalogues Harriman's numerous liaisons (Edward R. Murrow, Elie de Rothschild, Aly Khan, Fiat auto magnate Gianni Agnelli, etc.) in this unauthorized tell-all based on months of interviews with her for a proposed autobiography that was abandoned. Photos not seen by PW. (May)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

The introduction of this book immediately sets the tone. The scene is a Georgetown dinner party, where the guest of honor is president-elect Bill Clinton, come to pay homage to a woman who, among others, has supported his presidential bid. Clinton toasts her as the "First Lady of the Democratic Party." Smiles all around because life is so good in the upper class--and so begins a biography that is essentially a parade of political names from World War II to the present. It can be interesting to know who was sleeping with whom and when, of course. And who asked our heroine for timely advice at yet another important moment in history. But what is probably just as engaging is trying to determine if the rich and powerful really "are" this shallow.

Brian McCombie