Amy Vanderbilt (July 22, 1908 - December 27, 1974) was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
authority on
etiquetteEtiquette is a code of behavior that delineates expectations for social behavior according to contemporary conventional norms within a society, social class, or group...
. In 1952 she published the best selling book
Amy Vanderbilt's Complete Book of Etiquette. The book, later retitled
Amy Vanderbilt's Etiquette, has been updated and is still in circulation today. The most recent edition (ISBN 0-385-41342-4) was edited by Nancy Tuckerman and Nancy Dunnan. Its longtime popularity has led to it being considered a standard of etiquette writing.
She is also the author or collector of cooking materials, including the 1961 book "
Amy Vanderbilt's Complete Cook Book" illustrated by
Andy WarholAndrew Warhola , more commonly known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
.
Amy Vanderbilt descended from either an uncle or brother of
Cornelius VanderbiltCornelius Vanderbilt , also known by the sobriquet Commodore, was an American entrepreneur who built his wealth in shipping and railroads and was the patriarch of the Vanderbilt family.-Ancestry:...
and is therefore not an official descendant-member of the
Vanderbilt familyThe Vanderbilt family is a significant international family with Dutch origins, who were highly prominent during the 1800s due to the family patriarch Cornelius Vanderbilt, the tenth wealthiest person in history, who created railroad and shipping empires...
.
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Amy Vanderbilt (July 22, 1908 - December 27, 1974) was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
authority on
etiquetteEtiquette is a code of behavior that delineates expectations for social behavior according to contemporary conventional norms within a society, social class, or group...
. In 1952 she published the best selling book
Amy Vanderbilt's Complete Book of Etiquette. The book, later retitled
Amy Vanderbilt's Etiquette, has been updated and is still in circulation today. The most recent edition (ISBN 0-385-41342-4) was edited by Nancy Tuckerman and Nancy Dunnan. Its longtime popularity has led to it being considered a standard of etiquette writing.
She is also the author or collector of cooking materials, including the 1961 book "
Amy Vanderbilt's Complete Cook Book" illustrated by
Andy WarholAndrew Warhola , more commonly known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
.
Amy Vanderbilt descended from either an uncle or brother of
Cornelius VanderbiltCornelius Vanderbilt , also known by the sobriquet Commodore, was an American entrepreneur who built his wealth in shipping and railroads and was the patriarch of the Vanderbilt family.-Ancestry:...
and is therefore not an official descendant-member of the
Vanderbilt familyThe Vanderbilt family is a significant international family with Dutch origins, who were highly prominent during the 1800s due to the family patriarch Cornelius Vanderbilt, the tenth wealthiest person in history, who created railroad and shipping empires...
. She was born in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
and worked as a part-time reporter for the
Staten Island AdvanceThe Staten Island Advance is a daily newspaper published in the borough of Staten Island in New York City. The only daily newspaper published in the borough it covers news of local and community interest, including borough politics. As of April 25, 2007, Monday-Friday circulation was down 3.9% from...
when she was 16. She was educated in
SwitzerlandSwitzerland , officially the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 states named cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities...
and at the
Packer Collegiate InstitutePacker Collegiate Institute is an independent college preparatory school for students from prekindergarten through grade 12. Formerly the Brooklyn Female Academy, Packer has been located at 170 Joralemon Street in the historic district of Brooklyn Heights since its founding in 1845.- History :A...
in
BrooklynBrooklyn is one of the five boroughs of New York City, located southwest of Queens on the western tip of Long Island. An independent city until its consolidation with New York in 1898, Brooklyn is New York City's most populous borough, with 2.5 million residents, and second largest in area...
before attending
New York UniversityNew York University is a private, nonsectarian, research university in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
. She worked in advertising and public relations, and published her famous book after five years of research. From 1954 to 1960 she hosted the
televisionTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
program
It's in Good Taste and from 1960 to 1962 she hosted the
radioRadio is the transmission of signals by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
program
The Right Thing To Do. She also worked as a consultant for several agencies and organizations, including the
U.S. Department of StateThe United States Department of State, often referred to as the State Department, is the Cabinet-level foreign affairs agency of the United States government, similar to foreign ministries, foreign offices, ministries of external relations, etc. in other countries...
.
On December 27, 1974, she died from multiple fractures of the skull after falling from a second-floor window in her townhouse on East 87th Street in New York. To this day, it is not clear whether her fall was accidental (most likely due to the medications she took for
hypertensionHypertension is a chronic medical condition in which the blood pressure is elevated. It is also referred to as high blood pressure or shortened to HT, HTN or HPN. The word "hypertension", by itself, normally refers to systemic, arterial hypertension.Hypertension can be classified as either...
, which friends and relatives (including Pauls Knopf) later said caused her to have severe dizzy spells) or whether she committed
suicideSuicide is the intentional killing of one's self. Many dictionaries also note the metaphorical sense of "willful destruction of one's self-interest"...
. She was buried at the Cemetery of the Evergreens in Brooklyn.