September 2, 1917

September 2, 1917 marks the birth date of Cleveland Amory, editor and author. He wrote a number of books about the upper echelons of society, portrayed with detail and distance though he himself came from the privileged existence that was his subject. Titles here include:

The Proper Bostonians, 1947
Newport: There She Sits, 1948
Home Town, 1950 (this was a novel)
The Last Resorts , 1952
The Great Club Revolution, 1954, (a history of men's clubs)
Tuxedo Park-Black Tie, 1958
Who Killed Society, 1960
The Trouble with Nowadays: A Curmudgeon Strikes Back, 1979.

These books were a living, and a reputation. He also edited the Saturday Evening Post, and was a television interviewer.

And, some credit him with being a "founding father" of the animal rights movement. His was the money behind the campaign to rescue baby seals by spray painting their fur, thereby ruining it for the trade. Add another slew of books about his adventures in such causes. He founded three animal sanctuaries. And there were several books about a white kitten he found on a Manhattan sidewalk, one Christmas eve evening, in 1977. That turned out to be "The Best Cat Ever" (1993).