Manners: A Hand-Book of Social Customs 1888 by Elisabeth Marbury ~ Etiquette, New York High Society

Title: Manners: A Hand-Book of Social Customs
Author: [Elisabeth Marbury]
Publication: New York: Cassell Publishing Company, 1888

Description: Early printing (circa 1890). Ivory cloth spine and gray papered sides; gilt title on front cover. Spine darkened. Lacking front free endpaper (first page is a blank flyleaf), else very good. Publication date 1883 erroneously written on flyleaf (copyright is date actually 1888), otherwise internally clean. Index. 114 pages. Scarce.

Although published anonymously, Manners was the work of Elisabeth Marbury (1856-1933), a prominent member of elite New York society and an influential theatrical and literary agent. She was one of the founding members of the Colony Club, the first women's social club in New York. Includes rules for etiquette in Washington, D.C. and in England when meeting with British royalty and nobility.

Facing the title page is a list of nine women who endorsed the book, including the wives of Abram Hewitt (then Mayor of New York), Theodore Roosevelt (former New York mayoral candidate and future U.S. president), Chauncey Depew (the Vanderbilt's railroad lawyer), William Lane Booker (British Consul General for New York), Burton N. Harrison (formerly private secretary to Jefferson Davis), and others.

From the publisher's note: ''The claim that is made for the present volume is that every subject is conveniently arranged, and that no time is lost in getting to the point, and that the rules laid down are those followed by the best society. The publishers are not at liberty to mention the name of the writer, but they may say that she is a member of New York's most exclusive social circles, and that her name is a guarantee for the authoritative character of this handbook, which is not a mere compilation, but is written from the author's own experience as a woman of society and fashion.''

Topics covered include balls and evening parties, breakfast, cards, calls or visits, carriages, clubs, chaperons, christenings, coats-of-arms, courtships and weddings, death and funerals, dinners, dinners at restaurants, flowers, garden or lawn parties, introduction, invitations, lunch, letter writing, letters of introduction, new year's day, out-of-doors sports, picnics, etiquette and precedence in Washington, precedence in England, presentation at court in England, private theatricals, receptions, suppers, teas, theatre parties, toilet for ladies, toilet for men, and visiting country houses.

Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Good-

Keywords: etiquette, New York, high society,