Editing Emily Post

{{Short description|American etiquette expert (1872–1960)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2022}}
{{Infobox writer
| name             = Emily Post
| image            = Emily Post cph.3b09855.jpg
| imagesize        = 
| alt              = 
| caption          = Post in June 1912
| pseudonym        = 
| birth_name       = Emily Price
| birth_date       = {{circa}} {{Birth date|1872|10|27}}
| birth_place      = [[Baltimore]], [[Maryland]], U.S.
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|1960|9|25|1872|10|27}}
| death_place      = [[New York City]], U.S.
| occupation       = Author, [[Organizational founder|Founder]] of [[The Emily Post Institute]]
| nationality      = 
| citizenship      = 
| education        = 
| alma_mater       = 
| period           = 
| genre            = 
| subject          = [[Etiquette]]
| movement         = 
| notableworks     = 
| spouse           = {{marriage|Edwin Main Post|1892|1905|end=div}}
| partner          = 
| children         = 2
| parents          = {{ubl|[[Bruce Price]]|Josephine Lee}}
| relatives        = {{ubl|[[Elizabeth Post]] (granddaughter-in-law)|[[Peggy Post]] (great-granddaughter-in-law)}}
| awards           = 
| signature        = 
| website          = 
| portaldisp       = 
| resting_place    = [[St. Mary's-in-Tuxedo Episcopal Church]] Cemetery, [[Tuxedo Park, New York]], U.S.
}}

'''Emily Post''' ({{née}} '''Price'''; {{circa}} October 27, 1872 – September 25, 1960) was an American author, novelist, and socialite famous for writing about [[etiquette]].

==Early life and education==
Post was born Emily Bruce Price in [[Baltimore]], [[Maryland]], possibly in October 1872.<ref name="Smith, Dinitia">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/17/books/17book.html?_r=0|work=The New York Times|date=October 16, 2008|title=BOOKS OF THE TIMES: She Fine-Tuned the Forks of the Richan Vulgars|author=Smith, Dinitia|access-date=February 24, 2017|archive-date=November 12, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161112041554/http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/17/books/17book.html?_r=0|url-status=live}}</ref> The precise date is unknown.<ref name=EP>{{cite book|title= Emily Post: Daughter of the Gilded Age, Mistress of American Manners|last= Claridge|first= Laura|year= 2008|publisher= Random House|page= [https://archive.org/details/emilypostdaughte0000clar/page/16 16]|isbn= 9780375509216|url= https://archive.org/details/emilypostdaughte0000clar/page/16}}</ref>{{efn|Primary documents conflict with the birthdate that she usually gave: October 27, 1872. The burial records of her brother, William Lee Price, who died in infancy, give his dates as April 18, 1873 to December 6, 1875, but he could not have been born five months and 21 days after his sister. That she was born six months after he was is equally unlikely. Therefore, something is awry and is unresolvable from primary records. It is less likely for a contemporary burial record of a two-year-old to have gotten his birth year wrong than for an adult to have used an erroneous birth date.<ref name=EP/>}} Her father was the architect [[Bruce Price]], famed for designing luxury communities. Her mother Josephine (Lee) Price of [[Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania]] was the daughter of Washington Lee, a wealthy coal baron and owner of a Pennsylvania mine.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Post, Emily (1872–1960) {{!}} Encyclopedia.com |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/post-emily-1872-1960 |access-date=2024-02-10 |website=www.encyclopedia.com}}</ref> After being educated at home in her early years, Price attended Miss Graham's [[finishing school]] in New York after her family moved there.<ref name="books.google.com">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xypn4djxVD4C&q=Price+attended+Miss+Graham%27s+finishing+school+Emily+Post&pg=RA2-PA224|title=Social History of the United States [10 volumes]|first1=Brian|last1=Greenberg|first2=Linda S.|last2=Watts|first3=Richard A.|last3=Greenwald|first4=Gordon|last4=Reavley|first5=Alice L.|last5=George|first6=Scott|last6=Beekman|first7=Cecelia|last7=Bucki|first8=Mark|last8=Ciabattari|first9=John C.|last9=Stoner|first10=Troy D.|last10=Paino|first11=Laurie|last11=Mercier|first12=Andrew|last12=Hunt|first13=Peter C.|last13=Holloran|first14=Nancy|last14=Cohen|date=October 23, 2008|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=9781598841282|via=Google Books|access-date=December 10, 2020|archive-date=May 5, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220505224229/https://books.google.com/books?id=xypn4djxVD4C&q=Price+attended+Miss+Graham%27s+finishing+school+Emily+Post&pg=RA2-PA224|url-status=live}}</ref>

''[[The New York Times]]''{{'}} Dinitia Smith reports, in her review of Laura Claridge's 2008 biography of Post,<ref name="Claridge, Laura 2008">{{cite book|author=Claridge, Laura|title=Emily Post: Daughter of the Gilded Age, Mistress of American Manners|year=2008|publisher=Random House}}</ref>

<blockquote>Emily was tall, pretty and spoiled. [...] She grew up in a world of grand estates, her life governed by carefully delineated rituals like the [[Cotillion ball|cotillion]] with its complex forms and its dances—the Fan, the Ladies Mocked, Mother Goose—called out in dizzying turns by the dance master.<ref name="Smith, Dinitia"/></blockquote>

Price met her future husband, Edwin Main Post, a prominent banker, at a ball in a [[Fifth Avenue]] mansion. Following their wedding in 1892 and a honeymoon tour of Europe, they lived in New York's [[Washington Square Park|Washington Square]]. They also had a country cottage, named "Emily Post Cottage", in [[Tuxedo Park, New York|Tuxedo Park]], which was one of four [[Bruce Price Cottage]]s she inherited from her father. The couple moved to [[Staten Island]] and had two sons, Edwin Main Post Jr. (1893) and Bruce Price Post (1895).<ref name="Claridge"/>

Emily and Edwin divorced in 1905 because of his affairs with [[chorus girl]]s and fledgling actresses, which made him the target of [[blackmail]].<ref name="Claridge">{{cite book | last = Claridge | first = Laura | title = Emily Post | publisher = Random House | location = New York | year = 2008 | isbn = 978-0-375-50921-6 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/emilypostdaughte0000clar/page/3 3–5, 165–70] | url = https://archive.org/details/emilypostdaughte0000clar/page/3 }}</ref>

==Career==
[[File:Brooklyn Museum - Emily Post - Emil Fuchs - overall.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Post by [[Emil Fuchs (artist)|Emil Fuchs]], now housed in the [[Brooklyn Museum]]]]

Post began to write once her two sons were old enough to attend [[boarding school]]. Her early work included humorous travel books, newspaper articles on architecture and interior design, and magazine serials for ''[[Harper's]]'', ''[[Scribner's Magazine|Scribner's]]'', and ''[[The Century Magazine|The Century]]''. She wrote five novels: ''Flight of a Moth'' (1904), ''Purple and Fine Linen'' (1905), ''Woven in the Tapestry'' (1908), ''The Title Market'' (1909), and ''The Eagle's Feather'' (1910).<ref name="books.google.com"/> In 1916, she published ''By Motor to the Golden Gate—''a recount of a road trip she made from New York to San Francisco on the [[Lincoln Highway]] with her son Edwin and another companion.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Post|first1=Emily|title=By Motor to the Golden Gate|url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924028743015|date=1916|publisher=D. Appleton and Company|location=New York and London}}</ref>

Post wrote her first etiquette book ''[[Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics, and at Home]]'' (1922, frequently referenced as ''Etiquette'') when she was 50.<ref name="Smith, Dinitia"/> It became a best-seller with numerous editions over the following decades.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.infoplease.com/people/who2-biography/emily-post|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304034840/https://www.infoplease.com/biography/var/emilypost.html|url-status=dead|title=Emily Post|archive-date=March 4, 2016|website=InfoPlease}}</ref> After 1931, Post spoke on radio programs and wrote a column on good taste for the [[Bell Syndicate]]. The column appeared daily in over 200 newspapers after 1932.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|date=September 27, 1960|title=Emily Post Is Dead Here at 86; Writer Was Arbiter of Etiquette|work=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1960/09/27/99807917.html|url-access=subscription|access-date=September 25, 2021|archive-date=May 5, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220505224230/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1960/09/27/99807917.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

In her review of Claridge's 2008 biography of Post,<ref name="Claridge, Laura 2008"/> ''The New York Times''{{'}} Dinitia Smith explains the keys to Post's popularity:<ref name="Smith, Dinitia"/>

<blockquote>Such books had always been popular in America: the country's exotic mix of immigrants and [[Nouveau riche|newly rich]] were eager to fit in with the establishment. Men had to be taught not to blow their noses into their hands or to spit tobacco onto ladies' backs. [[Arthur M. Schlesinger]], who wrote ''Learning How to Behave: A Historical Study of American Etiquette Books'' in 1946, said that etiquette books were part of "the leveling-up process of democracy," an attempt to resolve the conflict between the democratic ideal and the reality of class. But Post's etiquette books went far beyond those of her predecessors. They read like short-story collections with recurring characters: the Toploftys, the Eminents, the Richan Vulgars, the Gildings, and the Kindharts.</blockquote>

In 1946, Post founded [[The Emily Post Institute]], which continues her work.

==Death==
Post died in her [[New York City]] apartment in 1960 at the age of 87.<ref name=":0" /> She is buried in the cemetery at [[St. Mary's-in-Tuxedo|St. Mary's-in-Tuxedo Episcopal Church]] in [[Tuxedo Park, New York]].

==Cultural legacy==
A portrait of Emily Post by [[Emil Fuchs (artist)|Emil Fuchs]] (ca. 1906) is in the collection of the [[Brooklyn Museum]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Brooklyn Museum|url=https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/407|access-date=September 25, 2021|website=www.brooklynmuseum.org|archive-date=July 22, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160722184241/https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/407|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Frank Tashlin]] featured Post's caricature emerging from her etiquette book and scolding England's King [[Henry VIII of England|Henry VIII]] about his lack of manners in the [[cartoon]] ''[[Have You Got Any Castles?]]'' (1938).

''[[Pageant (magazine)|Pageant]]'' in 1950 named her the second most powerful woman in America, after [[Eleanor Roosevelt]].<ref name="Smith, Dinitia" />

On May 28, 1998, the [[United States Postal Service]] issued a 32¢ stamp featuring Post as part of their [[Celebrate the Century]] stamp sheet series.<ref>{{Cite web|date=July 2021|title=Women Subjects on United States Postage Stamps|url=https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/women-stamp-subjects.htm|url-status=live|access-date=September 25, 2021|website=[[USPS]]|archive-date=October 6, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151006100347/http://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/women-stamp-subjects.htm}}</ref>

In 2008, [[Laura Claridge]] published ''Emily Post: Daughter of the Gilded Age, Mistress of American Manners'', the first full-length biography of the author.<ref>{{cite magazine|author=Kolbert, Elizabeth|date=October 20, 2008|title=Place Settings|magazine=The New Yorker|url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/10/20/place-settings|access-date=January 25, 2016|archive-date=March 5, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305071823/http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/10/20/place-settings|url-status=live}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{Portal|Biography}}
* [[Adolph Freiherr Knigge]]
* [[Amy Vanderbilt]]
* [https://www.patreon.com/c/BeverlyxBrooklyn Beverly x Brooklyn]
* ''[[Book of the Civilized Man]]''
* [[Brad Templeton]]—who posted ''Emily Postnews Answers Your Questions on netiquette'' on Usenet
* [[Letitia Baldrige]]
* [[Miss Manners]]
* [[Miss Porter's School]]
* [[Lillian Eichler Watson]]—Post's primary competitor from the 1920s through the 1950s

== Explanatory notes ==
{{Notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Claridge, Laura. ''Emily Post: Daughter of the Gilded Age, Mistress of American Manners'' (Random House, 2008), a standard biography
* Gale, Robert L. "Post, Emily" ''American National Biography'' (1999) [https://doi.org/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1601317 online], a short scholarly biography
* Hall, Dennis. "Modern and Postmodern Wedding Planners: Emily Post's" Etiquette in Society"(1937) and Blum & Kaiser's" Weddings for Dummies"(1997)." ''Studies in Popular Culture'' 24.3 (2002): 37-48. {{Jstor|23414965}}
* Myers, Nancy. "Rethinking Etiquette: Emily Post's Rhetoric of Social Self-Reliance for American Women." in ''Rhetoric, History, and Women's Oratorical Education'' (Routledge, 2013), pp 189–207.
* Post, Edwin M. ''Truly Emily Post'' (1961), a standard biography

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* {{Cite web|url=http://www.emilypost.com|website=EmilyPost.com|title= The Emily Post Institute}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=5466| name=Emily Post}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Emily Post}}
* {{Librivox author |id=4375}}
* {{Cite book |last=Post |first=Emily |year=1922 |title= Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics and at Home |url=http://www.bartleby.com/95 |via=[[Bartleby.com]]}}
* {{Cite book |last=Post |first=Emily |year=1922 |title=Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics and at Home |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/14314/14314.txt |via=Project Gutenberg}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Post, Emily}}
[[Category:1872 births]]
[[Category:1960 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century American short story writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American women writers]]
[[Category:American information and reference writers]]
[[Category:American travel writers]]
[[Category:American women novelists]]
[[Category:American women short story writers]]
[[Category:American women travel writers]]
[[Category:Etiquette writers]]
[[Category:Novelists from Maryland]]
[[Category:Novelists from New York (state)]]
[[Category:People from Staten Island]]
[[Category:Writers from Baltimore]]