THE WOMAN WHO KNEW EVERYONE

Portrait of a celebrated hostess.

Journalist and biographer Gordon recounts the eventful life of feminist, ardent Equal Rights Amendment supporter, and legendary party giver Perle Mesta (1882-1975), who served as the U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg from 1949 to 1953. The Michigan-born Pearl Skirvin gave her first party when she was 11, serving her friends sandwiches of nasturtium flowers and mayonnaise. In her early 20s, she chaperoned her sister, who was beginning her stage career, until, in 1915, Pearl moved to Manhattan on her own. There, she met George Mesta, a wealthy industrialist, 20 years older. They married in 1917 and soon moved to Washington, where Mesta served as a wartime advisor. “With an anthropologist’s intensity,” Gordon writes, “Pearl studied the rhythms of Washington social life.” After George Mesta’s sudden death in 1924, the fabulously wealthy widow became “a style setter.” Although as a Christian Scientist she did not drink, her sumptuous extravaganzas overflowed with champagne, even during the Depression. Dressed in Paris couture, surrounded by A-list guests in Washington, New York, Newport, and London, Perle (she opted for a more sophisticated spelling) became the darling of society columnists. “Every time someone asked Perle to lend her name to a charity or host an event,” Gordon observes, “it was a validation of her place in the universe.” Party giving, though, was not her only interest: calling herself “a politician first,” she was a tireless fundraiser and became close friends with the Trumans, the Eisenhowers, and LBJ. Spoofed in the musical Call Me Madam, with Ethel Merman playing the lead, Perle was more than a flighty socialite: As Gordon portrays her, she proved to be an able goodwill ambassador and savvy political operator.

A lively, well-researched account of a powerful woman.