American Empress

The Life and Times of Marjorie Merriweather Post

By: Nancy Rubin Stuart

Narrated by: Lee Ann Howlett

American Empress is the best-selling history of the dramatic life of heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post, daughter of breakfast-cereal magnate C.W. Post, founder of the Postum Cereal Company.

As a girl growing up in the Midwest, young Marjorie Post helped glue cereal boxes in her father’s barn, later sat on the board of directors of her father’s company, wed several times, and by late middle age was widely acknowledged as the “Queen of Washington, DC” because of her friendship with presidents, senators, diplomats, and royalty.

During the nearly nine decades of her life, the beautiful and vastly wealthy Mrs. Post had four husbands - among them stockbroker E.F. Hutton and Joseph Davies, ambassador to Soviet Russia under Stalin - built several glittering mansions, including Palm Beach’s legendary Mar-a-Lago, and sailed the seven seas on her huge yacht, the Sea Cloud.

A glamorous and warm-hearted woman who retained her Midwestern twang and fondness for square dancing, Mrs. Post was also mother to actress Dina Merrill. Throughout her life, she gave generously to hundreds of civic and artistic causes, among them the National Symphony Orchestra, the Washington Ballet, and the Kennedy Center.

Thanks to her brains, beauty, and vast wealth, Mrs. Post was a woman well ahead of her era, whose natural business acumen created the frozen foods industry and helped transform the Postum Cereal Company into the General Foods Corporation.

A sweeping social history about one of America's most beautiful, wealthy, and generous heiresses, the "Duchess of Washington, DC" and the "Queen of Palm Beach", a friend to the crowned heads of Europe as well as to American presidents, first ladies, senators, and diplomats.

The daughter of breakfast-cereal magnate C.W. Post, Marjorie Post's story traces her rise from her middle-class Midwestern roots to the pinnacle of America's high society. Along the way she married four times, anonymously gave thousands of dollars to widows, students, and soldiers, and earned the respect of hundreds of people for her charity, wit, and charm.

About the author: Nancy Rubin (Stuart) is a best-selling author and journalist who often writes about women and social history. As a journalist, her work has appeared in The New York Times, American History Magazine, Ladies Home Journal, and other national publications. Her earlier books include The New Suburban Woman, The Mother Mirror, and Isabella of Castile, for which she won the 1992 Author of the Year Award from the American Society of Journalists and Authors.

©2018 Nancy Rubin Stuart (P)2019 Nancy Rubin Stuart

Great history

I’m from Michigan so I really enjoyed the information on her younger years here. So nice to read a story about someone that lived a good life without scandal.

A little heavy on numbers and dates.

Let's start by saying, I was NOT a fan of the narrator. Some of her pronunciations were off and at times she sounded marble mouthed.

About the story, I could have done with less Russia and more about the acquisition of her vast art collection: fewer dates and dollars and more about her clothes and who all was at the parties she threw.

interesting but not riveting.

An amazing listen

Loved this book as I really didn’t know much about MMP. She was an extraordinary woman and gave so much to the US. Her life was fascinating especially when you think she build Mar a Lago and lived in Moscow! Enjoy this fabulous listen.

An amazing woman

Could not stop listening! The Author captured my attention immediately. The narrator gave life to each character. An incredible book about an incredible woman.

An American Treasure

Many of today’s mega-wealthy have no taste, no class, and no generosity. Marjorie Merriweather Post had it all. This was a good telling of her (and her father’s) fascinating life. I wish the author would have translated prices into today’s dollars. As with other interesting, involved, connected people of the past, one wonders what she would think of today’s fraught international relationships!