Ward McAllister (1827–1895) was the most prominent social arbiter of Gilded Age New York — the man who coined the phrase “the Four Hundred” and helped Mrs. Astor define what it meant to be socially acceptable in the era of Vanderbilts and Belmonts. His memoir Society as I Have Found It is a cheerfully self-satisfied account of decades spent orchestrating balls, dinners, and the rituals of America’s wealthiest class.
As social history, the book is a priceless document of Gilded Age manners and extravagance. Download this entertaining and revealing free EPUB to see how America’s aristocracy understood itself.