"Ideal conversation must be an exchange of thought, and not, as many of those who worry most about their shortcomings believe, an eloquent exhibition of wit or oratory.""Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use.""Nothing is less important than which fork you use. Etiquette is the science of living. It embraces everything. It is ethics. It is honor.""To the old saying that man built the house but woman made of it a 'home' might be added the modern supplement that woman accepted cooking as a chore but man has made of it a recreation."
Post was born as Emily Price in Baltimore, Maryland, into privilege as the only daughter of architect Bruce Price and his wife Josephine Lee Price of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. She was educated at home and attended Miss Graham's finishing school in New York, where her family had moved. She met Edwin Post, her husband-to-be, at a ball in one of Fifth Avenue’s elegant mansions. Following a fashionable wedding and a honeymoon tour of the Continent, Mrs. Post’s first home was in New York’s Washington Square. The couple had two sons, Edwin Main Post, Jr. (1893) and Bruce Price Post (1895). The couple divorced in 1905, because of her husband's affairs with chorus girls and fledgling actresses, which had made him the target of blackmail.
When her two sons were old enough to attend boarding school, she turned her attention to writing. She produced newspaper articles on architecture and interior design, as well as stories and serials for such magazines as Harper's, Scribner's, and The Century, as well as light novels, including Flight of the Moth (1904), Purple and Fine Linen (1906), Woven in the Tapestry (1908), The Title Market (1909), and The Eagle's Feather (1910).
She wrote in various styles, including humorous travel books, early in her career. In 1922 her book Etiquette (full title Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics, and at Home) was a best seller, and updated versions continued to be popular for decades. After 1931, Post spoke on radio programs and wrote a column on good taste for the Bell Syndicate; it appeared daily in some 200 newspapers after 1932.
In 1946, she founded The Emily Post Institute which continues her work. She died in 1960 in her New York City apartment at the age of 87.
Peggy Post, wife of Emily's great-grandson, is the current spokesperson for The Emily Post Institute — and writes etiquette advice for Good Housekeeping magazine, succeeding her mother-in-law, Elizabeth Post. She is the author of more than twelve books.
Peter Post, Emily's great-grandson, writes the "Etiquette at Work" column for the Sunday edition of the Boston Globe. Peter is author of best selling book "Essential Manners For Men", "Essential Manners For Couples" and co-authored "The Etiquette Advantage In Business," which is in its second edition.
Cindy Post Senning, Ed.D. is Emily Post’s great-granddaughter and a director of The Emily Post Institute. She is also the author, with Peggy Post, of two new illustrated books for children: "Emily’s Christmas Gifts" (September 2008) and "Emily’s Sharing and Caring Book" (January 2008).
Anna Post is Emily Post’s great-great-granddaughter. She is the author of "Do I Have to Wear White? Emily Post Answers America’s Top Wedding Questions," (Collins 2009) as well as "Emily Post’s Wedding Parties: Smart Ideas for Stylish Parties, From Engagement to Reception and Everything in Between." Anna is the wedding etiquette expert for Brides.com and Inside Weddings magazine. She speaks at bridal shows and other venues providing wedding etiquette advice and tips.
Lizzie Post, Emily's great-great-granddaughter is the first member of the fourth generation of Posts and her book is titled "How Do You Work This Life Thing?" (Collins 2007). Lizzie also writes about 20-something life and etiquette at her blog “Not Gonna Lie” Her interviews include The Today Show, Weekend Today, The Tyra Banks Show, People, Glamour, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Times, The Christian Science Monitor, the Associated Press, Redbook, USWeekly.com, and Martha Stewart Living Radio.
Emily Post's name has become synonymous, at least in North America, with proper etiquette and manners. Nearly half a century after her death, her name is still used in titles of etiquette books.[1] In 2008, Laura Claridge wrote Emily Post: Daughter of the Gilded Age, Mistress of American Manners, the first full-length biography of the author.
Post's caricature (emerging from her etiquette book and scolding England's King Henry VIII about his lack of manners) was featured in Frank Tashlin's 1938 cartoon Have You Got Any Castles?. As a joke, she is called "Emily Host".
