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Search - Reflections in a Silver Spoon: A Memoir

Reflections in a Silver Spoon A Memoir
Author: Paul Mellon

Paul Mellon is a celebrated man, widely known and admired in the worlds of philanthropy, art, thoroughbred racing, and breeding, and environmental protection, but he is no celebrity as our era of instant fame has come to know the term. Light-years away from the gossip columns, he has quietly cultivated warm friendships and deep interests for mos... more »t of the 20th century, deriving from legendary wealth a life whose vitality and sheer enjoyment owe everything to inspired generousity and keen enthusiasm. Because of his well-known love of privacy, this autobiography is all the more special.

Silver spoon notwithstanding, Paul Mellon's childhood was anything but cheerful. He was born in 1907 in Pittsburgh to the stately and fabled banker and future Secretary of the U. S. Treasury, Andrew W. Mellon, and his much younger wife, Nora, who had already bolted once with a scoundrelly lover and soon would again. Their scandalous 1912 divorce, related here in previously unpublished detail, inevitablly shadowed the childhoods of both Paul and his older sister, Alisa, who were shuttled from mansion to mansion, seldom able to penetrate their father's lonely gloom. That Paul Mellon was able to go on to sucess as husband, father, soldier, and friend, and to the deep and complex pleasures of giving (free of the discontents so often bred by limitless money) is a tribute to his resilience, his joie de vivre, and his not unwicked sense of humor.

After happy years at Choate, Yale, and Cambridge, England, Paul followed his father into the Mellon Bank, but in 1941, on the eve of volunteering for the Army, he firmly relinquished all his directorships and set himself a future in philanthropy. The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D. C., the Center for British Art at Yale, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, the Bollingen Foundation for the support of research and publishing in humanistic and scientific fields--Paul Mellon's interests and beneficences, grants, fellowships, and endowments are virtually endless. All of these gifts have been bestowed with the unstinting generosity and discerning stewardship along with a minimum of personal publicity. In company, Paul Mellon would always prefer to talk of the paintings of George Stubbs or the victories of such fabulous thoroughbreds as his homebred Mill Reef or Arts and Letters.

The candor and charm, the modesty and power of these memoirs will convince the reader that Paul Mellon has lived and continues to live one of the most enjoyable, compelling, fascinating, and valuable lives of this American century.

ISBN-13: 9780688097233
ISBN-10: 0688097235
Pages: 444
Rating:

Currently 2.7/5 Stars.

2.7 stars, based on 3 ratings

Publisher: William Morrow Co
Book Type: Hardcover
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

Genres:

Biographies & Memoirs >> General

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