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archivists and researchers at the libraries of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald W. Reagan; the National Archives and the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.; the State of New York Department of Law; the Freedom of Information Act Offices at the Department of State, Department of Justice, including Federal Bureau of Information, Department of Defense, and Central Intelligence Agency. Reaves West did commendable research at the British Library in London. For advice on protocol, I turned to Jean P. Inman, American Embassy, London, and appreciate the assistance of the staffs at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., and the embassies of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Canada, and Australia.

Some people provided information for the book; others provided hospitality for the author. Both are greatly appreciated. I extend thanks to the staff of the Athenaeum Hotel, where James A. Brown, Sally Bulloch, Alex Serra, and Donald Birraine made the first of many research trips to London so enjoyable. I’m particularly indebted to them for introducing me to the President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, who also was staying at the hotel. The hour I spent with this man was my first and only encounter with nobility.

Writers become unbearable while writing books and so they owe the deepest thanks to those who will put up with them. My list is long of people who saw me through the ordeal. For the last ten years my research assistant, Melissa Lakey, has brought her bright mind and huge heart to every task she’s been given. Professionally and personally, she’s a treasure. I also value the family she’s extended to me in her mother, Jeannette Smalling, and her brother, Walter Smalling. Her relatives have supported this project with love and patience and I’m indebted to all, especially Ray Rhinehart; Paul, Martha, and Allyson Gibson; Stephen and Margaret Gibson; Roger, Anne, Jeannette, and Rachel Buchholz; Jean, Bill, Mike, Abbey, Doug, Jon, and Gayle Lakey. I’m grateful to Melissa’s husband, Bryan, for his patience with her long hours as she labored to deliver this book before the arrival of their first baby, Drew Edward Lakey.

My sisters, Mary Cary Coughlan and Adele O’Toole, provided loving encouragement throughout the writing, as did my dear friend Margaret Engel, director of the Alicia Patterson Foundation. Members of the International Women’s Forum were extraordinarily helpful, particularly Sheryl Marshall, Joni Evans, Shirley Nelson, Peggy Czyzak-Dannenbaum, Martha Teichner, Barbara Hosking, Pam Garside, Susan Greenwood, Willie Campbell, Maureen Kindel, Mary Lehman, and Fruzsina Harsanyi. I’m also grateful for the support of I.W.F. friends like Patricia Gurne, Michele Hagans, Sandra Taylor, Mitzi Wertheim, Lilia Ann Abron, Alexandra Armstrong, Esther Smith, Patricia Bailey, and Patricia Goldman.

I appreciate the efforts of Bill Chaput of the Lotos Club in New York City; Rich Salke; Erna Steiner; James Henderson; Fabiola Molina; Germaine Attebery; Susan Nicholas; Silvia Castanos; Joan Worden; Deborah Cohen; Russell Kott; Eunice and Mones Hawley; Susan Mickelwaite; Patti Pancoe; Carolyn Telman; Forrest Mac Cormack; and Samuel Melman of Justine Melman, Inc.; Eliane Laffont, president of Sygma Photo News; and Mr. and Mrs. Louis J. Appell Jr., whose flat in Lenox Gardens became my London home.

For various research projects, I had expert help from Melissa Goldblatt; Aura Lippincott; Helaine R. Staver; Jacqueline Williams; Anne Whiteman, ABC News; Audrey Sands; Ray Boston; Barry Phelps; Sue Harmer; Mary Aylmer; Simon Nathan; Daphne Srinivasan; Lilly Lessing; Roger Law, Spitting Image; Pamela Warrick, Los Angeles Times; Ellen Warren, Chicago Tribune; Wade Nelson; Rachel Grady; Abby Jones Pauley; Emily Greines; Rebecca Salt, Reed Consumer Books, London; Phoebe Bentinck; Edda Tasiemka, the Hans Tasiemka Archives; Ann Geneva, Yale University Press; Ted Richards, Olsson’s Books; Tim O’Connor, Palm Beach Polo Club; Frank Tenot,