Amy Vanderbilt

Amy Vanderbilt (July 22, 1908 - December 27, 1974) was an American authority on etiquette. In 1952 she published the best selling book "Amy Vanderbilt's Complete Book of Etiquette". The book, later retitled "Amy Vanderbilt's Etiquette", has been updated and is still in circulation today. The most recent edition (ISBN 0-385-41342-4) was edited by Nancy Tuckerman and Nancy Dunnan. Its longtime popularity has led to it being considered a standard of etiquette writing.

She is also the author or collector of cooking materials, including the 1961 book "Amy Vanderbilt's Complete Cook Book" illustrated by Andy Warhol.

Vanderbilt descended from either an uncle or brother of Cornelius Vanderbilt and is therefore not an official descendant-member of the Vanderbilt family. She was born in New York City and worked as a part-time reporter for the Staten Island Advance when she was 16. She was educated in Switzerland and at the Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn before attending New York University. She worked in advertising and public relations, and published her famous book after five years of research. From 1954 to 1960 she hosted the television program "It's in Good Taste" and from 1960 to 1962 she hosted the radio program "The Right Thing To Do". She also worked as a consultant for several agencies and organizations, including the U.S. Department of State.

On December 27, 1974, she died from multiple fractures of the skull after falling from a second-floor window in her townhouse on East 87th Street in New York. To this day, it is not clear whether her fall was accidental (most likely due to the medications she took for hypertension, which friends and relatives (including Pauls Knopf) later said caused her to have severe dizzy spells) or whether she committed suicide.