OP: Etiquette

Funk & Wagnalls Company, New York, 1929. Hardcover. Very Good. New and Enlarged Edition.

If there is any one name associated with proper behavior in the United States, it has to be that of Emily Post (1872–1960). While Post had had an extensive career writing both fiction and non-fiction, it was Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics, and at Home, published in 1922 when the author was 50, that made hers a household name.

Employing fictionalized characters–-Mrs. Toplofty, the Worldlys, the Kindhearts, and the Wellborns, for example—Post adds some color to her formal instructions. Take the “bungled” dinner party wherein the young and optimistic waitstaff have failed to polish the silver; the inexperienced hostess lights a fire without opening the flue; and the cook, with great delay, announces, “Dinner’s all ready!” instead of, “Dinner is served,” before presenting inedible, seemingly endless dishes to the horrified guests. 

The implication, of course, is that Post will save you from such shameful proceedings if you just do as she says.

Certainly many affectations here are no longer fashionable or even practical. They hearken to a time—or socioeconomic class, or political infrastructure—unfamiliar to most of us now, as in the case of a country wedding for which the bride’s family is responsible for guest transportation by a special car added to a regular train. 

Ours is a Very Good copy with minor wear to the case. The interior is clean and unmarked though showing a soft bump to the upper fore corner of the book block. 1929 sixth printing of the new and enlarged edition (1927). Black and white photo inserts.