Glitz, Glam, and a Damn Good Time

From the author of Madame Restell and Get Well Soon, a biography of Mamie Fish that explores how women used parties and social gatherings to gain power and prestige.

Marion Graves Anthon Fish, known by the nicknames “Mamie” and “The Fun-Maker,” threw the most epic parties in American history. This Gilded Age icon brought it all: lavish decor; A-list invitees; booze; pranks; and large animal guest stars. If you were a member of New York high society in the Peak Age of Innocence Era, you simply had to be on Mamie Fish’s guest list. Mamie Fish understood that people didn’t just need the formality of prior generations — they needed wit and whimsy. 

Make no mistake, however: Mamie Fish’s story is about so much more than partying. In Glitz, Glam, and a Damn Good Time, readers will learn all about how Fish and her friends shaped the line of history, exerting their influence on business, politics, family relationships, and social change through elaborate social gatherings. In a time when women couldn’t even own property, let alone run for office, if women wanted any of the things men got outside the home—glory, money, attention, social networking, leadership roles—they had to do it by throwing a decadent soiree or chairing a cotillion. 

To ensure people would hear and remember what she had to say, Mamie Fish lived her whole life at Volume 10, becoming famous not by playing the part of a saintly helpmeet, but by letting her demanding, bitchy, hilarious, dramatic freak flag fly. It's time to let modern readers in on the fun, the fabulousness, and the absolute ferocity that is Ms. Stuyvesant Fish—and her inimitable legacy.

• "Reading a book by Jennifer Wright feels like an Event, and in this case, a champagne-soaked soiree thrown by Mamie Fish and her Gilded Age social gatekeepers. Wright's history is as entertaining as it is illuminating; her prose dazzles and winks, inviting you to travel back to 19th-century New York City and crash parties that made the Met Gala look positively quaint by comparison. Wright is a brilliant social observer and she knows how to tell a rollicking story. An utter joy to read."
  Erin Carlson, bestselling author of No Crying in Baseball, Queen Meryl, and more
• “Jennifer Wright’s exploration of Gilded Age icon Mamie Fish is not only fascinating, it’s downright prescient. Whenever I want to read a piece of sparkling, curious history that makes me think (but not spiral) about current times, Wright is the author I unfailingly trust.”
  Amanda Montell, NYT-bestselling author of The Age of Magical Overthinking, Cultish, and Wordslut
• “It is dangerous to assume that any historian resembles the star of her story, but one may surmise that the hilarious, stylish and impish Mamie Fish has more than a few things in common with her biographer. Jennifer Wright tells a tale of an unforgettably saucy dame with the breezy familiarity of a dear friend and the unmistakable nerdy rigor of an obsessive researcher. They’ll both charm the hell out of you. Don’t miss this book.”
  Sara Benincasa, comedian, actress, screenwriter, and author of Real Artists Have Day Jobs
• “Packed with impeccable research, singing prose, and delicious wit, this story of a Gilded Age queen of revelry once again proves Jennifer Wright a master storyteller. Plus, this history is timely in the tale of wealthy Americans. Whether you wish to attend or vandalize one of Mamie Fish's parties, you'll end this book wanting to read all of Wright's others.”
  Jane Borden, culture journalist and author of Cults Like Us
• “As someone who loves throwing a good party (and a better themed one), I was instantly hooked by Glitz, Glam, and a Damn Good Time. Within pages, Mamie Fish had me gasping and jotting down party ideas I’ll probably regret. Jennifer Wright brings this gloriously unhinged Gilded Age hostess to life—the woman who dressed a monkey in a tuxedo, handed out puppies as party favors, and threw backward-dress balls. Mamie mocked high society while ruling it, making loud, opinionated women not just acceptable, but aspirational. A trendsetter who helped women shake off traditional roles, she crashed the gates of old-money respectability and made fun and power inseparable. She didn’t follow the rules—she rewrote them. I’m obsessed.”
  Laura Lane, author of This Is Why You’re Single and Cinderella and the Glass Ceiling