Behind the Book Peeks


 I'm so excited that the "book of my heart" Secretary to the Socialite is finally out in the world!!!  Here's a little peek behind the story...

I’ve had so many questions from early readers about “who isreal” in my story, so I thought I’d make a quick post (and usesome of my notebooks full of research!). This was such a fun storyfor me to write, because Taos has been a special place in my ownlife. When I was very young, about 4, my parents decided to spendpart of the summers in Taos, and so that was my vacation spot everyyear. One year, we visited a beautiful museum in an old house justoutside of town, the Millicent Rogers Museum, and on the gift shopwall was a Vogue photo of agorgeous blonde woman in a Charles James blouse and piles ofturquoise and silver bracelets. I had to know more about her!

The Museum was started by one ofMillicent’s three sons, Paul Peralta Ramos, in 1956 to showcase hismother’s collection of nearly 2000 pieces of local art—jewelry,pottery, weavings, carvings, and her own work as well, as she was ajewelry designer. It’s now grown to over 7000 pieces, and moved toits current location in 1968, where it’s continued to grow andexpand.


Violet Redfield is fictional,but Millicent Rogers was very real! In her short life (1902-1953)she was a socialite and heiress (her grandfather was a co-founder ofStandard Oil), fashion icon, art collector, and later an activist forNative American rights. She contracted rheumatic fever at age 10,which shortened her life and plagued her will illness, but shemanaged to marry three times, fall in love with men like Clark Gable,Roald Dahl, and Ian Fleming, and live in New York, Virginia, Jamaica,and Austria before making her final home in Taos in 1948. She wasburied in her new hometown at the Sierra Vista cemetery on January 1,1953.


Mabel Dodge Luhan (1879-1962)was, like Millicent, a socialite, daughter of a wealthy Buffalo, NewYork family, who married several times (four!) and was a patron ofthe arts. She lived in Florence, at a famous Medici villa, and ran acounterculture salon in New York before landing in Taos in 1917 toestablish her own arts colony, attracting people such as DH Lawrence,Georgia O’Keefe, and Ansel Adams. She married Tony Luhan from theTaos Pueblo in 1923, and is buried in the Kit Carson Cemetery inTaos. Her house is now a National Historic Landmark and run as aconference center.


One of the great Taos charactersis Dorothy Brett (The Hononorable! 1883-1977). Daughter of aviscount, she was raised amid Queen Victoria’s court, but became anartistic bohemian who attended the Slade School and became friendswith the Bloomsbury Circle before befriending DH Lawrence and movingwith him to Taos in 1924. She stayed there for the rest of her longlife, creating her own unique art (some of which can now be seen inthe Smithsonian, as well as the Millicent Rogers Museum and HarwoodMuseum).


Martha Reed (1922-2010) actuallyopened her famous shop in 1953, so I fudged it a bit for my story! Daughter of artist Doel Reed, she got her own Arts degree in 1944 andworked at the Philbrook Museum and Dallas Museum of Art before movingto Taos. She first worked at the Pink Horse Shop on the Plaza, whereshe became well-known for designing her “broomstick” skirts andblouses in calico and velvet, before opening her own shop. She was avery sociable person, famous for her “soirees with hooch” allover town. I am lucky enough to own a painting by her, as well asMartha of Taos original bought by my aunt in the 1960s!

Lorenzo is fictional, but hiscousin Benito was real, a man who (like so many others) was tormentedby what he had seen in World War II and was helped by Millicent. The Karavas brothers first bought La Fonda in the 1920s, and it cameto be run by one of their sons, Saki, until his death in 1996. Hewas an art collector and (as his tombstone says) “a great Taoscharacter.” Tom McCarthy is also real, and if you visit Taos youcan stay at his family’s beautiful B&B, Casa Benavides! Theyhave the best breakfasts, and he is full of stories of his long lifein Taos.

These are just a few of thesources I used! I have to thank the Historic Santa Fe Archives forall their help, too.

The Mabel Dodge Luhan PapersCollection at the Beinecke Library of Yale (much of which is online)

Mabel Dodge Luhan, Winterin Taos (1935) and Edgeof Taos Desert (1937)

Lois Palken Rudnick, UtopianVistas: The Mabel Dodge Luhan House and the American Counterculture(1996)

Cherie Burns, Searchingfor Beauty: The Lifeof Millicent Rogers, the American Heiress Who Taught the World AboutStyle (2011) and Divingfor Starfish: The Jeweler, the Actress, the Heiress, and One of theWorld’s Most Alluring Pieces of Jewelry(2018)

Judith Nasse, A Life inFull (2022)

Annette Tapert and Dana Edkins, ThePower of Style (1994)

Sam Hignett, Brett: FromBloomsbury to New Mexico (1985)

Lois P. Rudnick, ed. MabelDodge Luhan and Company: American Moderns and the West(2016)

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Published on July 27, 2025 16:06
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