No Regrets

by Caroline Seebohm

An intimate portrait of Marietta Tree follows the life and times of the political activist and society doyenne who knew Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Marilyn Monroe and who fought for both civil rights and women's rights. 30,000 first printing. Tour.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction

448 pages, Hardcover

First published October 21, 1997

Reviews

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this on a whim, but I'm glad I did. I came across her in a story about Adlai Stevenson, one of her lovers. And I wanted to know more. She knew so many people I'd read about, and yet had come up in no books. She was a huge name in her time and milieu, but has largely been forgotten. In her day, she lit up many a room, and was featured in many articles. The story of how a descendant of very prim and proper (and repressed) Puritan-heritage WASPs of New England, ended up the toast of Manhattan, and frequently London, Paris, and Barbados, was a good read. How her mother issues, and repression haunted her to the end in ways.

But there's more. If you are depressed about this modern world, and think the old one was somehow better, think again at least when it comes to parenting. This woman was a terrible mother in many many ways, and her mother may have been worse. Watching both of them come to some realization about that as they died was moving.

Tree was the quintessential limousine liberal, for better and for worse. She did some good for civil rights, it seems, but lived a life of such ignorant privilege. She thought she was needy because she grew up around much richer people, and never had money of her own until the end.

The book is well-written, and while the author engages in speculation in a Freudian vein, she makes solid arguments.

[Jinjer]

Marietta Peabody Tree (April 17, 1917 – August 15, 1991) was an American socialite and political reporter, who represented the United States on the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, appointed under the administration of John F. Kennedy.

Mother of Penelope Tree (born 2 December 1949) is an English fashion model who rose to prominence during the Swinging Sixties in London.

Heard about her from Josh Madden's tweets.

[Yooperprof · Rating 3 out of 5]

Marietta Peabody Fitzgerald Tree (1917-1991) never graduated from college nor published a book. Sometimes characterized as the typical "limosine liberal" of the 1960s and 70s, she was most known as a joiner of committees and as a member of executive boards, an often-seen name in the society pages of the East Coast from the 1940s to the early 1990s, a friend of Jackie Onassis and Bebe Paley. (She also served as an American representative to various United Nations committees in the 1960s.) Yet she clearly deserves her own biography, because her life intersected interestingly with so many currents of 20th century society and culture. She was a scion of the Peabodies, one of the great New England families of wealth and prestige. Her grandfather Peabody founded the archetypal WASP private school of Groton; her father served in an archetypal WASP profession as a member of the Episcopal clergy and eventually became a Bishop in upstate New York.

Marietta lived in the confines of her upbringing, but through her life did her best to establish an identity unique to herself. This is seen most poignantly in her two major extramarital affairs, the first with noted film director John Huston, the second with two-time Presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson II. She also had fraught relationships with her two offspring, a daughter from each of her two largely unhappy marriages. Her elder daughter, Frances Fitzgerald, became a noted journalist and wrote one of the best books on the Vietnam War, "The Fire in the Lake." The younger daughter (from her second marriage), Penelope Tree, became a "supermodel" during the "Swinging Sixties."

Caroline Seebohm is at her best in discussing the challenges and constraints of Marietta's largely unsuccessful attempts to balance her emotions with her marital and parental responsibilities. Unfortunately this 420 page book is too long. There are two many extraneous details, too much padding. A strong vigorous editor would have overseen the cutting of 150 pages from the text. (I blame the publisher.)

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nearing the end of this book. Interesting life she had, but her life story is very esoteric. If I hadn't read the other stories that connect to her life, this would have been very tedious,through no fault of the author. Still, it's part of my journey into privileged life in politics and society starting in pre WW II times and beyond. Next, I will read a book written by Bill Patten whose mother was Susan Mary Jay Patten Alsop, a good friend of Marietta's and who received a very devastating surprise about his parentage while way into his forties. His book is, " My THREE Fathers" ...NOTE: .started Bill Patten's book....excellent.