Emily Post
1873 – 1960
Emily Post drove herself across the country from New York to San Francisco in 1915, twenty-seven days with no chauffeur or mechanic along, and wrote about the trip in her only travel book, By Motor to the Golden Gate. She was born in Baltimore in 1873, the daughter of the architect Bruce Price, and had already published several novels and magazine stories before Etiquette made her famous in 1922, an instant bestseller that reached ten editions and ninety printings by her death. An early divorce left her supporting herself and her two sons by writing. She went on to reach ordinary homes across the country through a syndicated newspaper column, begun in the 1930s and read in some 150 newspapers, and a long-running radio program, spoke out publicly for ending Prohibition, and in 1946 founded an institute to carry her advice on after she was gone. She died in New York City in 1960, having spent nearly forty years telling people how to be considerate of each other.