Reflected Glory [Hardcover]

Sally Bedell Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 7, 1996

A biography of Pamela Churchill Harriman, based on over 800 interviews and archival research, charting her life from marriage to Churchill's son, Randolph, through two further marriages to her eventual appointment as US Ambassador to France.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The catalog of lovers, husbands, and tryst partners that runs throughout this 560-page biography of Pamela Churchill Harriman is astonishing in itself: Randolph Churchill (the besotted son of Sir Winston), Edward R. Murrow, Elie de Rothschild, Averell Harriman ... What's more astonishing is that along the way Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman managed to find time to become an accomplished globe-trotting socialite, a mother, a leading fundraiser and den mother for the Democratic Party, and, today, the American Ambassador to France. Sally Bedell Smith sought out Pamela Harriman's most far-flung associates and detailed everything from her subject's cosmetic surgeries to her fudged studies at the Sorbonne to produce this exhaustive work, and though the subject comes across as cold, calculating, and duplicitous, there is a grudging admiration for the century's ultimate courtesan.

From Publishers Weekly

In 1994, Christopher Ogden, employed by Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman to ghost her autobiography, published Life of the Party. When she balked at exposing the spicier side of her career, he went ahead on his own, using her taped interviews, but legally he could quote nothing. Smith, another unauthorized biographer, quotes little from Harriman, written or vocal, for similar reasons, but 400 of her acquaintances cooperated, resulting in a deeply informed and revelatory study. Smith (All His Glory: The Life of William S. Paley) has done further homework in financial and court papers and in the diaries, letters and memoirs of contemporaries. Had it not been for Ogden's preemptive strike, Smith's intensely detailed biography of the least sedate of American ambassadors?British-born Pamela Harriman, now 76, represents the U.S. in Paris?would be even more explosive. Perhaps only in France, where premiers and presidents often have publicly acknowledged mistresses, would she be acceptable, even admired, as an envoy. Bedding her way to wealth and power, the resourceful red-haired beauty wed Randolph Churchill, Leland Hayward and Averell Harriman, filling in the interstices between marriages with Edward R. Murrow (her only unmoneyed lover), Gianni Agnelli, Aly Khan, Elie de Rothschild and other deep-pocketed admirers. Said one observer: "She could make a man, not just in bed. She stretched a man's horizons." Austerity was never her cup of tea, nor was familial loyalty to the children and grandchildren inherited from two American husbands. Her lifestyle, Smith contends, was always based on self-aggrandizement. As a former Hayward wife remarked, "Pam Churchill thought she would marry [Fiat heir] Agnelli, so she became a Catholic on spec." Brushing aside her reputation as grande cocotte, a French friend scoffed, "Everyone has a past. It is who she is today that counts." Photos not seen by PW. First serial to Vanity Fair.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 560 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; First Edition edition (November 7, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684809508
• ISBN-13: 978-0684809502
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #73,780 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but disappointing!, August 1, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Reflected Glory (Hardcover)

I finished this scintillating book with one BIG unanswered question - what did this woman have or what did this woman do- that attracted so many rich,powerful men! The author certainly spent a great deal of time researching the life of Pamela Harriman. The book at times reads like a chronicle of daily events, But it never answers the BIG question. Maybe there is no answer. Maybe Pamela Harriman's free spirit was what attracted her list of men. The one insight that the book did provide was the corrupting nature of money & contemporary politics. This part of the book made me angry & just reinforced my cynicism about politics in general. Maybe, for me, this was the redeeming feature of the book. But I still am left with my BIG unanswered question. Maybe someone out there can provide the answer for me. Review of REFLECTED GLORY by Sally Bedell Smit

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 20th century female version of the vintage Machiavelli, January 3, 2004

By 

E. Cancelada "ESC" (Portsmouth, NH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Reflected Glory (Paperback)

I have not read such a good biography in a long time. Ms Bedell is neither enamored nor appalled with her subject (a sin that many biographers commit). Her well-researched book has a good balance between the broader historic narrative and the focused portrait of the controversial individual.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing and enthralling account, September 22, 2004

By 

Chris Salzer (Gainesville, GA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Reflected Glory (Paperback)

This biography separates itself from other Pamela Churchill Harriman tomes in that it reads almost like a fiction novel. Some of the salacious and outlandish goings-on seem almost implausible, if not absurdly bizarre. Harriman proves to be the most singularly opportunistic individual that I have read about - possibly ever. Although she does have her good points(although even her philanthropy seems perfunctory at best), Harriman(or should I say Digby, Churchill, or Heyward?) comes across as the most devilishly clever courtesan of the 20th Century.

I recommend this account as one that makes for a most compelling, if not a trifle unnerving, read. From her days as a seductive young debutante to her days as the wily big wheel of Democratic Party fundraising and later as the U.S. Ambassador to France, you'll find yourself intrigued as you read about this incredibly shrewd seductress.