Mac Griswold's Books

I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise

A Life of Bunny Mellon

By: Mac Griswold

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I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise

A Life of Bunny Mellon

By: Mac Griswold

“I’ll Build a Stairway to Paradise is like an exquisite string of pearls: the perfect balance of elegance, style, design, and beauty. This book is inspiring, spirited, and totally absorbing.” —Diane von Furstenberg The story of Bunny Mellon, the great landscape and interior designer, becomes a revelatory exploration of extreme wealth in the American century. Bunny Mellon, whose life was marked by astonishing good fortune as well as tragedy and scandal, remains a singular figure in the annals of American design. She had her finger on the pulse of American culture and possessed a rare, once-in-a-generation sense of style and grace. Her most celebrated work—the White House Rose Garden, designed during the presidency of John F. Kennedy—demonstrated how formal restraint and the sparing use of color could be deployed to maximal effect. Later, her understated landscape design for the Kennedy grave site at Arlington National Cemetery changed the face of American public memorials. Mellon was a famously private person, and many of her greatest achievements remained concealed from public view. Her rarely seen gardens and domestic interiors at eight different properties on three continents became legends and models. At Oak Spring Farm in Virginia, the bibliographic riches of her Garden Library were twinned with the expansive flowering gardens lying below the Edward Larrabee Barnes–designed building. At her home on Nantucket, she pruned back the landscape to reveal the elemental forms of nature. Mellon also ranked as one of the great art collectors of her era, encouraging her husband Paul to use his family’s vast wealth to acquire hundreds of nineteenth-century French paintings, many of which were donated to the National Gallery of Art. Her own tastes ranged from Mark Rothko to Richard Diebenkorn—in quantity. In I’ll Build a Stairway to Paradise, Mac Griswold—who knew Mellon personally—delves into her subject’s closely guarded personal archives to construct an unrivaled portrait of a woman as complex and multifaceted as the gardens and homes on which she left her mark. Mellon tested the anodyne 1950s model of woman-as-wife-as-mother by getting a divorce, admitting candidly to her first husband that she wanted a richer one. She imperiously traded old friends for new and ultimately used her reputation, her connections, and above all her money to help fund John Edwards’s short-lived presidential campaign. She led an American version of a royal court that, over the years, included Jackie Kennedy, Hubert de Givenchy, and I. M. Pei. How Mellon’s character, style, and taste developed together to produce her greatest accomplishments—private and public—is the real subject of this biography.

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Page Count

389

Publisher

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Published Date

ISBN 10

0374714525

ISBN 13

9780374714529

The Manor: Three Centuries at a Slave Plantation on Long Island

By: Mac Griswold

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The Manor: Three Centuries at a Slave Plantation on Long Island

By: Mac Griswold

In 1984, the landscape historian Mac Griswold was rowing along a Long Island creek when she came upon Sylvester Manor, a stately mansion guarded by hulking boxwoods. When Griswold went inside, she encountered a house full of revelations, including a letter from Thomas Jefferson and--most remarkable and disturbing--what the aged owner, Andrew Fiske, casually called the "slave staircase." This staircase would reveal the extensive but little-known story of Northern slavery, and in 1997 Griswold returned with a team of archaeologists, uncovering a landscape filled with stories. Based on years of research--and voyages that took her as far as West Africa--Griswold has given us both the biography of a place that has witnessed war and reversals in fortune, and the riveting story of the family that has occupied it for three centuries. A fine-grained account and a sweeping drama, The Manor captures American history in all its richness and contradictions.

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Page Count

480

Publisher

Picador

Published Date

ISBN 10

1250050200

ISBN 13

9781250050205

I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise

A Life of Bunny Mellon

By: Mac Griswold

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I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise

A Life of Bunny Mellon

By: Mac Griswold

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Page Count

389

Publisher

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Published Date

ISBN 10

0374714525

ISBN 13

9780374714529

The Manor: Three Centuries at a Slave Plantation on Long Island

By: Mac Griswold

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The Manor: Three Centuries at a Slave Plantation on Long Island

By: Mac Griswold

Mac Griswold's The Manor is the biography of a uniquely American place that has endured through wars great and small, through fortunes won and lost, through histories bright and sinister—and of the family that has lived there since its founding as a Colonial New England slave plantation three and a half centuries ago. In 1984, the landscape historian Mac Griswold was rowing along a Long Island creek when she came upon a stately yellow house and a garden guarded by looming boxwoods. She instantly knew that boxwoods that large—twelve feet tall, fifteen feet wide—had to be hundreds of years old. So, as it happened, was the house: Sylvester Manor had been held in the same family for eleven generations. Formerly encompassing all of Shelter Island, New York, a pearl of 8,000 acres caught between the North and South Forks of Long Island, the manor had dwindled to 243 acres. Still, its hidden vault proved to be full of revelations and treasures, including the 1666 charter for the land, and correspondence from Thomas Jefferson. Most notable was the short and steep flight of steps the family had called the "slave staircase," which would provide clues to the extensive but little-known story of Northern slavery. Alongside a team of archaeologists, Griswold began a dig that would uncover a landscape bursting with stories. Based on years of archival and field research, as well as voyages to Africa, the West Indies, and Europe, The Manor is at once an investigation into forgotten lives and a sweeping drama that captures our history in all its richness and suffering. It is a monumental achievement.

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Page Count

482

Publisher

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Published Date

ISBN 10

1466837012

ISBN 13

9781466837010

The Supreme Court

By: Ruadhán Mac Cormaic

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The Supreme Court

By: Ruadhán Mac Cormaic

A wonderful book ... a superb book and it's not just for people interested in law; it tells you a lot about Ireland' Vincent Browne, TV3 The judges, the decisions, the rifts and the rivalries - the gripping inside story of the institution that has shaped Ireland. 'Combines painstaking research with acute analysis and intelligence' Colm Tóibín, Irish Times' Books of the Year '[Mac Cormaic] has done something unprecedented and done it with a striking maturity, balance and adroitness. He creates the intimacy necessary but never loses sight of the wider contexts; this is not just a book about legal history; it is also about social, political and cultural history ... [the Supreme Court] has found a brilliant chronicler in Ruadhan Mac Cormaic' Diarmaid Ferriter, Professor of Modern Irish History, UCD 'Mac Cormaic quite brilliantly tells the story ... balanced, perceptive and fair ... a major contribution to public understanding' Donncha O'Connell, Professor of Law, NUIG, Dublin Review of Books 'Compelling ... a remarkable story, told with great style' Irish Times 'Authoritative, well-written and highly entertaining' Sunday Times The work of the Supreme Court is at the heart of the private and public life of the nation. Whether it's a father trying to overturn his child's adoption, a woman asserting her right to control her fertility, republicans fighting extradition, political activists demanding an equal hearing in the media, women looking to serve on juries, the state attempting to prevent a teenager ending her pregnancy, a couple challenging the tax laws, a gay man fighting his criminalization simply for being gay, a disabled young man and his mother seeking to vindicate his right to an education, the court's decisions can change lives. Now, having had unprecedented access to a vast number of sources, and conducted hundreds of interviews, including with key insiders, award-winning Irish Times journalist Ruadhan Mac Cormaic lifts the veil on the court's hidden world. The Supreme Court reveals new and surprising information about well-known cases. It exposes the sometimes fractious relationship between the court and the government. But above all it tells a story about people - those who brought the cases, those who argued in court, those who dealt with the fallout and, above all, those who took the decisions. Judges' backgrounds and relationships, their politics and temperaments, as well as the internal tensions between them, are vital to understanding how the court works and are explored here in fascinating detail. The Supreme Court is both a riveting read and an important and revealing account of one of the most powerful institutions of our state. Ruadhan Mac Cormaic is the former Legal Affairs Correspondent and Paris Correspondent of the Irish Times. He is now the paper's Foreign Affairs Correspondent.

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Page Count

536

Publisher

Penguin UK

Published Date

ISBN 10

1844883418

ISBN 13

9781844883417

Washington's Gardens at Mount Vernon

Landscape of the Inner Man

By: Mac K. Griswold

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Washington's Gardens at Mount Vernon

Landscape of the Inner Man

By: Mac K. Griswold

For both gardeners and early American history buffs, this book documents the unknown George Washington: landscaper, farmer, and gardener of Mount Vernon. 156 color photos. 30 illustrations.

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Page Count

204

Publisher

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Published Date

ISBN 10

0395929709

ISBN 13

9780395929704

Fundamentals of Soil Ecology

By: David C. Coleman,Mac A. Callaham,D. A. Crossley Jr.

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Fundamentals of Soil Ecology

By: David C. Coleman,Mac A. Callaham,D. A. Crossley Jr.

Fundamentals of Soil Ecology, 3rd Edition, offers a holistic approach to soil biology and ecosystem function, providing students and ecosystem researchers with a greater understanding of the central roles that soils play in ecosystem development and function. The text emphasizes the increasing importance of soils as the organizing center for all terrestrial ecosystems and provides an overview of theory and practice in soil ecology, both from an ecosystem and evolutionary biology point of view. This new edition is fully updated, including an expanded treatment of microbial ecology and new sections on advances in molecular techniques and climate change research. These updates make this edition an essential resource for researchers and students in soil ecology and microbiology. - Includes extensive tables and diagrams in full color to enhance concepts - Combines theoretical and practical approaches to understanding and applying soil ecology - Outlines suggested laboratory and field methods

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Page Count

379

Publisher

Academic Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

012805252X

ISBN 13

9780128052525

Biographical Dictionary

By: Mac Guckin Slane

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Biographical Dictionary

By: Mac Guckin Slane

Reprint of the original, first published in 1842.

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Page Count

450

Publisher

BoD – Books on Demand

Published Date

ISBN 10

3385130042

ISBN 13

9783385130043

Washington's Gardens at Mount Vernon

Landscape of the Inner Man

By: Mac K. Griswold

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Washington's Gardens at Mount Vernon

Landscape of the Inner Man

By: Mac K. Griswold

For both gardeners and early American history buffs, this book documents the unknown George Washington: landscaper, farmer, and gardener of Mount Vernon. 156 color photos. 30 illustrations.

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Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

204

Publisher

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Published Date

ISBN 10

0395929709

ISBN 13

9780395929704

Book's by Mac Griswold

I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise

I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise

The Manor: Three Centuries at a Slave Plantation on Long Island

The Manor: Three Centuries at a Slave Plantation on Long Island

I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise

I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise

The Manor: Three Centuries at a Slave Plantation on Long Island

The Manor: Three Centuries at a Slave Plantation on Long Island

The Supreme Court

The Supreme Court

Washington's Gardens at Mount Vernon

Washington's Gardens at Mount Vernon

Fundamentals of Soil Ecology

Fundamentals of Soil Ecology

Biographical Dictionary

Biographical Dictionary

Washington's Gardens at Mount Vernon

Washington's Gardens at Mount Vernon

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