Cecil Beaton

"Cecil Beaton was one of the great twentieth-century tastemakers. A photographer, artist, writer and designer for more than fifty years, he was at the center of the worlds of fashion, society, theater and film. The Unexpurgated Beaton brings together for the first time the never-before-published diaries from 1970 to 1980 and, unlike the six slim volumes of diaries published during his lifetime, these have been left uniquely unedited." "Here is the photographer for British and American Vogue, designer of the sets and costumes for the play and film My Fair Lady and the film Gigi, with a cast of characters from many worlds: Bianca Jagger, Greta Garbo, David Hockney, Truman Capote, the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret, Mae West, Elizabeth Taylor, Marlene Dietrich, Rose Kennedy and assorted Rothschilds, Phippses and Wrightsmans. In New York, San Francisco, Palm Beach, Rio and Greece, on the Amalfi coast; at shooting parties in the English countryside, on yachts, at garden parties at Buckingham Palace, at costume balls in Venice, Paris or London."--Jacket.

"Cecil Beaton was one of the 20th century's most important photographers, and now for the first time ever, Assouline presents his private scrapbooks—personal collections of the man who helped invent the cult of personality."--Publisher's description.

Experiences of the author in the Near East prior to the fall of Tobruk and the retreat to El Alamein. See Introduction.

These memories of the immediate postwar years present a vibrant portrait of Greta Garbo, with whom Beaton had a unique and intense relationship, and a brilliant view of the world of celebrated artists, writers, politicians, and others of that time period.

A fictitious memoir written and illustrated with drawings and photographs by Cecil Beaton. Elsa Maxwell served as the model in the photographic portraits of the Count.