An American aristocrat--a descendant of founding father John Jay--Susan Mary Alsop (1918-2004) knew absolutely everyone and brought together the movers and shakers of not just the United States, but the world. Henry Kissinger remarked that more agreements were concluded in her living room than in the White House. In 1945 Susan Mary joined her first husband, a young diplomat, in Paris, where she was at the center of the postwar diplomatic social circuit, dining with Churchill, FDR, Garbo, and many others. Widowed in 1960, she married journalist and power broker Joe Alsop. Dubbed "the Second Lady of Camelot," Susan Mary hosted dinner parties that were the epitome of political power and social arrival. She reigned over Georgetown society for four decades; her house was the gathering place for everyone of importance, from John F. Kennedy to Katharine Graham. After divorcing Alsop, she embarked on a literary career, publishing four books before her death at 86.--From publisher description.