author
Ward McAllister
1827–1895
A vivid figure of America’s Gilded Age, he became famous for defining who belonged in New York’s highest social circle. Best remembered for "the Four Hundred," he mixed charm, publicity, and strict social rules in a way that made him both influential and controversial.
1 Audiobook
Society as I Have Found It
by Ward McAllister
About the author
Born in Savannah, Georgia, in 1827, Ward McAllister was trained as a lawyer before becoming far better known as a social leader than as an attorney. After time in California and Europe, he settled in New York and rose to prominence as a tastemaker during the Gilded Age.
McAllister built his reputation as an arbiter of manners, dinners, balls, and invitations, and he was closely associated with Mrs. Astor and the world of old New York society. He is most often linked with the phrase "the Four Hundred," his famous shorthand for the small group he considered the core of fashionable New York.
His love of publicity eventually hurt the position that had made him famous. In later life he published Society as I Have Found It, a book that helped turn many society figures against him, and he died in 1895. Today he remains one of the best-known symbols of the exclusiveness and performance of Gilded Age social life.