In The Woman Who Knew Everyone, Meryl Gordon offers a thorough biography of Perle Mesta, Washington’s colorful, and oft-mocked, “hostess with the mostes’.”

The predominant career hostess when hostessing was still a legitimate career, she really should have a monument in Washington, D.C., where she entertained consequentially for decades, given evocative nicknames like “Perly-Whirly,” “our little pepper-upper,” “the human fireball” — and later, upsettingly, “the old bag of wind.” Nixon, Ford and Carter all argued unsuccessfully to get her on a postage stamp.

But at least there is now The Woman Who Knew Everyone, a proper new biography by the journalist Meryl Gordon, who has made a specialty of moneyed matrons and — after digging through a mound of research, including some very amusing menus — here ushers readers in and out efficiently without lingering hangover. (Her subject was a Christian Scientist who didn’t drink.)

Meryl Gordon is the author of the New York Times bestselling Mrs. Astor Regrets and The Phantom of Fifth Avenue, a Wall Street Journal bestseller. She is an award-winning journalist and a regular contributor to Vanity Fair. She is on the graduate journalism faculty at New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. She is considered an expert on elder abuse and has appeared on NPR, CNN and other outlets whenever there is a high-profile case. Gordon’s latest book is The Woman Who Knew Everyone: The Power of Perle Mesta, Washington’s Most Famous Hostess. Gordon will appear at the 2025 Festival.