Searching for Beauty - by Cherie Burns (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"Burns makes it abundantly clear . . . they just don't make heiresses like Millicent Rogers anymore." --Hampton Sides

Nobody knew how to live the high life like Standard Oil heiress Millicent Rogers. Born to luxury, she lived in a whirl of European vacations, exquisite clothing, and dashing men.

In Searching for Beauty, Cherie Burns chronicles Rogers's rebellious life from her days as a young girl afflicted with rheumatic fever to her final days as one of the legendary chatelaines of New Mexico. She eloped with a penniless baron; danced tangos in European nightclubs; romanced Roald Dahl, Secretary of Defense James Forrestal, and Hollywood icon Clark Gable; and triumphed in the world of fashion. She was muse to legendary American designer Charles James, appeared in Vogue and Harper's Bazaar and popularized Southwestern style by adopting turquoise jewelry, squaw skirts and short-waist jackets as her signature look.

With Searching for Beauty, Millicent Rogers enters the pantheon of great American women who, like Diana Vreeland and Babe Paley, put their distinctive stamp on American style.

Review Quotes

"Millicent Rogers is truly an American Legend and Cherie Burns has finally given us a wonderful biography about her!" --Diane Von Furstenberg

"What a fabulous life! Rogers was an American original who charged through her wildly varied career with coruscating originality and maximum style. Hers was a high-wire act of glamour, art, philanthropy, and rapier smarts. With this fine biography, Cherie Burns makes it abundantly clear that, in our sorry age of Paris Hilton brats, they just don't make heiresses like Millicent Rogers anymore." --Hampton Sides, bestselling author of "Blood and Thunder"

"Cheri Burns has given us a glittering tale of Millicent Rogers, one of the most glamorous women of the twentieth century. Anyone who is interested in the annals of high society will be fascinated with this book. Burns has reached far beyond the gossip of how the very rich live and produced an intimate and deeply personal view of Millicent Rogers, her family and her unending search for love and beauty." --Adam Lewis, author of The Great Lady Decorators, Billy Baldwin, Albert Hadley and Van Day Truex

"Standard oil heiress and fashion icon Millicent Rogers, a beauty who traveled with thirty-five suitcases and seven dachshunds, made headlines throughout her life for her famous romances and influence as a style-setter. Cherie Burns has written a page-turning tale of a society rebel." --Meryl Gordon, author of Mrs. Astor Regrets

About the Author

CHERIE BURNS is author of The Great Hurricane: 1938. Her work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, People, and Glamour, among others. She lives in Taos, New Mexico.