from the archives

Richard Williams has managed to make it to Oklahoma City—he drove from Florida in his black Montero—and the family practice sessions are models of decorum. Every few minutes Richard hugs one of his daughters: “That’s great, Venus. That’s terrific.” “I love you, Serena. You’re a great daughter.” In between, he is a bit tougher: “That’s … Read more

“Hell on Wheels: A Beginner at 50,” by Hamish Bowles, was originally published in the August 2013 issue of Vogue. I have been toying for some time now with the idea of Learning to Drive. Actually, I have been toying with the idea for two decades. Make that three: How time flies. But I am … Read more

Cloqué turnout, right. Billowing white coat with full, shirt-banded sleeves; navy-topped dress gathered under a satin sash. By David Kidd for Jablow, of Hurel cotton; to order. Hat: Bonwit Teller. Photographed on the roof of the Palacio Güell; through the tiny beaked windows of its cupola, sun flickers into the main hall, like starlight in … Read more

Mike Todd, the flamboyant, street-tough producer of Around the World in 80 Days, was Taylor’s third husband and, by her account, first great love. They married in 1957 when she was twenty-four, he fifty. “It was fantastic,” she says. “I felt like I’d come home; no, I felt like I’d found home.” That distinction between … Read more

It was soon clear that nothing did, Mary-Ann-wise. Although she brightened when my partner said he had gone to Harvard (“We once had another very bright contestant; not only was he a graduate of Harvard,” and here she paused meaningfully, “but he also worked for BBDO.”), I could offer no such gimmick. With the delicate … Read more

I once knew an eight-year-old named Martha who wrote stories, unexceptional in every way except one: the heroine of each was a nightclub singer, Sandra, whose life was complicated by the constant threat of blackmail. In some stories Sandra was blackmailed by a shadowy Syndicate, in others by her estranged husband (“Mark,” a déclassé Fed); … Read more