"Men who inherit great wealth are respected, but women who do the same are ridiculed. In The Silver Swan, Sallie Bingham rescues Doris Duke from this gendered prison and shows us just how brave, rebellious, and creative this unique woman really was, and how her generosity benefits us to this day.” ―Gloria Steinem A bold portrait of Doris Duke, the defiant and notorious tobacco heiress who was perhaps the greatest modern woman philanthropist
In The Silver Swan, Sallie Bingham chronicles one of the great underexplored lives of the twentieth century and the very archetype of the modern woman. “Don’t touch that girl, she’ll burn your fingers,” FBI director J. Edgar Hoover once said about Doris Duke, the inheritor of James Buchanan Duke’s billion-dollar tobacco fortune. During her lifetime, she would be blamed for scorching many, including her mother and various ex-lovers. She established her first foundation when she was twenty-one; cultivated friendships with the likes of Jackie Kennedy, Imelda Marcos, and Michael Jackson; flaunted interracial relationships; and adopted a thirty-two year-old woman she believed to be the reincarnation of her deceased daughter. This is also the story of the great houses she inhabited, including the classically proportioned limestone mansion on Fifth Avenue, the sprawling Duke Farms in New Jersey, the Gilded Age mansion Rough Point in Newport, Shangri La in Honolulu, and Falcon’s Lair overlooking Beverly Hills. 
Even though Duke was the subject of constant scrutiny, little beyond the tabloid accounts of her behavior has been publicly known. In 2012, when eight hundred linear feet of her personal papers were made available, Sallie Bingham set out to probe her identity. She found an alluring woman whose life was forged in the Jazz Age, who was not only an early war correspondent but also an environmentalist, a surfer, a collector of Islamic art, a savvy businesswoman who tripled her father’s fortune, and a major philanthropist with wide-ranging passions from dance to historic preservation to human rights. 
In The Silver Swan, Bingham is especially interested in dissecting the stereotypes that have defined Duke’s story while also confronting the disturbing questions that cleave to her legacy.

The Silver Swan: In Search of Doris Duke

Biographies & Memoirs

Bingham, Sallie

Community & Culture

Farrar. Straus and Giroux

A member of the moneyed Bingham family recounts her family's rise to power over several decades and their subsequent downfall amidst family infighting and rumors of a family murder

Passion and Prejudice: A Family Memoir

Historical

Alfred.A. Knopf

The Way It Is Now

Literature & Fiction

VIKING

When Big Tom, a wealthy cousin, decides that Louise's sister, Shelby, should be institutionalized, Louise is determined to oppose him and finds an unexpected ally in Young Tom, her cousin's son

Small Victories

United States

Zoland Books

When Big Tom, a wealthy cousin, decides that Louise's sister, Shelby, should be institutionalized, Louise is determined to oppose him and finds an unexpected ally in Young Tom, her cousin's son

Small Victories: A Novel

Matron of Honor

Preparations for Apple Mason's upcoming wedding are upset when her sister, Cory, returns unexpectedly, leaving behind an unhappy marriage

Matron Of Honor

Preparations for Apple Mason's upcoming wedding are upset when her sister, Cory, returns unexpectedly, leaving behind an unhappy marriage

Discontented with his staid lifestyle, Colby Winn impulsively picks up a hitchhiker, Ann Lee, and falls in love with her over coffee, but the intensity of their relationship brings out the darkest secrets of their similar Southern upbringings. IP.

Straight Man

About the Author\nSallie Bingham is the author of numerous books--most notably her memoir Passion and Prejudice, but also novels, story collections, poetry collections, and several plays produced off-Broadway and regionally. She was book editor for The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky, has been a director of the National Book Critics Circle, and is the founder of The Kentucky Foundation for Women. She has received fellowships from Yaddo, McDowell Colony, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.\n"Men who inherit great wealth are respected, but women who do the same are ridiculed. In The Silver Swan, Sallie Bingham rescues Doris Duke from this gendered prison and shows us just how brave, rebellious, and creative this unique woman really was, and how her generosity benefits us to this day.” ―Gloria Steinem\nA bold portrait of Doris Duke, the defiant and notorious tobacco heiress who was perhaps the greatest modern woman philanthropist\nIn The Silver Swan, Sallie Bingham chronicles one of the great underexplored lives of the twentieth century and the very archetype of the modern woman. “Don’t touch that girl, she’ll burn your fingers,” FBI director J. Edgar Hoover once said about Doris Duke, the inheritor of James Buchanan Duke’s billion-dollar tobacco fortune. During her lifetime, she would be blamed for scorching many, including her mother and various ex-lovers. She established her first foundation when she was twenty-one; cultivated friendships with the likes of Jackie Kennedy, Imelda Marcos, and Michael Jackson; flaunted interracial relationships; and adopted a thirty-two year-old woman she believed to be the reincarnation of her deceased daughter. This is also the story of the great houses she inhabited, including the classically proportioned limestone mansion on Fifth Avenue, the sprawling Duke Farms in New Jersey, the Gilded Age mansion Rough Point in Newport, Shangri La in Honolulu, and Falcon’s Lair overlooking Beverly Hills.\nEven though Duke was the subject of constant scrutiny, little beyond the tabloid accounts of her behavior has been publicly known. In 2012, when eight hundred linear feet of her personal papers were made available, Sallie Bingham set out to probe her identity. She found an alluring woman whose life was forged in the Jazz Age, who was not only an early war correspondent but also an environmentalist, a surfer, a collector of Islamic art, a savvy businesswoman who tripled her father’s fortune, and a major philanthropist with wide-ranging passions from dance to historic preservation to human rights.\nIn The Silver Swan, Bingham is especially interested in dissecting the stereotypes that have defined Duke’s story while also confronting the disturbing questions that cleave to her legacy.

Silver Swan

Picador Paper

“There are many accounts of the Bingham family saga, but no other by someone who was there. For the first time, a gifted writer born into a family of inherited wealth and power takes us with her behind the doors of that patriarchal hothouse. Passion and Prejudice is a major step toward feminist change and democracy. By her courage and example, Sallie Bingham already has inspired women in powerful families to begin to revolt. What is wrongly seen now as a private war will be come the opening skirmish in a high-level revolution.” – Gloria Steinem

Passion and Prejudice: A Family Memoir (Applause Books)

Humor & Entertainment

APPLAUSE BOOKS

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