Alexis: The Memoirs of the Baron de Rede

edited by Hugo Vickers

Privately printed by the Estate of the late Baron de Rede/ Dovecote Press, 2005

The rare memoir, published in a small run at the time of the auction of the Hotel Lambert. A handsomely produced book, 174 pages illustrated throughout (including reproductions of Alexandre Serebriakoff watercolors of the interiors, photographs of the balls and elaborate costumes, society snapshots). Book and dust jacket in very good condition, with only light handling wear.

from the dust jacket flap: Here are the long-awaited, in some cases feared, memoirs of the Baron de Rede, a man who lived his life in the heart of the beau monde, and knew where aristocratic skeletons lie buried. He has written of his traumatic childhood, his courageous lone voyage to the United States, and how he caught the eye and heart of one of Europe's most enigmatic figures,  Arturo Lopez-Willshaw, Joining Lopez in Paris after the war, he took on the restoration of the Hotel Lambert. With Arturo, and indeed with his wife Patricia, he attended or was host to some of the great balls of the age.

Alexis de Rede was never far from the epicentre of high society, and some of the great artistic and social figures of the twentieth century played cameo roles in his life. His friendships were many, and remarkably diverse, including Salvador Dali, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Yves Saint Laurent, Brigitte Bardot, Rudolf Nureyev, Maria Callas, and Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.