To the One I Love the Best

Written by Ludwig Bemelmans

Narrated by David de Vries

A witty and charming account of the wildly entertaining Elsie de Wolfe in 1950s Hollywood, recounted by her dear friend, the beloved creator of Madeline.

Ludwig Bemelmans's charming intergenerational friendship with the late-in-life "First Lady of Interior Decoration" provides an enormously enjoyable nostalgia trip to the sun-soaked glamour of Los Angeles, where de Wolfe surrounded herself with classic movie stars and a luminous parade of life's oddities.

With hilarity and mischief that de Wolfe would no doubt approve, To the One I Love the Best lifts the curtain on 1950s Hollywood-a bygone world of extravagance and eccentricity, where the parties are held in circus tents and populated by movie stars.

Bemelmans, who was working at MGM, had originally come to the California home of de Wolfe just for cocktails, but by the end of the night, he was firmly established as a member of the family: given a bedroom in their sumptuous house, invitations to the most outrageous parties in Hollywood, and the friendship of the larger-than-life woman known to her closest friends simply as "Mother."

To the One I Love the Best is a touching tribute to a fabulously funny woman and an American icon.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Dec 26, 2023
• ISBN: 9798350837100

Ludwig Bemelmans

Nació en 1898 en Merano, una ciudad de Austria- Hungría que actualmente pertenece a Italia. Pasó toda su infancia en hoteles, lo que él mismo definió como una vida muy solitaria. En 1914 emigró a Nueva York, donde trabajó quince años en el sector hotelero antes de convertirse en ilustrador y escritor a tiempo completo. Fue guionista de la Metro Goldwyn Mayer, y son conocidas las numerosas portadas que dibujó para el New Yorker y Town and Country. Hoy en día se lo recuerda principalmente por la serie de libros infantiles protagonizados por la niña Madeline, que publicó entre 1939 y 1961. Murió en Nueva York en 1962.