This was fantastic. I enjoyed it so much.
I just reviewed To the One I Love the Best by Ludwig Bemelmans. #TotheOneILovetheBest #NetGalley
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DID NOT FINISH. felt to juvenile and meandering for my taste. i could see people who enjoy fredrik bachmans lighter works, or some british light hearted fiction would enjoy this.

The title of the book was what got me interest to request this book but i struggled with a lot of questions and a bit of confusion while reading it. This is a memoir written by the authour on his friendship with Elsie de Wolfe in her final years of her life who as we know is regarded as America's first interior designer.

To The One I Love The Best is a clever and endearing book about Elsie de Wolf, the First Lady decorator. The author, Ludwig Bemelmans, writes about his time spent with de Wolf in her later years. De Wolf, also known as mother to those close to her, was an eccentric queen bee who dominated a room but had the respect and admiration of all who crossed her path. From the wealthy socialites in New York, Hollywood and Paris and all places in between she knew and decorated for all the “who’s who” of that time. This was a delightful read I will be thinking about for some time.

This is an interesting, entertaining snapshot of a very specific place and time. What a character “Mother” is! Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I am a huge Bemelmans fan. I could recite Madeleine books to my daughters by heart and had to make a pilgrimage to Bemelman’s Bar at the Hotel Carlyle to see his murals.. This memoir about his friendship with Elsie de Wolfe is written in his typically charming manner. However, I found myself skimming the chapters. I longed for some concrete answers to my questions. Why does Elsie de Wolfe, AKA, Lady Mendl, initially invite Bemelmans, a Hollywood writer at the time, to her home? Why does she refer to herself as Mother? I have many other questions too, but the memoir consists of episodes in their friendship (always entertaining) and de Wolfe’s pronouncements, Still, lines such as “She weighed about ninety pounds without her jewels…” make this memoir worth reading.

I loved Madeline as a child and I love anything to do with Old Hollywood so I knew acquiring this book would be the Percy combination. I am beyond excited to share a full review and thoughts her. I know many people will love this one as much as I do!


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’ 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 ravishing 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 (which refers to de Wolfe’s dog) is a touching tribute to a fabulously funny woman and an American icon.

Be pretty if you can, be witty if you must, but be gracious if it kills you. - Elsie de Wolfe