Beard, Patricia 1947(?)-

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BEARD, Patricia 1947(?)-

PERSONAL:

Born c. 1947; daughter of Sarinda Dranow; divorced; children: Alex, Hillary.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Dutchess County, New York. Agent—HarperCollins, 10 East 53rd St., New York, NY 10022.

CAREER:

Author and editor. Elle, New York, NY, editor-at-large.

WRITINGS:

(Editor) The Voice of the Wild: An Anthology of Animal Stories, Viking (New York, NY), 1992.

Growing up Republican: Christie Whitman, the Politics of Character, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1996.

Good Daughters: Loving Our Mothers as They Age, Warner Books (New York, NY), 1999.

Class Action, First Publish (Orlando, FL), 2000.

After the Ball: Gilded-Age Secrets, Boardroom Betrayals, and the Party That Ignited the Great Wall Street Scandal of 1905, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2003.

Contributing writer to Town and Country, Mirabella and many other national magazines.

SIDELIGHTS:

Patricia Beard works as editor-at-large for Elle magazine and is a contributor to Town and Country, Mirabella, and other national magazines. Her first book, The Voice of the Wild: An Anthology of Animal Stories, was published in 1992; Beard edited the work and wrote the introduction. It is a collection of nineteen animal stories, both fiction and nonfiction, featuring such renowned writers as Rudyard Kipling, Jack London, Elspeth Huxley, Gavin Maxwell, and Ernest Thompson Seton. The stories are set on a number of different continents and, while many focus on the hunt, they also illuminate lessons learned during the interaction between human and animal. Katherine E. Gillen of Kliatt found the emphasis on hunting stories troublesome, "Readers already sensitive to the plight of animals may find some of the selections off-putting." A reviewer for Publishers Weekly maintained that the anthology "gathers well-created, insightful prose from the best of sources and yet fails to shed light on the themes of wildness it promises to explore."

In 1996 Beard published Growing up Republican: Christie Whitman, the Politics of Character. This work focuses on the life of Christie Whitman, the first female governor of New Jersey, and how Whitman's life has revolved around politics. Her parents were extremely active in GOP fund raising and in 1956, at the age of nine, she attended the Republican convention. Beard suggests that politics were in some ways an inheritance and a destiny for Whitman. Beard worked closely with Whitman on the project and was given access to many pieces of personal information. Wayne Kalyn of People was not satisfied with the content, commenting that "Despite the access, Beard provides few personal insights" and "the woman behind the photo op seems as glossy and two-dimensional as ever." David Greenberg, in the Washington Post, similarly found that "Beard can't evaluate Whitman as a political figure; the author glosses over some of Whitman's most controversial moments without the requisite digging."

Beard moved from politics to family relations when she published Good Daughters: Loving Our Mothers as They Age, In this book she focuses on a challenge that faces many baby boomer females: dealing with their aging mothers. This problem is intensified by the fact that most middle-aged women have full-time jobs and children, and consequently not very much time to properly care for their mothers who require more attention as they age. Further complicating this issue are the tensions and competitions that already exist between mothers and daughters, and the discomfort that occurs when nurturing roles begin to shift. The book combines statistics and research with interviews with real mothers and daughters and their stories. Sheila Devaney wrote in Library Journal that "Beard does a fine job not only describing the situation but also of providing examples to illustrate her work." A reviewer for Publishers Weekly called the book a "valuable, accessible resource."

Beard focuses on financial corruption around the beginning of the twentieth century in After the Ball: Gilded-Age Secrets, Boardroom Betrayals, and the Party That Ignited the Great Wall Street Scandal of 1905. In this volume she follows the rise and fall of James Hazen Hyde who inherited the Equitable Life Assurance Society at his father's death, but despite his efforts could not hold on to it. Hyde was only twenty-three when his father died, and he was given a vice-president position until the age of thirty when he could become president, according to his father's wishes. However, other members of the board were not willing to give up power to a young man who was more interested in parties and carriage racing than business, and who consequently could not demonstrate business savvy. On Januuary 31, 1905, Hyde made a crucial mistake when he sponsored an extremely lavish costume ball. Rumors circulated that he had financed the expensive party with funds intended for the business. Though this was not true, the rumors were enough to ruin Hyde and force him off the board. He fled to France and married a succession of heiresses, while the scandal resulted in stricter laws for businesses. Beard had a personal interest in this story; her ex-husband is the great-grandson of James J. Hill, one of the Equitable Life Assurance Company's board members during the scandal.

Robert Flatley, writing in Library Journal, commended Beard's effort, calling After the Ball "well written and documented." A contributor for Kirkus Reviews concurred, noting that "Beard depicts well the Gilded Age and its spectacular excesses.… Solid storytelling brought to bear on a dusty corner of financial history." However, David Nasaw in the New York Times, found that, "try as she might, Beard never entirely succeeds in folding the larger story of insurance scandals into her biographical study of five years in the life of James Hazen Hyde," adding that "of such a man, great histories are seldom written."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, December 1, 1992, Barbara Duree, review of The Voice of the Wild: An Anthology of Animal Stories, p. 655; June 1, 1996, Mary Carroll and Gilbert Taylor, review of Growing up Republican: Christie Whitman, the Politics of Character, p. 1640; May 1, 1999, Mary Carroll, review of Good Daughters: Loving Our Mothers as They Age, p. 1563; June 1, 2003, Mary Whaley, review of After the Ball: Gilded-Age Secrets, Boardroom Betrayals, and the Party That Ignited the Great Wall Street Scandal of 1905, p. 1718.

Business Week, August 11, 2003, Robert J. Rosenberg, "Living Well Wasn't the Best Revenge," p. 16.

Kirkus Reviews, May 1, 1999, review of Good Daughters, p. 685; May 15, 2003, review of After the Ball, p. 724.

Kliatt, May, 1994, Katherine E. Gillen, review of The Voice of the Wild, p. 24.

Library Journal, April 15, 1999, Sheila Devaney, review of Good Daughters, p. 127; June 15, 2003, Robert Flatley, review of After the Ball, p. 84.

People, August 12, 1996, Wayne Kalyn, review of Growing up Republican, p. 30.

Publishers Weekly, September 21, 1992, review of The Voice of the Wild, p. 74; March 15, 1999, review of Good Daughters, p. 35.

Washington Post, September 8, 1996, David Greenberg, review of Growing up Republican, p. 4.