“The very act of accepting her position at Mademoiselle was an act of open defiance against Dick Norton, his entire family, and the gendered expectations of midcentury America.” — Elizabeth Winder Copy Share Image
“Sylvia would have taken it seriously- so strong was her devotion to the innate intelligence of form. Those pretty tools like glue and pens, pasting together look-books – for Sylvia it would have been like toy making or arranging jewels.… — Elizabeth Winder Copy Share Image
“I've lived long enough to know that life doesn't always stick to the rules...The perfectly impossible and absolutely ridiculous keep happening all the time.” — Elizabeth Winder Copy Share
“I suppose that was an example of close attention to detail that is common to writers and artists. It is imperative, whether consciously or… — Elizabeth Winder Copy Share
“The serious Sylvia was agonizing over the execution of the Rosenbergs and McCarthyism; others were delighting to dream over trousseau lingerie at Vanity Fair's… — Elizabeth Winder Copy Share
“When I was doing the Mademoiselle application my husband would peer over my shoulder and say, "What are you doing competing with the best… — Elizabeth Winder Copy Share
“It was in this atmosphere of boozy wistfulness and dizzy exhaustion that Sylvia- along with Carol LeVarn- took her suitcase to the Barbizon roof… — Elizabeth Winder Copy Share
“Life is amazingly simplified,” she wrote in her journal, “now that the recalcitrant forsythia has at last decided to come and blurt out springtime… — Elizabeth Winder Copy Share
“New York is unruly, tangled. The city woos first, then mangles, then pastes back together in a fresh, dazzling mosaic.” — Elizabeth Winder Copy Share
“However vivid they might be, past images and future delights did not protect Sylvia from the present, which "rules despotic over pale shadows of… — Elizabeth Winder Copy Share
“With headlines like "Marry Now or Never," the specter of marriage loomed. It was a constant fear, a threat, a reminder. But Sylvia wasn't… — Elizabeth Winder Copy Share
“That none discussed their doubts, that they assumed everyone else was just having a grand time of it and felt at ease and enjoying… — Elizabeth Winder Copy Share
“This is the story of an electrically alive young woman on the brink of her adult life. An artist equally attuned to the light… — Elizabeth Winder Copy Share
“It is perhaps fortunate that Sylvia was oblivious to the commotion behind the scenes. Apparently, Henry O. Teltscher had written a letter to Betsy… — Elizabeth Winder Copy Share
“We knew she [Sylvia] was unusual, because of the seriousness with which she was treated, the lofty importance of her job as guest managing… — Elizabeth Winder Copy Share
“Life happens so fast and furiously that there is hardly any time to assimilate it.” — Elizabeth Winder Copy Share
