Selected Books

  • Face the Music, A Memoir
    Doubleday

    Available in hardcover, paperback, ebook & audiobook at Amazon.com Nook, hardcover & paperback at Barnes and Noble.com, Books-a-Million.com, Bookshop.org, Indiebound.com, Hudson Booksellers.com, and local bookstores. Click to buy.

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    Face the Music, A Memoir, written by the internationally famous bandleader Peter Duchin with co-author Patricia Beard is a poignant reflection on family, a bygone era of glamour, and a stroke that almost stopped the clock. A frank, philosophical and often humorous portrait of an extraordinary life, its disruptions and revitalization, Face the Music is wise and witty, a unique view of personal and social history from on and off the bandstand.

    Face the Music is Patricia Beard’s first collaboration.

    Peter Duchin and Patricia Beard at work in the fall of 2020, after Peter was released from the hospital after suffering a near-fatal case of Covid-19
    Peter Duchin and Patricia Beard at work during Peter’s recovery from a near-fatal case of Covid-19

    Peter Duchin’s six decades of performing have taken him to the most exclusive dance floors and concert halls in the world. He has played for presidents, kings and queens, as well as for civil rights and cultural organizations. But in 2013, he suffered a severe stroke. During a long and arduous rehabilitation, he began to reconsider his complicated past.

    He began with his parents. His father, the legendary pianist and bandleader, died when Peter was twelve; his socialite mother, Marjorie Oelrichs Duchin, died six days after Peter was born. Until he was nine years old, as his father traveled with his band, then served with distinction in the Navy, he was brought up by the diplomat, ambassador and New York governor Averell Harriman and his wife, Marie.

    (A moving—if not entirely accurate—version of Eddy and Marjorie’s headline romance and marriage and Peter’s early life is presented in the 1956 movie, The Eddy Duchin Story, a classic favorite.)

    Peter followed his father to become the epitome of mid-20th Century glamour, and in Face the Music, he continues his post-stroke exploration by describing the rarified nightlife he knows so well, as seen with his new perspective. Offering a window into an era of debutantes and white-tie balls, Face the Music explores what glamour and Society once meant, and what they mean now. His observations are enriched by his understanding of the privileged world in which he is both an entertainer and a member.

    In March 2020, Face the Music came to a halt, as Peter fought a life-threatening case of Covid-19. Sedated and intubated for forty-seven days, his chances of surviving were so slim that a rumor circulated that he had died. He beat the odds, and while he was still in the hospital, he and Patricia Beard began again. Within a year after the virus struck, the book was ready to go out into the world.

    Photographs from Peter’s personal collection and iconic images by such famous photographers as Horst P. Horst and Cecil Beaton illustrate a moving and beautifully designed book:

    Praise from author Adriana Trigiani, pianist and singer Michael Feinstein, authors Deborah Davis, Peter Godwin and Philip K. Howard:

    “It would be a glorious wedding day in Waterford, Virginia, but the prop jet carrying the orchestra could not land in the morning fog. Suddenly, on the hilltop, a miracle! The bandleader, Peter Duchin, flanked by his orchestra appeared in the mist like The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. They wore snappy tuxedos, their bowties loose like lariats. Duchin had his jacket slung over his shoulder on the crook of his finger. Nonchalance embodied!

    Face the Music is a memoir by the maestro who accompanied Sinatra, played Capote’s Black and White Ball, and entertained presidents. An outsider with a gift for inclusion, Duchin is equally at ease chatting with royalty or taking a meal in the hotel kitchen with the staff. Wherever he plays, Duchin owns the joint. This is the story of how a stroke temporarily stopped the music, a broken heart led to a redeemed one, and the colorful characters who make his life a shimmering work of art also helped him heal. Written with the gifted Patricia Beard, this is a book for anyone who seeks strength, redemption and wisdom. Candor and wit are the ebony and ivory of this splendid read. Duchin never gives up because there’s always the next gig. Hallelujah!” —Adriana Trigiani, New York Times bestselling author of The Shoemaker’s Wife.

    “There are so many reasons to admire Peter Duchin and his moving memoir. It’s a victorious celebration of life filled with marquee names and stories, radioactive in their resonance. He knows how to live!”—Michael Feinstein, singer, pianist and founder of The Great American Songbook Foundation.

    “Peter Duchin’s eloquent meditation on his remarkable life hits all the right notes. A bewitching combination of wit and wisdom, heart and soul, and a story that touches and entertains, the book is captivating from start to finish. I didn’t want it to end!”—Deborah Davis, author of Party of the Century: The Fabulous Story of Truman Capote and His Black and White Ball.

    “In person, Peter Duchin lights up a room. His book is similarly luminous. Recounted with his signature charm, Face the Music thrums with humor, brio and intelligence.”—Peter Godwin, author of Mukiwa and When A Crocodile Eats the Sun.

    “Inspiring and beautifully written.  A journey through the highs and lows of a brilliant career, twice interrupted by life-threatening illnesses, which he overcame to return to the bandstand. What perils and triumphs! What a life!”—Philip Howard, New York Times bestselling author of The Death of Common Sense.

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  • Blue Blood and Mutiny:
    The Fight for the Soul of Morgan Stanley
    William Morrow
    Blue Blood and Mutiny: <br><span>The Fight for the Soul of Morgan Stanley</span>

    Blue Blood & Mutiny, book jacketBlood Blood & Mutiny is the first and only book about the venerable Wall Street firm, founded in 1935. Patricia Beard was given exclusive access to the dramatic story of the fight by eight retired senior executives, known as “The Group of Eight” (and alternatively “The Grumpy Old Men.”) Their mission was to oust Philip Purcell, the chairman and CEO of Morgan Stanley, whom they believed was undermining the culture of the firm and negatively affecting its share price. The “eight” included former chairman, S. Parker Gilbert; former president, Robert Scott; and former heads of major divisions of the firm. Their successful revolt signaled a clash of cultures and a battle for character in American business.

    Samuel L. Hayes, III, Jacob Schiff Professor of Investment Banking Emeritus, Harvard Business School— “I really enjoyed reading Blue Blood & Mutiny and found it hard to put down. It is an excellent chronicle of an important event in the contemporary evolution of Wall Street. Patricia Beard writes as though she has spent her whole life on Wall Street. Congratulations to her!”

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  • After The Ball: Gilded Age Secrets, Boardroom Betrayals, and the Party that Ignited the Great Wall Street Scandal of 1905
    HarperCollins
    After The Ball: <span>Gilded Age Secrets, Boardroom Betrayals, and the Party that Ignited the Great Wall Street Scandal of 1905</span>

    After The Ball: Gilded Age Secrets, Boardroom Betrayals, and the Party That Ignited the Great Wall St. Scandal of 1905When James Hazen Hyde, only two years out of Harvard, inherited the controlling shares of the powerful Equitable Life Assurance Society, a cast of powerhouse businessmen, including Henry Clay Frick and Edward Harriman, attempted to wrest the company away from him. Hyde was smart, but too young for the job, and had an extravagant social profile. In 1905, when he held “The Hyde Ball,” one of the most famous parties of the Gilded Age, his opponents seized on the lavish evening to prove that he wasn’t fit to head the Equitable. The fight was covered daily for three months in newspapers nationwide, right up to the cliff-hanger climax. His complex and arresting character invites the reader to consider the effects of what Hyde admitted was “too much, too soon.”

    The Wall Street Journal— “A mother lode of stories about the bad behavior of people with bathtubs full of money…brightly written.”

    The New York Times— “After the Ball travels effortlessly from James Hyde’s time to our own…A colorful new book.”

    USA Today— “Wonderfully foreboding…exactly on pitch…a textured and compelling tragedy.”

    Dallas Morning News— “A sweeping, brilliant, piece of social history.”

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  • Newsmaker: Roy W. Howard the Mastermind Behind the Scripps‑Howard News Empire from the Gilded Age to the Atomic Age
    Lyons Press

    Newsmaker: Roy W. Howard, The Mastermind behind the Scripps-Howard News Empire from the Gilded Age to the Atomic AgeThe colorful, charismatic Roy Howard, publisher and journalist, was in his twenties when he built the United Press. In his thirties, he was named chairman of the Scripps-Howard newspaper empire, where he established and edited the company’s flagship paper, The New York World Telegram. Traveling 2.5 million miles in search of news, he scored one-on-one interviews with Stalin and Hitler during the same week in 1936; consulted the Duke of Windsor about his public image; consoled the grieving Charles Lindberg; and counseled every U.S. president from Woodrow Wilson to Dwight D. Eisenhower. Two weeks before the atomic bomb was dropped, General Douglas MacArthur trusted him with the classified information that the face of warfare was about to change forever. At the peak of his career, Howard, who had worked as a newsboy to help support his family, was named one of “59 Men Who ‘Rule’ America” by The New York Times (John D. Rockefeller was first.) Newsmaker is based on Patricia Beard’s exclusive access to fifty years of Howard’s personal diaries, and thousands of pages of his “Strictly Confidential” memoranda, which divulge the backstories of the most significant events and personalities of his turbulent times.

    Newsmaker was praised by the President and Dean of the Newseum in Washington, D.C.; the Dean of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University; and the Washington enterprise editor of USA Today.

    Kirkus Reviews—”A lively history of one man’s indelible imprint on American news.”

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  • Good Daughters:
    The Last Chapter
    Warner Books, Updated and revised.
    Good Daughters: <br />The Last Chapter

    Good Daughters: The Last ChapterDaughters whose mothers are showing signs of aging, and need more attention often suffer emotional and financial issues, as well as conflicting responsibilities. Many relationships between aging mothers and their daughters also reawaken old conflicts. Good Daughters is based on hundreds of interviews, spanning the daughter who is so close to her mother that she fears losing her; to the mother who is so toxic a daughter must “divorce” her to keep her own life on track. Good Daughters helps women put a complicated stage of their relationships into context, and reminds them that they are not alone, through the stories of others coping with similar situations.

    Horace B. Deets, former Executive Director AARP— “Fascinating and informative…a valuable resource…a book I highly recommend.”

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  • A Certain Summer: A Novel
    Gallery Books, Simon & Schuster

    Set in 1948 in “Wauregan,” an idyllic East Coast summer community, A Certain Summer explores the aftermath of World War II in a place where “nothing ever changes.” The principal character is Helen Wadsworth, the wife (or possibly widow) of an OSS operative, who has been reported missing in action; other major characters are Helen’s husband’s OSS partner, who survived the mission; a former Marine and his war dog; and Helen’s teenage son. Bookreporter.com described the novel as… “Part mystery, part love story, enlivened by an insider’s view of a private world, A Certain Summer hits home…A really satisfying read…I’m crazy about A Certain Summer.”

    The East Hampton Star— “Equal parts novel of manners, historical fiction and quiet examination of social mores, A Certain Summer weaves important questions about class, gender, trauma, and family through its seemingly simple narrative as artfully as an experienced hostess arranges the seating at a dinner table so that conversations flow…Wauregan’s magic prevails…as [the community] learns that it must change to stay true to its origins.”

    Publishers Weekly— “Woven into this tale of loss and romance are themes of intrigue, growth, betrayal, psychological trauma, and a fulfilling healing process. Beard’s attention to historical details and understanding of the realities and shortfalls of privilege make this a satisfying…read.”

    Goodreads— “A richly evocative debut novel…”

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