From Publishers Weekly
Not surprisingly, it takes an older woman to write a great kiss-and-tell memoir—who else would have enough lovers under her belt? Vanderbilt opens with an appetizer of schoolgirl sex with a chum from Miss Porter's School in the 1930s and then regales readers with a star-studded cast of intimates—Howard Hughes, Leopold Stokowski, Bill Paley, Marlon Brando, Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra, among others. Some were one-night-stands, some torrid affairs; three or four she even married. Romance, after all, is "the search for something else, a renewal and a hope for transformation in life." In her less giddy moments, Vanderbilt considers how some of this relentless love-affairing may have been provoked by an unhappy childhood. She was only 10 when her mother lost custody of her in an infamous public trial; young Gloria was sent to live with cold Aunt Gertrude Whitney. When she was 21 and inheriting her fortune, husband Stokowski persuaded her to cut off financial support for her mother, which alienated mother and daughter for another 20 years. While there's a little venting about men who've swindled her, it's the dishy gossip—Paley chasing her around the sofas in his living room, Truman Capote basing Breakfast at Tiffany's on life at her brownstone—that keeps the pages turning. Even in the last chapter, Vanderbilt's going on about some man who's "the Nijinsky of cunnilingus." Ah, toujours l'amour! Photos. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist
Is this book an heiress-turned-actor tells-all type? Or is it a desire to unburden the mind of memories and stories for the public good? Whatever the motivation, Vanderbilt once again (following Once Upon a Time, 1986, and A Mother's Story, 1997) unleashes her autobiographical instincts in her search for parental love. It's all related in a breathless tone, with not much depth but with a great number of famous names, from Frank Sinatra and Bill Paley to Marlon Brando and the current to-remain-anonymous celebrity. Those addicted to star magazines like People and Us will find Vanderbilt's account a good way to understand a bygone era of glamor. Others might be attracted by the "poor little rich girl" series of romances. Expect some demand for what one might hope is the last in a series. Barbara Jacobs
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Review
Dominick Dunne Gloria Vanderbilt's romance memoir, It Seemed Important at the Time, is, at various points in her extraordinarily famous life, explicitly romantic, wildly revealing, and bravely honest.


Review
Dominick Dunne Gloria Vanderbilt's romance memoir, It Seemed Important at the Time, is, at various points in her extraordinarily famous life, explicitly romantic, wildly revealing, and bravely honest.


Book Description
An elegant, witty, frank, touching, and deeply personal account of the loves both great and fleeting in the life of one of America's most celebrated and fabled women. Born to great wealth yet kept a virtual prisoner by the custody battle that raged between her proper aunt and her self-absorbed, beautiful mother, Gloria Vanderbilt grew up in a special world. Stunningly beautiful herself, yet insecure and with a touch of wildness, she set out at a very early age to find romance. And find it she did. There were love affairs with Howard Hughes, Bill Paley, and Frank Sinatra, to name a few, and one-night stands, which she writes about with delicacy and humor, including one with the young Marlon Brando. There were marriages to men as diverse as Pat De Cicco, who abused her; the legendary conductor Leopold Stokowski, who kept his innermost secrets from her; film director Sidney Lumet; and finally writer Wyatt Cooper, the love of her life. Now, in an irresistible memoir that is at once ruthlessly forthright, supremely stylish, full of fascinating details, and deeply touching, Gloria Vanderbilt writes at last about the subject on which she has hitherto been silent: the men in her life, why she loved them, and what each affair or marriage meant to her. This is the candid and captivating account of a life that has kept gossip writers speculating for years, as well as Gloria's own intimate description of growing up, living, marrying, and loving in the glare of the limelight and becoming, despite a family as famous and wealthy as America has ever produced, not only her own person but an artist, a designer, a businesswoman, and a writer of rare distinction.


Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Chapter One: Romance In romance what do you seek? Something new and Other, although you don't quite know what it is? For me romance is a yearning not fully conscious, but what I find is always the search for something else, a renewal and a hope for transformation. The creative risk-taking of passionate love not only gives you the chance to change the past, it gives the imagination one more chance at an exciting future. Copyright © 2004 by Gloria Vanderbilt

FROM OUR EDITORS

Far from an anemic rehashing of a few bygone flings, Gloria Vanderbilt's "romance memoir" is a vivid, elegant reminiscence that covers a daunting number of one-night stands, affairs, and marriages. "Poor little rich girl" Vanderbilt was born into wealth but became a virtual hostage during her parents' long, well-publicized custody war. Fetchingly beautiful yet insecure and slightly wild, she began her amorous adventures early. Her partners included the rich, the eccentric, and the brilliant: Howard Hughes, Frank Sinatra, William Paley, Leopold Stokowski, Marlon Brando, Gene Kelly, Sidney Lumet, and finally writer Wyatt Cooper, the great love of her life. It Seemed Important at the Time displays both Vanderbilt's gifts as a writer and her acute ability to reflect on her life experience.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

An elegant, witty, frank, touching, and deeply personal account of the loves both great and fleeting in the life of one of America's most celebrated and fabled women. Born to great wealth yet kept a virtual prisoner by the custody battle that raged between her proper aunt and her self-absorbed, beautiful mother, Gloria Vanderbilt grew up in a special world. Stunningly beautiful herself, yet insecure and with a touch of wildness, she set out at a very early age to find romance. And find it she did. There were love affairs with Howard Hughes, Bill Paley, and Frank Sinatra, to name a few, and one-night stands, which she writes about with delicacy and humor, including one with the young Marlon Brando. There were marriages to men as diverse as Pat De Cicco, who abused her; the legendary conductor Leopold Stokowski, who kept his innermost secrets from her; film director Sidney Lumet; and finally writer Wyatt Cooper, the love of her life.

Now, in an irresistible memoir that is at once ruthlessly forthright, supremely stylish, full of fascinating details, and deeply touching, Gloria Vanderbilt writes at last about the subject on which she has hitherto been silent: the men in her life, why she loved them, and what each affair or marriage meant to her. This is the candid and captivating account of a life that has kept gossip writers speculating for years, as well as Gloria's own intimate description of growing up, living, marrying, and loving in the glare of the limelight and becoming, despite a family as famous and wealthy as America has ever produced, not only her own person but an artist, a designer, a business-woman, and a writer of rare distinction.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Not surprisingly, it takes an older woman to write a great kiss-and-tell memoir-who else would have enough lovers under her belt? Vanderbilt opens with an appetizer of schoolgirl sex with a chum from Miss Porter's School in the 1930s and then regales readers with a star-studded cast of intimates-Howard Hughes, Leopold Stokowski, Bill Paley, Marlon Brando, Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra, among others. Some were one-night-stands, some torrid affairs; three or four she even married. Romance, after all, is "the search for something else, a renewal and a hope for transformation in life." In her less giddy moments, Vanderbilt considers how some of this relentless love-affairing may have been provoked by an unhappy childhood. She was only 10 when her mother lost custody of her in an infamous public trial; young Gloria was sent to live with cold Aunt Gertrude Whitney. When she was 21 and inheriting her fortune, husband Stokowski persuaded her to cut off financial support for her mother, which alienated mother and daughter for another 20 years. While there's a little venting about men who've swindled her, it's the dishy gossip-Paley chasing her around the sofas in his living room, Truman Capote basing Breakfast at Tiffany's on life at her brownstone-that keeps the pages turning. Even in the last chapter, Vanderbilt's going on about some man who's "the Nijinsky of cunnilingus." Ah, toujours l'amour! Photos. Agent, Mort Janklow. (Oct.) Forecast: Vanderbilt's memoir is tasty gossip for an older crowd-after all, there're lots of people who couldn't care less about Madonna or Britney but would like to know what it was like to date Howard Hughes. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Vanderbilt (A Mother's Story) has added to her literary oeuvre with what can be described only as musings. Purportedly full of gossip, this slight volume is actually quite discreet and touches only on her four marriages (two were to Leopold Stokowski and Sidney Lumet) and her affairs with Howard Hughes and others (e.g., a much-married photojournalist whom she doesn't name but who is easy to discern). Though she throws in the offhanded zinger, the book lacks the kind of details that gossip mavens really crave. Selective and coy, she hands out advice about sexiness "dinner, squashy apricot roses in a silver vase, on a white linen table lit by candlelight, champagne in fluted crystal, the Ritz in Paris" and fashion (never wear orange). Readers who can relate will love the book. For large public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/04.] Rosellen Brewer, Monterey Cty. Free Libs., Salinas, CA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews