Myra McPherson’s ‘Scarlet Sisters’ Feted


Red boas were sported at the Cosmos Club March 4, as William Dunlap, Linda Burgess and publisher Twelve Books hosted a celebration of Myra MacPherson’s latest book, “The Scarlet Sisters: Sex, Suffrage and Scandal in the Gilded Age,” which chronicles the notorious Victoria Claflin Woodhull and Tennessee Clafin. The honoree thanked “the women who brought us to the second floor and even became members” of the Cosmos Club in the 1980s, perhaps less in recognition of their merits than the club’s fear of losing its liquor license. McPherson’s son Michael Siebert spoke proudly of his mother’s accomplishments. The party’s guest list was a Who’s Who of Washington journalists.

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