Surviving High Society

To the outside world, Elizabeth Marvin Mulholland had it all. Adopted into a wealthy New England family, the young Elizabeth was afforded the luxury many people only realize in their dreams. She joined her family on lavish European vacations, lived in a finely decorated home, grew up in a world heavily infiltrated by power and money, and hob-knobbed with celebrities. As a close friend of Katherine Hepburn's niece, she gained an inside look into Katherine Hepburn's guarded inner life, which she details in Surviving High Society.

Her real life, however, was not the fantasy it seemed to others. Elizabeth grew up in a volatile household. Her adopted brother attempted to murder her mother and remained estranged in the decades to follow. Her father, who was her strongest ally, died suddenly when she was twenty-two. And, until her death, Elizabeth's mother used all means possible to exert control over her life. Her mother bounced Elizabeth in and out of psychiatric facilities and used her wealth to persuade doctors to keep Elizabeth locked up and medicated. Throughout, Elizabeth struggled to keep the pieces of her life together.

After her mother disinherits Elizabeth, she successfully seeks to find freedom and a life of her own away from her mother s ever-watchful gaze. Her life becomes a life without fantastic riches, filled with its own obstacles and triumphs. But it is now her life.

Born in Chicago to Maxie Fannie Hawthorne and Charles Lynn Terrel, Elizabeth Marvin Mulholland was adopted by Kathryn Caine Marvin and Edwin Waldo Marvin and was brought up in Connecticut. She has also lived in Arizona and Virginia, and now resides in Florida.

Educated at Phillips Andover Academy and Briarcliff College, she was married in 1987 and has one stepson. Active as a volunteer in various political campaigns and hospital work, her interests also include bridge, golf, and anthropology. She has traveled to Scandinavia, Poland, Greece, and throughout greater Europe, as well as the Caribbean, and is a member of the Junior League and the DAR.