THE AUTHOR AND HER BOOK

Lois Barbara Wilson, who has been consultant to approximately 75000 brides in the past 20 years, was born in Kansas City, Mo., June 1, 1909. After graduation from the University of Missouri's School of Nursing with a B.S. degree, she practiced for two years as a graduate nurse in the St. Louis Children's Hospital and then returned to the University for further study. For six years she was well known as a fashion model for one of Kansas City's leading specialty shops. In 1939 she moved to New York City, selling at Russeks, and in 1940 became a bridal consultant for Saks Fifth Avenue. She joined The Tailored Woman shop in 1942 as wedding gown buyer and bridal consultant. She has staged and executed bridal fashion shows at many of New York's hotels and has made fre­quent appearances on the radio program, "So You're Going To Be Mar­ried." In 1947 she went to Hawaii where she operated her own wedding counsel service for both Orientals and Occidentals, and began her pro­fessional writing career with a bi-weekly column, "Busy Being a Bride," for the Star Bulletin in Honolulu. The column has also appeared in the Toronto Star and is currently featured in El Mundo of San Juan, Puerto Rico. When she returned to the United States, she established a wedding counselor service in New York and in 1952 was appointed by Modern Bride magazine to serve on their Board of Bridal Consultants, a position which she still maintains. In 1953 she returned to Saks Fifth Avenue to be in charge of that store's wedding departments throughout the country. She is at present with The Tailored Woman acting as bridal director, buying wedding and bridesmaid gowns, and "babying brides" by giving expert advice from her long years of varied experience. She is occasional lecturer and consultant at the New York Herald Tribune's Brides' School. Her most "fascinating interest" is her husband, Gene, whom she married in 1939 in Kansas City, and about her own marriage plans she says, "Everything that I now advise as correct procedure happened to us backwards!" The Wilsons make their home in New York City. The Women's Feature staff of the New York Herald Tribune, under the editorship of Eugenia Sheppard, has sparked the success of the Brides' School since its inception eight years ago. Miss Sheppard, a native of Columbus, O,, and a graduate of Bryn Mawr College, started her career at the Herald Tribune in 1940 when she edited the home furnishings section of the newspaper. She became editor of the women's page in 1949 and writes the "Inside Fashion" column three times a week. She and the Brides' School staff annually conduct six co-educational sessions during February and March for prospective brides and their fiances. With a capacity crowd of 800 in attendance, the programs feature Herald Tribune members and invited experts in the particular field under dis­cussion, who lecture on such varied subjects as furnishings and decora­tion, new appliances for the homemaker, entertaining at home, bridal and trousseau fashions for both men and women, family finances and relationships, and the preparation of foods and menus.

HAWTHORN BOOKS, INC.

The Brides' School Complete Book of Engagement and Wedding Etiquette (Hawthorn, 1959) was designed by Sidney Feinberg and com­pletely manufactured by American Book-Stratford Press, Inc. The body type was set on the Linotype in Baskerville, a modern reproduction of the type cut in 176o by John Baskerville, of Birmingham, England, reflecting the style of stone inscriptions.