Book Review: "The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post" by Allison Pataki

Cereal has become a staple item in many Americans' breakfasts, but few know the story behind Post cereal and its rise to become one of America's favorite cereal brands and a leader in food manufacturing.

The company's founder, C.W. Post, found the inspiration to create his first product, Postum, during his stay at the Battle Creek Sanitorium. 

The sanitorium's owner, John Harvey Kellogg, created a healthy menu of grain and coffee-based foods for his patients, including C.W. Post. Kellogg was the brother of Will Keith Kellogg, the founder of the Kellogg Cereal Company, and accused Post of stealing his recipes to create the Post lines of products in 1895. C.W.'s daughter, Marjorie Merriweather Post, grew up watching her father build a multi-million company before becoming the head of the company at 27 years old after her father committed suicide.

Author Allision Pataki spends the first few chapters of The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post providing a mini-biography of C.W. Post and a brief history of the Post company to set up Marjorie Merriweather Post as more than just the Post heiress who inherited a thriving company but as a shrewd businesswoman. The rest of the book weaves a fictionalized biography of Marjorie Merriweather Post that will leave readers saying every few pages, saying, "Wow, I didn't know that Marjorie Merriweather Post was involved in that." Pataki proves that Marjorie Merriweather Post did live many magnificent lives complete with four marriages, business acquisitions, diplomatic intrigue, and architectural achievements, including building Mar-a-Lago. 

If you like this book, you might also try the following:

Famous African American jazz singer Josephine Baker became a spy during World War Ⅱ when the Nazis banned her from performing onstage in Europe. Discover this overlooked aspect of her life in Damien Lewis' Agent Josephine: American Beauty, French Hero, British Spy. Marie Benedict's Her Hidden Genius illuminates the story of Rosalind Franklin, a pioneer in DNA research. Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray wrote The Personal Librarian, about Belle da Costa Greene, an African American librarian who passed as white while serving as head of J.P. Morgan's library.

The Fiction Book Club will be discussing The Personal Librarian on September 13, 2022, at 2:00 p.m. at Springville Road Regional Branch Library.

By Laura Gentry | Librarian Ⅱ, Springville Road Regional Branch Library