Once a King: The Lost Memoir of Edward VIII

Many people are familiar with the history of the Duke of Windsor, the former King Edward VIII who gave up the British throne to marry the twice-divorced American Wallis Simpson. Although an-often-repeated story, historian and author Jane Marguerite Tippett brings new insight through her astonishing discovery of the first and unedited drafts of Edward’s memoir A King’s Story, written with the assistance of Life magazine journalist Charles J.V. Murphy. Preserved in Murphy’s archive, but overlooked by previous Royal scholars, Tippett uncovered the private manuscript that Edward created between 1947 and 1951.

She also discovered hundreds of pages of interviews Murphy conducted with the couple in 1954 when he was working on the Duchess’s biography. In her lecture, Tippett will explore the significance of this material, and how through Edward’s writing we gain an entirely new understanding of his life as Prince of Wales as well as the momentous events of his brief 11-month reign. Tippett will scrutinize the ways in which Edward’s writings shift our understanding of his importance in the history of the 20th-century British monarchy and explore how this material may change people’s perspective on the significance of his royal career.

Jane Marguerite Tippett

Jane Tippett is a historian and archivist. She graduated from University of Delaware with a BA in French, History and English Literature. She received her MSt. in History of Art from Wadham College, Oxford, where she wrote her dissertation on the centrality of provenance in the contemporary fine art auction market. Since graduating she has worked as a private archivist to high-net-worth families and interior design firms in New York City, Boston, and London. Once A King: The Lost Memoir of Edward VIII (Hodder & Stoughton, October 2023) is her first book. Her next book, Monsieur, which will be published in May 2024, is a survey of the photographic work of Patrick O’Higgins, the biographer and longtime companion of Helena Rubinstein.

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