Interview with Nona Footz: A Mansion of Her Own

A Mansion of Her Own: The Mysterious Life of Heiress Alice Delamar – Nona Footz with Audrey Clare Farley – Grand Central Publishing – 9781538772072 – 272 pages – $32.50 – October 8, 2026 – ebook versions available at lower prices

It was impossible for me to resist a story about a reclusive heiress who lived only a few miles from where I grew up and lived in southwestern Connecticut. The towns there now are mostly well-to-do suburban enclaves, and best known for their wealth and well-known residents. But when I was growing up there, and earlier in the twentieth century, much of Fairfield County was quite rural. In those times, the area attracted many artists, writers, dancers and Bohemian types who found it a respite from the urban travails of nearby New York City. Only an hour by train or car (on roads with far less traffic than today), it was attractive to a wide range of people, some of whom were quite well off.

One of those very rich people was a secretive heiress, Alice DeLamar. In 1918 at age twenty-three, she inherited her mining magnate father’s massive wealth, making her the richest woman in America. She immediately became the target of the press, who wanted to know all about her, especially whom she would marry (of course).

Alice was not the kind of person who enjoyed this attention. She found a piece of land in then rural Weston, Connecticut, and built an estate, where she spent time with an amazing array of interesting people, most of whom were in the arts and many of whom either were then or who are now, quite well-known. She sponsored the children’s writer Ludwig Bemelmans (Madeleine was created there), the actress and producer Eva LeGallienne (with whom she had a lengthy romantic relationship), hosted Vladimir Nabokov, Salvador Dali, George Balanchine (who also lived in Weston), Dave Brubeck, and many others at social gatherings and soirees.

While she kept her apartment in New York City, and eventually had another large home in Palm Beach and a townhouse in Paris too, Weston was always the center of her multifaceted and mostly unknown and undocumented life.

HR executive Nona Footz also lived in Weston for a number of years. She only accidentally learned about Alice Delamar after reading a biography of Eva Le Gallienne by Helen Sheehy. Nona found herself drawn to Alice, and became dedicated to finding out more about this reclusive, highly secretive woman. She spent a decade tracking down anyone she could find who had known Alice, interviewing them and researching her life, all the while in search of Alice’s original papers, including a memoir Alice was rumored to have written, all of which had disappeared upon Alice’s death in 1983.

Nona’s book is not only a mystery story, it is also a memoir as well, in which she recounts her own saga of trying to understand and uncover the true life and times of a remarkable woman. It’s a great story and it was really special for me to have the opportunity to speak with Nona about Alice and this book. I am certain you will enjoy this conversation as much as I did. It is a great story. Don’t miss it!

“A journey through the bedrooms and drawing rooms of the twentieth-century art world where luminaries expressed forbidden sexual desires and found inspiration for much of the art they created. The book is so good, I picked it up and barely breathed until I was finished.” -Mary Gabriel, author of Ninth Street Women

Nona Footz is currently an executive and board recruiter and has been a freelance writer for the magazines VENU and for Art New England. A native of Canada, Footz is an adjunct faculty member at New York University. This is her first book.

Co-author Audrey Clare Farley is the author of The Unfit Heiress and Girls and Their Monsters, which won the Michigan Notable Book Award and was named a New York Times Editors’ Choice.

Some interesting notes: a portion of what was the Delamar property is now the 21-acre Stonebridge Waterfowl Preserve in Weston, which she donated in 1969.

On her estate, Alice had a pool built that includes a tunnel leading from the basement. It is rumored that this was so she could swim in the nude without fear of being seen (or to walk outside).

Delamar funded the Civic Repertory Theatre established by Le Gallienne in New York City.

When she passed away, most of her estate went to Harvard, Columbia, and Johns Hopkins, per her father’s original will.

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Mel Harkrader Pine: From Pain to Peace

From Pain to Peace: How Trauma and Tragedy Teach Us Compassion and Wisdom – Mel Harkrader Pine – Prospecta Press – Paperback – 9781632261786 – 240 pages – $18.00 – September 15, 2026 – ebook versions available at lower prices

The subject of trauma has become far more discussed and understood over the past half century. When I was growing up, people never really talked about the traumatic events and experiences in their lives. Today, trauma is much more commonly talked about and recognized, yet still so many of us are unable to heal from our traumatic experiences. The counter culture of the sixties planted seeds for a broader acceptance and understanding of trauma, both personal and cultural, experienced directly or epigenetically, as well as an increased awareness and practice of non-western religions and philosophies that often enable practitioners heal from traumatic experiences.

Mel Pine has experienced deep trauma throughout his life. He is a long time Buddhist practitioner. In From Pain to Peace, he demonstrates how Buddhist concepts like impermanence, impermanence and equanimity become tools for healing. It is an extraordinary book by an extraordinary human being, whom I have had the pleasure of getting to know. And it has been my honor to publish his extraordinary book.

As Mel says on his website, “this book speaks to the universal longing for healing and wholeness.” It seems that today, almost every feeling human being feels traumatized, and in need of tools like those this book provides to help live a fuller life.

Here’s what Mel says about himself: “I live in the State of Joy. I’ve devoted my remaining days of cognitive and physical health to helping others join me here.

I’ve had a passion for writing since eighth grade, began a career in journalism at age 20, moved on to other forms of communication through words, images, and videos, and became a spiritually focused author at 78.

That very-late-life career put new oomph into these old bones and neurons, so as I approach my 80th birthday, I intend to keep pursuing my mission as long as impermanence lets me.”

Mel also publishes two Substack newsletters. From the Pure Land focuses on spiritual issues, especially Buddhism for modern life. Human-AI Mutuality covers what Mel calls humankind’s most important frontier — how we relate to artificial intelligence.

The trauma Mel has experienced is acutely painful—at once generational, social, and decidedly personal. It is a morass of sludge enough to soil a soul interminably. And yet, out of the mud, the lotus blossoms. This book is Mel Pine’s lotus blossom. It describes how he discovered spiritual resources within the suffering that not only enabled him to survive; they enhanced his equanimity, deepened his compassion, and awakened in him a sober wisdom. They brought him to a place of genuine peace. Trauma can cut both ways. It can mire one in the mud, or the mud can give rise to a flower born of suffering. This book is one of those flowers.—Frank Rogers Jr., author of Cradled in the Arms of Compassion

Author website (he has a Kickstarter!) melpineauthor.com
You can buy the book here at Bookshop.org

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