Ward McAllister

Ward McAllister was an American lawyer and social arbiter who became famous for defining the etiquette and membership of elite society in Gilded Age New York and Newport. He was closely associated with Caroline Schermerhorn Astor and helped organise exclusive dinners, balls and seasonal social rituals.

McAllister popularised the idea of New York’s “Four Hundred”, a shorthand for the small circle he considered socially acceptable within the city’s old and newly wealthy elite. His public commentary on high society eventually made him a celebrity but also irritated many of the people whose status he claimed to regulate.

In John Jakes’ The Gods of Newport, Her attraction to an impoverished Irishman conflicts with the alliance her father wants to secure, while social arbiters such as Ward McAllister turn etiquette into a form of power.