The Heart Has Its Reasons - THE DUCHESS OF WINDSOR - FIRST EDITION

FIRST EDITION, published by Michael Joseph 1956, hardcover, illustrated, index, 381 pages, wear & repair to dust jacket, otherwise condition: very good. 

Determination of Edward VIII, king of Great Britain and Ireland, in 1936 to marry Wallis Warfield Simpson, a divorced American, precipitated a constitutional crisis.Wallis, duchess of Windsor (born Bessie Wallis Warfield, later Spencer, then Simpson), an American socialite, married the prince, duke of Windsor, and former king as her third husband..Periods of separation punctuated her first marriage, which to a naval officer of United States eventually ended in divorce. In 1934 during her second marriage, she allegedly succumbed as the mistress of Edward, Prince of Wales. After accession of Edward as king, Wallis in 1936 divorced her second husband and received his proposal.

This is a fascinating book. Wallis Simpson, or the Duchess of Windsor, wrote a very discreet memoir about her life from her birth in 1896 to the publishing date of 1956. I couldn't help but feel that she and the Duke were very naive in thinking that he would eventually be able to work for the Royal family, and in thinking that the Duchess would be eventually accepted as part of that family. A great many of the things that I had "known" about them were not the way she told it, and that was interesting too in the light of all the misinformation that is about today. Almost a century ago, there was just as much misinformation, disseminated by the press for the most part and gossip for the rest. All that "social" media provides is a forum for more gossip than ever before to be spread around the whole world. I felt quite sorry for the Windsors.