Emily Post didn't start out as an expert on manners in society. Her husband was a speculator and spendthrift and Emily needed to write for income. To begin withhe wrote Edwardian romances which sold well. Here's an example:
Post also wrote nonfiction for popular magazines like Collier's, with light funny pieces on travel being most common. Some of these essays were gathered into this book:
It was Emily Post's publisher, who knew Post had graduated from finishing school, who suggested she write Etiquette.
From the chapter "Formal Dinners":
In all modern houses of size there are two rooms on the entrance floor, built sometimes as dressing-rooms and nothing else, but more often they are small reception rooms, each with a lavatory off of it. In the one given to the ladies, there is always a dressing-table with toilet appointments on it, and the lady's maid should be on duty to give whatever service may be required; when there is no dressing-room on the ground floor, the back of the hall is arranged with coat-hangers and an improvised dressing-table for the ladies, since modern people—in New York at least—never go up-stairs to a bedroom if they can help it. In fact, nine ladies out of ten drop their evening cloaks at the front door, handing them to the servant on duty, and go at once without more ado to the drawing-room. A lady arriving in her own closed car can't be very much blown about, in a completely air tight compartment and in two or three minutes of time!
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