The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 89

AT SUSAN ALSOP'S TABLE Potpourri of Names and Politic can have 10 persons for a sit-down dinner. With some amusement she explained that her table from Sears, Roebuck Co. was a gift from her daughter, Anne, when the Alsops separated. (Joe Alsop collects fine old furniture, paintings and objects. When he and Mrs.

Alsop split he sold his $360,000 house and some art and bought another, equally grand house in the Georgetown section of the capital.) Mrs. Alsop's cherry acceptance of her new life-style is typical of her ability to look on the bright side. A collection of her letters to Marietta Peabody Tree, written when Susan Mary and Bill Patten lived in Paris after World War II, was recently published by Doubleday Co. "To Marietta from Paris, 1945-1960" reveals a woman who was keenly interested in internation al affairs while adoring every ball, tea and dinner party she attended. A letter might tell of the growing worries of the Cold War and a description of shopping excursions to Christian Dior's salon; The common; thread that runs through the letters and Mrs.

Alsop's conversation about Washington today are "names" the famous and powerful, the socially prominent from the same strata as Susan Mary and her friend back home, Mrs. Tree. The Windsors, the Rothschilds, Lady Diane Cooper, lunch with Winston Churchill, a visit with Bernard Berenson in Florence, Italy, country weekends and trips to London for great balls are tossed in the same pot with the Marshall Plan, riots in Algiers and the French in Vietnam. Mrs. Alsop doubts she would ever write a book about Washington.

lot ange'e Zimis Dec. 5, 1975-Part IV Should she ever change her mind, Mrs. Alsop could give the same light view of the paper brokers as she did in Paris. She is on a first-name basis with Henry Kissinger his wife, Nancy good friend, so Vice President Rockefeller jumped before he was pushed. His announcement not to run for reelection was pure Republican and all the others with whom she has dined and sipped.

Endlessly enthusiastic and curious about people, Mrs. Alsop is researching a book about Lady Victoria Sack-ville-West, mother of the writer bearing the same name who was the subject of the book, "Portrait of a Marriage." BY PATRICIA MOORE The Chicago Daily News CHICAGO Susan Mary Alsop has had exactly the right kind of life for herself. She collects people notably those of position and fame and she lives on the fringes of politics and diplomacy, subjects she was weaned on. The well-born Mrs. Alsop is the former Susan Mary Jay.

Her forebears included John Jay, first chief justice of the United States, and a long line of diplomats. Her first husband, William Patten, worked for the State Department and the U.S. Em bassy in Paris. A year after he'died (1960) Susan Mary married columnist Joseph Alsop arid settled in Washington, D.C. The Alsops separated amiably two years ago but still see each other and go to parties together.

"We have a. very affectionate arrangement. Joe gave an absolutely smashing dinner party the other night and I was there," she said. "He was a bachelor at 50, poor fellow, when we married. I'm afraid I was too bossy, since he was used to doing things his way; But he was marvelous with my two children and we had 15 happy years," Mrs.

Alsop continued. Her reference to Alsop's "smashing' dinner party" is of no small importance. Alsop has long been consid-, ered one of the leading hosts in Washington, a city that puts great importance on such' matters. That means that for years Mrs. Alsop was hostess at the sought-after Alsop parties, surrounded by the decision makers of government and the press.

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