Stanley Marcus spent most of his life helping to create the retail enterprise Neiman Marcus, and his business philosophies remain an important part of the training of the store's personnel. This is both a portrait of a man and a celebration of the store that is a well-known landmark in Texas.

"'There is never a good sale for Neiman Marcus unless it's a good buy for the customer.' That was one of the first declarations of business philosophy I heard my father, Herbert Marcus, make soon after I came to work at Neiman Marcus in 1926." Thus began the 1974 edition of Minding the Store. Reprinted in hardcover in 1997 to celebrate the 90th anniversary of Neiman Marcus, it is now available for the first time in paperback. Mr. Marcus spent most of his life not only in helping to create a retailing enterprise renowned throughout the world as the epitome of quality, but also in setting high standards for the level of taste of all who desire "the better things in life." In doing so he has played a key role in making Dallas itself a success. "Mr. Stanley," as he was affectionately called by all his Neiman Marcus friends and associates, made The Store a legendary success. Although he retired from active involvement in Neiman Marcus in 1977, the influences of the philosophies of business he developed remained an important part of the training of Neiman Marcus personnel. Those basic principles--best exemplified by his belief in his father's business philosophy--are the reasons Neiman Marcus is today recognized as the taste leader of American retailing. Minding the Store is a warm portrait of a man and an exuberant celebration of the store that has become the best-known landmark in Texas since the Alamo.

"Quest for the Best is not just a nostalgic look, however, at the age of handcrafted elegance. Marcus gives good advice on how consumers can educate themselves about the best, demand it, and get it. He describes his own experiences with the best in chapters such as "The Things You Love to Touch" and "Bed and Board." Witty, urbane, but always accessible, Marcus is a joy to read."--BOOK JACKET.

Stanley Marcus was undeniably America's Merchant Prince. He created his own legend by becoming a fashion authority without parallel, an unerring arbiter of taste, a marketing genius, and a ham-like showman in the mold of Phineas T. Barnum. His unique talents transformed Neiman Marcus from a Dallas specialty store into a glittering, internationally known and respected retail institution. Thomas E. Alexander traces the history of the company, tells the colorful life story of "Mr. Stanley," and shares his personal behind-the-scenes memoir of his sometimes tumultuous association with the man and the store. Humorous anecdotes clearly illustrate that there was much more to Stanley Marcus than was ever seen by the public eye. Photographs of celebrities such as Princess Grace of Monaco, Sophia Loren, John Wayne, Brigitte Bardot, and Queen Sirkit of Thailand serve to emphasize the world-wide appeal of Neiman Marcus and the man behind it all for more than fifty years.

Stanley Marcus was known the world over as an innovative marketer and retailer with a refined sense of taste and style whose leadership transformed his family's Dallas clothing store, Neiman Marcus, into a globally recognized arbiter of fashion. However, his refined sensibility was also expressed in a very private passion for photography, shared only with family and close friends. Marcus's daughter Jerrie Marcus Smith and his granddaughter Allison V. Smith celebrate this passion in Reflection of a Man, a representative selection of the thousands of photographs Marcus shot on business trips in Europe, on vacations in Mexico, and during family celebrations. These photographs underscore what we already know about the man in terms of an eye for elegance, a preoccupation with merchandising, and an enthusiasm for the enjoyment of life, but they also reveal a talent for capturing the purity of a moment and memorializing instances of beauty. In addition to the photographs, Oscar de la Renta, the couture fashion designer, relates his experience with the master of the art of the sale; Jack Lenor Larsen, the dean of modern fabric design, pays tribute to his long friendship with Marcus; and Roy Flukinger, Senior Research Curator of Photography at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin, critiques Marcus's photographs.

More gems of wisdom and wit from Stanley Marcus, acknowledged harbinger of taste whose very name is a symbol of quality. Marcus lets his mind roam through subjects as diverse as dieting, gardening, nonconformists, phobias, sports, toys, and weather.