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Earlier this year as the crazytown train was gathering steam, I received an email from The New York Times. 

Ms. Littman (public domain photo)

They inquired if I'd be interested in receiving a regular newsletter from them that covered the biggest news stories from their paper. I'm not much of a news hound, but I thought I'd give it a try.

And so it was that I found myself devouring the newsletter six mornings a week (they don't publish on the seventh). 

One of the features I've enjoyed is a "lives well lived," section that touches on someone who has passed. Sometimes it's a famous person. But often it's someone I've never heard of. 

One such was socialite Marguerite Littman. 

She hobnobbed with the likes of David Hockney, Gore Vidal and Truman Capote. It was Capote who used Littman as the inspiration for Holly Golightly, Audrey Hepburn's character in Breakfast at Tiffany's. 

Littman was friends with a whole host of celebrities. Her own career as an actress originally stalled because of her thick Southern accent, a byproduct of her upbringing in Monroe, Louisiana as a member of one of the city's oldest families. The accent became an asset when she was overhead at a party by Elia Kazan and Tennessee Williams, who recruited her as a speech coach for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

She lived in New York City, wrote articles for national magazines and worked with Richard Avedon, a photographer who took on social issues in America in the 1960s.

In 1965, she married Mark Littman, a British barrister and Queen's Counsel. Marguerite took up residence in London, dividing her time between the US and Britain.

It was from her office across the pond that Littman would embark on her crusade, creating an enduring legacy.

In the 1980s, AIDS victims were being shunned and vilified by the public. Following the death of her close friend, Rock Hudson, from this terrible disease, Littman began her mission to raise awareness and support for AIDS patients.

In 1986, she sent letters to 300 influential friends and associates, asking them for £100 each. She only received one "no." Six months later, she hosted a gala to officially launch the AIDS Charitable Trust, and the donations began to roll in, and contiued to do so for another decade.

Princess Diana, herself an advocate of AIDS causes, gave Littman her wardrobe to auction off, raising millions for the cause just two months before her death in 1997.

Two years later, the Trust was rolled into the Elton John AIDS Foundation, where Littman served as a director.

She passed away October 16th at the age of 90. Alas, I couldn't find any indication that Littman wrote her memoirs. 

My guess is they would have been quite a read, indeed.