Born in Lynn, Massachusetts, Carleton Varney moved to New York shortly after graduating from Oberlin College and soon came into his own as a decorator at the prestigious firm of Dorothy Draper & Company Inc. under the guidance of and mentoring by the famous Mrs. Draper herself. Since the mid 1960s, when he took over the company, he has kept it operating as one of the oldest continuing decorating firms in the United States. Longtime clients include the Greenbrier Hotel in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia and the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, in Michigan. Early and loyal-for-decades clients such as show business stars Joan Crawford and Ethel Merman were followed by dozens of clients who all gravitated to his personality as well as his luxurious, bold, and glamorous rooms. In this book, over two dozen of his best, most original, and never published before projects - including his own private residences - are documented in Michel Arnaud's striking and evocative photographs.