Who was he?

The Somerset Club on Beacon Street, Boston, long a social center for Boston Brahmins.

“It used to be said that, socially speaking, Philadelphia asked who a person is, New York how much is he worth, and Boston what does he know. Nationally it has now become generally recognized that Boston Society has long cared even more than Philadelphia about the first point and has refined the asking of who a person is to the point of demanding to know who he was. Philadelphia asks about a man's parents; Boston wants to know about his grandparents.’’

Cleveland Amory (1917-1998), in his book The Proper Bostonians (1947). Amory was a reporter, editor, social historian, essayist, TV critic and animal-rights crusader. He came from a Boston Brahmin family.