Richard Jay Hutto served as White House Appointments Secretary to the Carter Family as well as Chairman of the Georgia Council for the Arts. A former attorney, he is an internationally recognized lecturer as well as the author of six critically acclaimed books. He has been featured as an on-air historical expert by Discovery Channel, National Geographic, Investigation Discovery, and Glenn Beck Television and is a regular contributor to Royalty Digest Quarterly. Hutto has written extensively about the marriage of America's Gilded Age heiresses to titled husbands. He regularly lectures onboard high-end cruise ships, including the Queen Mary 2. He lives in Winter Garden, FL. Follow him online at www.TheCountess.net.

In Richard Jay Hutto's The Countess and the Nazis, the only biography of Muriel White, a heroine relegated to a forgotten footnote of history, the author resurrects her remarkable story.

--Marlene Wagman-Geller, author of Women of Means and The Secret Lives of Royal Women

This compelling tale traces the intricately intertwined history of American high society with European nobility in the face of rising Nazism. A haunting saga of family in the turmoil and tragedy of the twentieth century.

--Dina Gold, author of Stolen Legacy: Nazi Theft and the Quest for Justice at Krausenstrasse 17/18, Berlin

A Gilded Age American heiress with an impeccable social pedigree marries nobleman Count Hermann Seherr-Thoss of Prussian Silesia on the eve of World War I--and then all hell breaks loose. Richard Jay Hutto's The Countess and the Nazis has glamour to spare, brand names from Queen Victoria to Ian Fleming, and international intrigue of the highest order--all played out in one family's story.

--Donna M. Lucey, author of Sargent's Women: Four Lives Behind the Canvas and the New York Times best-selling Archie and Amélie: Love and Madness in the Gilded Age

Richard Jay Hutto's The Countess and the Nazis is a vividly detailed account of rich Americans and European aristocrats, from the glamour of the Gilded Age to the deadly dangers of the Third Reich. At the heart of the story is the complex and courageous American heiress Muriel White, Countess Seherr-Thoss, who engages the reader from the dramatic first page through the rest of her turbulent life. Hutto describes her world and its famous and infamous characters as though he knew them all.

--Patricia Beard, author of After the Ball: Gilded Age Secrets, Boardroom Betrayals & the Party That Ignited the Great Wall Street Scandal of 1905

"Muriel Seherr-Thoss chose resistance over her privilege. Many family photos enliven this engrossing, recommended history that will take readers right into the difficult times it depicts."-- "Library Journal"

"The Countess and the Nazis is a fascinating, well-crafted exposé of an unsung hero of World War II, the Countess Muriel Sherr-Thoss... Richard Jay Hutto brings to life a rich and vivid description of this gilded, glamorous American family, living among royalty and the wealthiest families in the world. His writing style is eloquent, vivid, and concise. Yet Hutto is careful to let the research tell the story, allowing the multitude of family letters to narrate effectively. This book is well-researched with dozens of pages of references. Readers will be grateful for the myriad pictures and the detailed family diagram. The author carefully resurrects an unknown hero of World War II, whose heart is filled with a powerful purpose to save innocent lives."-- "New York Journal of Books"

Publisher: Lyons Press

Pub date: 2025-02-18

Length: 288 pages