Helen Gould Was My Mother in Law was a best-seller in 1953. The story is based on the life of Helen Gould Shepard, the eldest daughter of railroad tycoon Jay Gould. It was written by Celeste Andrews who, in 1934, had married Louis Seton, one of the four children adopted by Helen Gould Shepard, and Mrs. Seton's brother,
Clark Andrews, a professional writer living in New York. The book remains now, as it was then, hilarious.