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“A fascinating picture of social
and financial struggle in New York a hundred years ago…a truly fascinating book.”
- Brooke Astor, American author, philanthropist, and socialite
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“Fortune’s Children is a monument to the mesmerizing power of money…The
author has been assiduous in combing memoirs, biographies, and private papers
and in raiding the social columnists of the period. He has an eye for a
memorable quotation.”
- New York Times Book Review
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“A financial fairy tale so bizarre
it dwarfs the antics of modern Midases such as Malcolm Forbes and Donald Trump.”
- Los Angeles Times
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“A spellbinding tale of how money
really does change everything.”
- Kansas City Sun
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“Among the author’s earlier books is Changing
Law, an award-winning biography of his grandfather, Arthur T. Vanderbilt. His
latest history, witty, entertaining, and sad, also merits a prize for the
writer, a lawyer and one among many members of the fabled family who inherited
the Vanderbilt name but not the wealth…Stories about the author’s ancestors
have been told before but not so vividly as in his evocations of the snobbery,
ostentation, and profligacy that caused ‘the fall of the House of Vanderbilt.’
Today’s Vanderbilts are not rich-rich; the money is gone with the clan’s grand
homes, felled by wrecking balls in New York and elsewhere, leaving only
memories of a singular time in the American past.”
- Publishers Weekly
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“In this family history, Vanderbilt
dramatizes both the successes and excesses of America’s Gilded Age—the enormous
new wealth, the lavish lifestyles, and, later, the desperate schemes to
maintain social status and fortune, contesting wills, matchmaking with
nobility, and, most notably, battling for custody of ‘Little Gloria.’ But the
story is not so much about people as the palaces they built—the Breakers, the
Biltmore, and mansions which used to occupy blocks of now-prime Manhattan real
estate—all of which became white elephants sold to preservation societies or
Towers of Babels that fell under a wave of taxes and upkeep cost. An absorbing
social history.”
- Library Journal
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“Cornelius Vanderbilt, who was
called the Commodore, saw one steamboat give way to a fleet and then to trains.
Likewise, his family saw one mansion on Staten Island grow into several, as
described in this book by descendant Arthur T. Vanderbilt II. Patrick Lawlor
gives voice to the Commodore with an intimidating bluntness. The other
Vanderbilt family members, as portrayed by Lawlor, mostly sound in awe of him.
Still, as the author cheerfully describes society parties and mansions,
listeners can hear a tone of amusement at the instances of excessive luxury, such
as footmen bearing ice cream for the kids. The family’s gilt may be gone, but
stories that shift from industriousness to custody battles recall a golden
past.”
- AudioFile