Vanderbilt

The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty

by Anderson Cooper, Katherine Howe

On Sale: 09/21/2021

Vanderbilt

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Vanderbilt

The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty

by Anderson Cooper, Katherine Howe

On Sale: 09/21/2021

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About the Book

CNN anchor and New York Times bestselling author Anderson Cooper teams with New York Times bestselling historian and novelist Katherine Howe to chronicle the rise and fall of a legendary American dynasty—his mother's family, the Vanderbilts.

Few names are as synonymous with wealth and glamour as “Vanderbilt."

When Cornelius Vanderbilt, the teenaged son of a ferryman in New York Harbor who was born at the end of the eighteenth century, decided to go into business on his own, few would have believed that within six decades he would epitomize American wealth, magnate of a shipping and railroad empire that made him the richest man in the country.

In the wake of his death in 1877, Cornelius's heirs bitterly fought over his estate, sowing familial discord that would never fully heal. The generations of Vanderbilts who followed lived lives of unimaginable excess, steeped in tides of success and failure. By 2018, when the last Vanderbilt left the Breakers—the summer estate in Newport, Rhode Island, his grandson and namesake Cornelius Vanderbilt II built—the family would have been unrecognizable to the Commodore.

Now, the Commodore's great-great-great-grandson, Anderson Cooper, joins with historian Katherine Howe to explore the story of his legendary family and their remarkable influence. Cooper and Howe breathe life into the ancestors who built the family's empire, basked in the Commodore's wealth, hosted lavish galas, and became synonymous with unfettered American capitalism and high society. Moving from the hardscrabble wharves of Staten Island to the lavish drawing rooms of Gilded Age Fifth Avenue, from the ornate summer palaces of Newport to the courts of Europe, Cooper and Howe wryly recount the triumphs and tragedies of an American family unlike any other.

Drawing on never-before-seen documents and told from a unique insider's viewpoint, this is a rollicking, quintessentially American history as remarkable as the family it so vividly captures.

Critical Praise

“Splendid. . . . haunting and beautifully written. . . . This is a terrific book.” — Washington Post

"An incredible story." — People

“A dramatic tale expertly told of rapacious ambition, decadent excess, and covert and overt tyranny and trauma. . . . With resplendent detail, the authors capture the gasp-eliciting extravagance of the Vanderbilt Gilded Age mansions. . . . With its intrinsic empathy and in-depth profiles of women, this is a distinctly intimate, insightful, and engrossing chronicle of an archetypal, self-consuming American dynasty. . . . Irresistible.” — Booklist (starred review)

“Marked by meticulous research and deep emotional insight, this is a memorable chronicle of American royalty.” — Publishers Weekly

“A remarkably frank and tender undertaking.”
The New York Times on The Rainbow Comes and Goes

"Meaningful, revealing." — The Wall Street Journal on The Rainbow Comes and Goes

“Fascinating, forthright, philosophical, and inspiring, these mother-and-son musings on family, life, death, forgiveness, fame, and perseverance are at once uniquely personal and deeply human.” — Booklist (starred review) on The Rainbow Comes and Goes

“Cooper is a storyteller with plenty of heart. . . . A smart, soulful page-turner. . . . Strong stuff, and in Cooper’s hands, well told.” — People on Dispatches from the Edge

“His vignettes from the world’s horrorscapes rise above the swagger of many journalistic memoirs because Cooper writes with competence as well as feeling. . . . Intriguing.” — Washington Post Book World on Dispatches from the Edge

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Product Details

  • ISBN: 9780062964618
  • ISBN 10: 0062964615
  • Imprint: Harper
  • On Sale: 09/21/2021
  • Pages: 336
  • List Price:41.00 CAD
  • BISAC1 : HISTORY / Women
  • BISAC2 : ART / American / General
  • BISAC3 : TRANSPORTATION / Railroads / History
  • BISAC4 : BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Rich & Famous
  • BISAC5 : HISTORY / United States / 21st Century
  • BISAC6 : BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Historical
  • BISAC7 : BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Women
  • BISAC8 : HISTORY / United States / 20th Century
  • BISAC9 : HISTORY / United States / 19th Century
  • BISAC10 : BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Business

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