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Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Best History & Biography (2021)New York Times bestselling author and journalist 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.
When eleven-year-old Cornelius Vanderbilt began to work on his father’s small boat ferrying supplies in New York Harbor at the beginning of the nineteenth century, no one could have imagined that one day he would, through ruthlessness, cunning, and a pathological desire for money, build two empires—one in shipping and another in railroads—that would make him the richest man in America. His staggering fortune was fought over by his heirs after his death in 1877, sowing familial discord that would never fully heal. Though his son Billy doubled the money left by “the Commodore,” subsequent generations competed to find new and ever more extraordinary ways of spending it. By 2018, when the last Vanderbilt was forced out of The Breakers—the seventy-room summer estate in Newport, Rhode Island, that Cornelius’s grandson and namesake had built—the family would have been unrecognizable to the tycoon who started it all.
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 outsized 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 old Manhattan to the lavish drawing rooms of Gilded Age Fifth Avenue, from the ornate summer palaces of Newport to the courts of Europe, and all the way to modern-day New York, Cooper and Howe wryly recount the triumphs and tragedies of an American dynasty unlike any other.
Written with a unique insider’s viewpoint, this is a rollicking, quintessentially American history as remarkable as the family it so vividly captures.
When eleven-year-old Cornelius Vanderbilt began to work on his father’s small boat ferrying supplies in New York Harbor at the beginning of the nineteenth century, no one could have imagined that one day he would, through ruthlessness, cunning, and a pathological desire for money, build two empires—one in shipping and another in railroads—that would make him the richest man in America. His staggering fortune was fought over by his heirs after his death in 1877, sowing familial discord that would never fully heal. Though his son Billy doubled the money left by “the Commodore,” subsequent generations competed to find new and ever more extraordinary ways of spending it. By 2018, when the last Vanderbilt was forced out of The Breakers—the seventy-room summer estate in Newport, Rhode Island, that Cornelius’s grandson and namesake had built—the family would have been unrecognizable to the tycoon who started it all.
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 outsized 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 old Manhattan to the lavish drawing rooms of Gilded Age Fifth Avenue, from the ornate summer palaces of Newport to the courts of Europe, and all the way to modern-day New York, Cooper and Howe wryly recount the triumphs and tragedies of an American dynasty unlike any other.
Written with a unique insider’s viewpoint, this is a rollicking, quintessentially American history as remarkable as the family it so vividly captures.
317 pages, Hardcover
First published September 21, 2021
About the author
Anderson Cooper
11 books916 followersAnderson Hays Cooper is an Emmy Award winning American journalist, author, and television personality. He currently works as the primary anchor of the CNN news show Anderson Cooper 360°. The program is normally broadcast live from a New York City studio; however, Cooper often broadcasts live on location for breaking news stories.
Cooper is the younger son of the writer Wyatt Emory Cooper and the artist, designer, writer, and heiress Gloria Vanderbilt, granddaughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt II of the prominent Vanderbilt Family of New York.
Cooper is the younger son of the writer Wyatt Emory Cooper and the artist, designer, writer, and heiress Gloria Vanderbilt, granddaughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt II of the prominent Vanderbilt Family of New York.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 3,861 reviews
October 30, 2021
Journalist Anderson Cooper, scion of the (once) fabulously wealthy Vanderbilt family, was silent about his heritage for most of his life. Then, when Anderson's mother Gloria Vanderbilt reached her nineties, Cooper published the book The Rainbow Comes and Goes: A Mother and Son on Life, Love, and Loss - which details his mother's fascinating history.
Anderson Cooper and Gloria Vanderbilt
The Vanderbilts are a larger-than-life clan that made and squandered huge fortunes over the generations. After the death of his mother, Cooper was going through her boxes of journals, documents, letters, and other memorabilia, and he 'began to hear the voices of his ancestors.' Wanting to know more, Cooper decided to research his heritage. This book, written with historian Katherine Howe, is the result.
Cooper's ancestors arrived in the New World in the 1600s, when a Dutch farmer named Jan Aertsen van der Bilt ('from the Bilt'), arrived in New Amsterdam (the future New York).
New Amsterdam in the 1600s
By the 1700s Jan Aertsen's descendant Jacob van der Bilt lived in Staten Island, and this branch of the family gave rise to Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt - the man who made the family's initial fortune. Cornelius started out by running ferry boats on the Staten Island waterfront in the early 1800s, when he was eleven years old.
Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt
Young Cornelius ran ferries on the Staten Island waterfront in the 1800s
Cornelius then graduated to running steamboats between New York and New Jersey at the age of twenty-three, and went on to establish a vast shipping and railroad empire.
Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt built a railroad empire
Cooper and Howe write, "Commodore Vanderbilt was a master manipulator, disseminator, and inventor of his own legend [who] reveled in attention, in being feared by men in business with him and, certainly by men in business against him. He was feared also by his children, whose lives he dominated. More than anything else, however, the Commodore thrived on money. When his final breath escaped his body, this man would leave behind a veritable monument of money." In fact the Commodore left $100 million, the equivalent of more than $2 billion today.
Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt was obsessed with money
The Commodore left most of his estate to his favorite son Billy "the blatherskite" Vanderbilt, to the dismay of the other siblings.
Billy ('the blatherskite') Vanderbilt, the Commodore's favorite son
The dark side of wealth had already started to plague the family, as shown by the Commodore's namesake Cornelius II, who was a terrible businessman, habitual gambler, and big spender who was always in debt.
Cornelius Vanderbilt II, the Commodore's namesake
The Commodore wanted to leave his money to a son that would make his fortune grow, not fritter it away. And Billy the blatherskite did just that, which helped him shoehorn the Vanderbilts into New York's elite.
In the 1800s, New York high society was governed by snobs and nobs who didn't welcome the nouveau riche into their ranks. The authors write, "The Commodore, despite his wealth, had been a boor. His manners had been coarse. He chewed tobacco; he could barely read." Though the Commodore built his house near New York's most fashionable neighborhood, Washington Square, "he never tried to soften his calloused edges to gain acceptance by the city's oldest and wealthiest families." Billy changed all this.
Billy increased the Vanderbilt fortune, and was determined to use his wealth to infiltrate New York's beau monde. Denied a box at the Academy of Music, where high society attended the opera and important balls, Billy organized the construction of the Metropolitan Opera House, which opened in 1880.
Metropolitan Opera House in New York
Cooper and Howe observe, "The Met pulled out all the decorative stops, presenting a plush riot of gilding, gas-lit crystal, and warm red velvet, like the rich lining of a jewelry case, designed to maximize the sparkle of the gems presented within. Next to the newly built opera house, the Academy looked downright shabby." Pretty soon the old New York families rented boxes at the Met, and the Academy of Music shut down. The Vanderbilts had joined the ranks of the smart set.
Elegantly dressed patrons of the Metropolitan Opera House
Billy the blatherskite was the last Vanderbilt to add to the family fortune, with subsequent generations diddling the money away. Vanderbilts built mansions, palazzos, and chateaus - exemplified by The Breakers in Rhode Island; raised horses; purchased yachts; threw lavish parties; and so on. And the men (of course) supported mistresses.
The Breakers in Rhode Island (a Vanderbilt mansion) is now a tourist attraction
A postcard of the Cornelius Vanderbilt III steam yacht, "North Star"
For example, the authors describe a surreal costume ball thrown by Alva Erskine Smith Vanderbilt, Billy the blatherskite's daughter-in-law.
Alva Vanderbilt (Billy the blatherskite's daughter-in-law)
In 1883, Alva was in the midst of a campaign to rule New York society, and planned a lavish party for 1200 guests in her and her husband Willie's Fifth Avenue mansion.
Alva and Willie Vanderbilt's 'petit chateau' at 660 Fifth Avenue
Cooper and Howe note, "The palatial house at 660 Fifth Avenue would be full to overflowing with hothouse orchids out of season and American Beauty roses by the thousands.....At two in the morning, an eight-course supper created by the chefs from Delmonico's was served in the gymnasium on the third floor, which had been festooned into a riotous imagination of a tropical forest....At either end of the grand apartment babbled two artificial fountains, filling the air with the plashing of freshwater under the clink of crystal and fine china and silver."
The guests arrived dressed as Joan of Arc, Christopher Columbus, Louis XVI, Queen Elizabeth I, the goddess Diana, Daniel Boone, a bumblebee, kings, queens, fairies, toreadors, gypsies, and more. Alva herself was arrayed in the regalia of a Venetian princess, complete with a fabulously expensive rope of real pearls that (purportedly) had belonged to Catherine the Great.
Some costumes worn to Alva Vanderbilt's costume ball
Alva Vanderbilt dressed as a Venetian princess for her costume ball
Alva also engaged two orchestras, and chosen guests danced themed quadrilles, including the Hobbyhorse Quadrille, the Mother Goose Quadrille, the Dresden China Quadrille, and so on.
A Quadrille Dance
The cost of Alva Vanderbilt's festive ball was a quarter of a million dollars, about $6.4 million in today's money.
Alva was also notorious for being the first New York society doyenne to divorce her cheating husband Willie Vanderbilt.
Willie Vanderbilt (Alva Vanderbilt's husband)
According to Alva, a wealthy man of the time would marry a carefully groomed society woman for sex, children and respectability. Then, when physical passion waned, the wife "was set aside, relegated to a stupid domestic sphere", while the man strayed. Thus Willie freely entertained other women, "anyone he wished, on his yacht or wherever he chose." Alva would have none of it, and - though it would result in her being (temporarily) snubbed by society - Alva took Willie to divorce court. Alva's nerve broke the logjam, and other socialites soon followed her example and divorced their husbands.
Alva was not a 'nice' woman. She admitted to mistreating slaves and forced her daughter Consuelo to marry a British aristocrat Consuelo didn't love.
Consuelo Vanderbilt (daughter of Alva and Willie)
Though Alva had her faults, she was a force of nature that went on to push for women's equality and women's suffrage.
In her later years, Alva Vanderbilt supported women's rights and women's suffrage
Cooper and Howe feature additional memorable Vanderbilts in chapters about the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915 (Alfred Vanderbilt went down with the ship);
Sinking of the Lusitania
Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt went down with the Lusitania
the America's Cup yachting race of 1934 (Harold Vanderbilt competed);
America's Cup Race (1934)
;Harold Vanderbilt competed in the 1934 America's Cup race
and the social rise and fall of the famous writer Truman Capote (Gloria Vanderbilt was a friend). Capote exposed the foibles of his high society friends in his 1965 Vanity Fair story 'La Côte Basque'....and the smart set never forgave him. The Capote chapter - with numerous famous names - is chock full of great gossip. Some of the tangential sections stray from the strict subject of the Vanderbilt family, but they're interesting and illuminating.
Writer Truman Capote
Truman Capote's 1965 story was his downfall in high society
Towards the latter part of the book, the authors write about Cooper's mother Gloria Vanderbilt, who was at the center of 'the custody battle of the century'; had a series of high profile husbands and lovers; was a model, fashion designer, and artist; lost and gained fortunes; endured sad tragedies; and was loved by her sons. Gloria's life is covered more thoroughly in Cooper's book 'The Rainbow Comes and Goes: A Mother and Son on Life, Love, and Lost', so I'll leave it at that.
Gloria Vanderbilt
Though the Vanderbilt name still evokes visions of wealth and power, the dynasty has fallen. Cooper and Howe sum it up as follows, "The United States, a country founded on antiroyalist principles, would, only twenty years after its revolutionary burst into existence, produce the progenitor of a family [Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt] that would hold itself up as American royalty, with the titles and palaces to prove it. But their empire would last for less than a hundred years before collapsing under its own weight, destroying itself with its own pathology."
In addition to being a gossipy tale of the Vanderbilts, the narrative is brimming with entertaining anecdotes about other notable people as well as the culture of the times, ranging from early settlers of the New World to the 21nd century. The authors include a partial Vanderbilt family tree at the front of the book, which helps keep the family members straight.
This is an excellent book that I'd recommend to celebrity watchers and readers interested in American history.
You can follow my reviews at https://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot.com
October 13, 2021
This book is stultifyingly dry and slow until around the 70% mark, when Little Gloria enters the story. Then it becomes much more interesting. I'm puzzled, though, as to why there is a whole chapter devoted to the downfall of Truman Capote, who was, you'll be astounded to learn, not a Vanderbilt. Yes, he and Gloria were friends, but she makes only minor appearances in the chapter. I have to admit I was tickled to learn that Katherine Anne Porter publicly called Truman "the pimple on the face of American literature." He was talented, but he was such a little troll. He hurt a lot of people with his gossip and manipulative behavior.
I also thought the book could have done without very detailed chapters about the 1915 sinking of the RMS Lusitania and the 1934 World Cup yacht race. And I do mean very detailed. To avoid spoilers, I'll just say that passing references would have been enough, to explain the fates and fortunes of the Vanderbilt men affected by these events.
The Vanderbilt heirs pissed away an unimaginable fortune on dissolute living and extravagant expenditures on trifles. Most of them never bothered to learn how to manage all that money to make it last and have something to pass on to their progeny. I think it's fitting that almost all of the oversized, elaborate mansions and hotels built and occupied by the Vanderbilts and Astors and their ilk have been razed and replaced with more practical edifices.
If you like history and you don't know much about the Gilded Age or the Vanderbilt family, the book is worth a look. It's generally well written. Just sloooooow.
March 14, 2024
Not as Original as I Thought it Would be.
I’ve heard it all before. Barely anything is original. About 20%, I would say, is what I would deem as informative.
I’ve read most of the stories in this book many times before, in other books about the Vanderbilts, or about the gilded age.
Based on the lack of original material…I give this book three stars. 💫💫💫
I’ve heard it all before. Barely anything is original. About 20%, I would say, is what I would deem as informative.
I’ve read most of the stories in this book many times before, in other books about the Vanderbilts, or about the gilded age.
Based on the lack of original material…I give this book three stars. 💫💫💫
November 9, 2021
Goodness, what a disappointment this book was! "Rise and fall" is a bit of a misnomer, given that this book is literally all over the place. We know the Commodore made a bunch of money; we know his son Billy made more; and we know the rest of them squandered it on building opulent mansions which no one could afford to keep up. But is that it? Is that really the whole story? I guess maybe the words "rise and fall" being in the title, I was expecting more exposition on that part of it. Perhaps I'd have lowered my expectations if this book had instead been called a "bunch of random Vanderbilt family anecdotes".
The in-depth sailing chapter? What was the goal there? SO MUCH on Truman Capote? While he was a friend of Gloria, I'm just not sure why that was such a large part of this book. I'm not sure what his time in Kansas writing In Cold Blood has to do with the Vanderbilts rise and fall. Also, while I know this wasn't meant to be written in a linear timeline, maybe it should have been? It was really confusing at some points, especially since the family tree didn't have dates attached to it. For example, opening with Gloria going on a date at age 17 with Howard Hughes, to then backing WAY up to the Morgan Sisters, and hopping aroud unti Gloria was an adult made for a really unenjoyable experience. It was also (outside of the chapers about Alva), just....boring content. And when I was coming to the end of boring content, it seemed like they'd instead back up FURTHER to tell me the source of that boring content.
There was also a REALLY disjointed section in the book about a mine collapse in Illinois. While I understood that it was meant to compare the amount of money offered to miners' families in direct contrast to the massive sums Alva spent on her party.....there was no connection to the family. I was half-expecting the chapter to end with a note that the mine was owned by a Vanderbilt. It just felt like really weird, shoddy writing, and a mismatched way to connect two events that were so far from being connected. I actually read it, and re-read it to see if I had missed anything because it just seemed so out of place.
I love Anderson Cooper, and I love stories about the Gilded Age, and I'm fascinated by the old money families wreaking golden havoc on Manhattan. The one (small) slice of the book dedicated to talking about where, in modern day Manhattan all of these grand homes once stood was wonderful! But on the whole, this book was just a patchwork of mismatched fabric squares sewn together in the wrong pattern. There are better books on this era (and frankly, about this family) that make this one a waste of precious reading time.
The in-depth sailing chapter? What was the goal there? SO MUCH on Truman Capote? While he was a friend of Gloria, I'm just not sure why that was such a large part of this book. I'm not sure what his time in Kansas writing In Cold Blood has to do with the Vanderbilts rise and fall. Also, while I know this wasn't meant to be written in a linear timeline, maybe it should have been? It was really confusing at some points, especially since the family tree didn't have dates attached to it. For example, opening with Gloria going on a date at age 17 with Howard Hughes, to then backing WAY up to the Morgan Sisters, and hopping aroud unti Gloria was an adult made for a really unenjoyable experience. It was also (outside of the chapers about Alva), just....boring content. And when I was coming to the end of boring content, it seemed like they'd instead back up FURTHER to tell me the source of that boring content.
There was also a REALLY disjointed section in the book about a mine collapse in Illinois. While I understood that it was meant to compare the amount of money offered to miners' families in direct contrast to the massive sums Alva spent on her party.....there was no connection to the family. I was half-expecting the chapter to end with a note that the mine was owned by a Vanderbilt. It just felt like really weird, shoddy writing, and a mismatched way to connect two events that were so far from being connected. I actually read it, and re-read it to see if I had missed anything because it just seemed so out of place.
I love Anderson Cooper, and I love stories about the Gilded Age, and I'm fascinated by the old money families wreaking golden havoc on Manhattan. The one (small) slice of the book dedicated to talking about where, in modern day Manhattan all of these grand homes once stood was wonderful! But on the whole, this book was just a patchwork of mismatched fabric squares sewn together in the wrong pattern. There are better books on this era (and frankly, about this family) that make this one a waste of precious reading time.
September 24, 2021
This is the second of Anderson Cooper’s books that I’ve listened to, the first being ’The Rainbow Comes and Goes: A Mother and Son on Life, Love and Loss’ which I still remember the pleasure of listening to a couple of Octobers ago, while driving through New England. I loved the back and forth of listening to him share his thoughts along with his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, who occasionally shared some personal history of her life, and could almost feel him squirm - but there was so much obvious love between them. It was that much more poignant as it had only been a few months since she had passed away.
This shares the history of the Vanderbilt family beginning with Cornelius Vanderbilt, one of the more famous multi-millionaires of the 19th century. The son of a man who ferried cargo from Staten Island and Manhattan, eventually making a name for himself among the largest steamship operators in the 1820’s. Later on, he would add the railroad industry and his fortune grew. As the years passed and other generations were added to the family, that fortune dwindled over time as did the family’s standing.
Coauthored by Katherine Howe, this was fascinating to listen to. The eras that this covers is part of that, but also there’s so much honesty in how this is shared that it was made for a compelling story, one that almost seems fictional. The excesses, the family drama behind the scenes, the losses, the famous friends - it’s all fascinating, if a bit heartbreaking at times. Some stories of those people who were friendly with the Vanderbilts would have been considered scandalous at the time, and perhaps still. But there’s so much real-life history beyond this family, as well that anchors this in place and time, as well.
At the heart of this story of this family is the idea that anyone willing to work hard enough could improve their life, and how that idea has gradually become twisted over time to include those who would take advantage of others, including family, in order to obtain wealth, fame or just notoriety - good or bad.
April 18, 2022
As a reader of historical fiction, I’ve read a few novels involving some members of the Vanderbilt dynasty. And when I came across this nonfiction book, I decided to learn more about this famous dynasty, especially their beginnings and what caused the fall.
This fascinating story stars with Jan Aertsen van der Bilt, born in 1627 in Holland (not known when he arrives in America), who as an indentured servant arrives in New Amsterdam (NYC), further the story explores the traits of some members of this dynasty including the famous Commodore, who is born two generations later, and the dynasty glamour ends with Gladys at The Breakers in Rhode Island, who isn’t officially served a notice of eviction, but in a way she is.
Cornelius Vanderbilt is born on May 27, 1794 on a farmstead on Staten Island. He leaves school at the age of eleven for his first job on the water – transporting passengers and vegetables between Staten Island and Manhattan. Within a few years, he stars his own ferry business. The older boatmen nickname him “the Commodore” - a joke, which sticks. He is headstrong, manipulative, and willing to risk almost anything to make money. During the 1812 British blockade of Americans’ trade with France, the young Commodore sees a moneymaking opportunity. He has no qualms about striking a deal with the British. He is shrewd in breaking monopolies (God bless him for that, we need much more of that in the US).
His son Billy takes over management of the railroad empire. He more than doubles the Commodore’s fortune. He is the only one of the Vanderbilt descendants to add to the wealth they’d been handed. But he also initiates the fall of the wealth as he spends it in excess for which the Vanderbilt would become famous.
His son Cornelius II (Commodore’s favorite grandson) finishes building The Breakers in 1895, and William Kissam qualifies for inclusion into the NY society, exactly Mrs. Astor’s rules.
Written with depth, a unique perspective, and honesty, we get a fresh viewpoint of not only this dynasty, but also of this mythical American success - that success is available to anyone who works hard. The reality is there is so much more behind this mythical success.
The story vividly captures the time period, beginning with New York as it evolves from a tiny settlement to a thriving city of wealth, further exposing the Gilded Age Fifth Avenue society, their Newport summer mansions, and lavish European excursions. This compelling story focuses on the members that give power to the rise and fall of this dynasty.
This fascinating story stars with Jan Aertsen van der Bilt, born in 1627 in Holland (not known when he arrives in America), who as an indentured servant arrives in New Amsterdam (NYC), further the story explores the traits of some members of this dynasty including the famous Commodore, who is born two generations later, and the dynasty glamour ends with Gladys at The Breakers in Rhode Island, who isn’t officially served a notice of eviction, but in a way she is.
Cornelius Vanderbilt is born on May 27, 1794 on a farmstead on Staten Island. He leaves school at the age of eleven for his first job on the water – transporting passengers and vegetables between Staten Island and Manhattan. Within a few years, he stars his own ferry business. The older boatmen nickname him “the Commodore” - a joke, which sticks. He is headstrong, manipulative, and willing to risk almost anything to make money. During the 1812 British blockade of Americans’ trade with France, the young Commodore sees a moneymaking opportunity. He has no qualms about striking a deal with the British. He is shrewd in breaking monopolies (God bless him for that, we need much more of that in the US).
His son Billy takes over management of the railroad empire. He more than doubles the Commodore’s fortune. He is the only one of the Vanderbilt descendants to add to the wealth they’d been handed. But he also initiates the fall of the wealth as he spends it in excess for which the Vanderbilt would become famous.
His son Cornelius II (Commodore’s favorite grandson) finishes building The Breakers in 1895, and William Kissam qualifies for inclusion into the NY society, exactly Mrs. Astor’s rules.
Written with depth, a unique perspective, and honesty, we get a fresh viewpoint of not only this dynasty, but also of this mythical American success - that success is available to anyone who works hard. The reality is there is so much more behind this mythical success.
The story vividly captures the time period, beginning with New York as it evolves from a tiny settlement to a thriving city of wealth, further exposing the Gilded Age Fifth Avenue society, their Newport summer mansions, and lavish European excursions. This compelling story focuses on the members that give power to the rise and fall of this dynasty.
December 12, 2022
A mildly interesting look at several members of the Vanderbilt family over the generations. Cooper declares his mother, Gloria, to be the last of the dynasty that was squandered.
July 21, 2021
This book rocks. I promise.
November 14, 2021
Really overestimated my interest in this family history.
November 17, 2021
America has never had a royal family but the Vanderbilts come as close to it as this country has ever known. Our fascination with them is endless. So much so that many books, non-fiction and historical fiction, have been written about their history. But for famed CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, the story is personal. This is his family and now that he is a father, Cooper felt compelled to dig deep into the history of his ancestors to write this fascinating book along with novelist and historian Katherine Howe.
Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty takes us back to when Jan Aerstein van der Bilt came to New Netherland (New York State) from Holland. The book tells of the rise of Cornelius Vanderbilt (the Commodore) and his descendants including his son William, who took the family wealth to an even higher level. The family became consumed with spending and building their social stature. Cooper and Howe tell of the mansions, parties, marriages, most in pursuit of even more wealth, and affairs. And sadly, untimely deaths including suicides and a tragic loss on the ship Lusitania.
The sections devoted to Cooper’s mother are the most poignant. The story of Gloria Vanderbilt, the “poor little rich girl” has been widely told and you may recall the 1980s book and miniseries “Little Gloria… Happy at Last.” But this book gets to the truth in a way that only a son can tell, although his mother kept her traumatic past from him while he was growing up. Although the Vanderbilt money was long gone once she grew up, Gloria made and lost her own fortunes several times over. Her successful jeans business gave the name Vanderbilt a whole new meaning in the 1970s.
If you enjoy the history of New York City, have an interest in learning more about the Vanderbilts or are simply a fan of Anderson Cooper, Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty is worth checking out. I read the book although I suspect it is even better being narrated in audio form by Cooper.
Rated 4.25 stars.
Review posted on MicheleReader.com.
Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty takes us back to when Jan Aerstein van der Bilt came to New Netherland (New York State) from Holland. The book tells of the rise of Cornelius Vanderbilt (the Commodore) and his descendants including his son William, who took the family wealth to an even higher level. The family became consumed with spending and building their social stature. Cooper and Howe tell of the mansions, parties, marriages, most in pursuit of even more wealth, and affairs. And sadly, untimely deaths including suicides and a tragic loss on the ship Lusitania.
The sections devoted to Cooper’s mother are the most poignant. The story of Gloria Vanderbilt, the “poor little rich girl” has been widely told and you may recall the 1980s book and miniseries “Little Gloria… Happy at Last.” But this book gets to the truth in a way that only a son can tell, although his mother kept her traumatic past from him while he was growing up. Although the Vanderbilt money was long gone once she grew up, Gloria made and lost her own fortunes several times over. Her successful jeans business gave the name Vanderbilt a whole new meaning in the 1970s.
If you enjoy the history of New York City, have an interest in learning more about the Vanderbilts or are simply a fan of Anderson Cooper, Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty is worth checking out. I read the book although I suspect it is even better being narrated in audio form by Cooper.
Rated 4.25 stars.
Review posted on MicheleReader.com.
October 26, 2021
Review copy provided by Harper Audio in exchange for review.
I was really excited about this one. I like Anderson Cooper and found it intriguing that his mother is a Vanderbilt. This started our stronger than it finished. I did learn many things about the family than I knew before but not as much as I wanted. He covers a lot of events that were considered newsworthy and sometimes salacious. I wanted to know the details of how this empire started but it was very quick on that information and then on to more “drama” surrounding the family. I found that some portions of the
book where I wanted more details were only a few sentences or paragraphs and then other sections - Alva, Truman Capote, the Lusitania- were so drawn out, he spent sooo much time on them and I became very uninterested in these sections and couldn’t wait for them to be over. Overall, it was mostly enjoyable. I also like Anderson’s voice, so that didn’t bother me. But I wanted more on the business dealings, plans, plotting and scheming that built the Vanderbilt fortune. There are still some juicy bits about members of the family that are interesting but it just wasn’t what I expected.
I was really excited about this one. I like Anderson Cooper and found it intriguing that his mother is a Vanderbilt. This started our stronger than it finished. I did learn many things about the family than I knew before but not as much as I wanted. He covers a lot of events that were considered newsworthy and sometimes salacious. I wanted to know the details of how this empire started but it was very quick on that information and then on to more “drama” surrounding the family. I found that some portions of the
book where I wanted more details were only a few sentences or paragraphs and then other sections - Alva, Truman Capote, the Lusitania- were so drawn out, he spent sooo much time on them and I became very uninterested in these sections and couldn’t wait for them to be over. Overall, it was mostly enjoyable. I also like Anderson’s voice, so that didn’t bother me. But I wanted more on the business dealings, plans, plotting and scheming that built the Vanderbilt fortune. There are still some juicy bits about members of the family that are interesting but it just wasn’t what I expected.
January 21, 2022
I have been fascinated with the Vanderbilt’s ever since my parents and I went to visit the Vanderbilt Mansion in Hyde Park, New York (we also visited Franklin D. Roosevelt’s mansion the same day).
The beginning of the book was quite full of the history of the family, which I knew, but didn’t really. Starting with the Monarch, Cornelius Vanderbilt and ending with Anderson Cooper. The book is divided into two parts, “The Rise” and then “The Fall”, hence the name of the book.
The book goes along at a good pace but then takes a strange buildup and rush to get to “Little Gloria”, and “The Trial of the Century” which they didn’t really delve into (guess they figured that story was told to death).
I felt that the book ended abruptly with me wanting more. Overall I enjoyed the book and would recommend to anyone interested in the subject matter.
The beginning of the book was quite full of the history of the family, which I knew, but didn’t really. Starting with the Monarch, Cornelius Vanderbilt and ending with Anderson Cooper. The book is divided into two parts, “The Rise” and then “The Fall”, hence the name of the book.
The book goes along at a good pace but then takes a strange buildup and rush to get to “Little Gloria”, and “The Trial of the Century” which they didn’t really delve into (guess they figured that story was told to death).
I felt that the book ended abruptly with me wanting more. Overall I enjoyed the book and would recommend to anyone interested in the subject matter.
October 18, 2021
Interesting enough. Recommend skipping the entire chapter about yachting and The America’s Cup. An inordinate amount of information about Truman Capote. A lot of the information about Alva Vanderbilt can also be read in the novel A Well-behaved Woman by Therese Ann Fowler that I read a few years ago and thoroughly enjoyed.
September 28, 2021
Vanderbilt: the rise and fall of an American Dynasty
By Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe
2021
It's no surprise that Anderson Cooper knew relatively little about his Vanderbilt forebears when he decided to write his new book, "Vanderbilt, the RIse and Fall of an American Dynasty." People like me, curators obsessed with the GIlded Age, inevitably spent more time studying the Vanderbilts and their impact on the material culture of America than Cooper would have. Indeed, I only became really interested in Anderson Cooper when I found out two things: that he was gay, and that he was Gloria Vanderbilt's son.
Cooper's book is not really a history of the Vanderbilt clan. It is a highly "curated" series of a dozen vignettes that focus on specific characters and moments in the long arc of the Vanderbilt name. It is well written and, for the most part, well-researched (Cooper used a historian to help him write this, and I think you can see her voice in contrast to his journalistic voice throughout).
But rather than a history of the Vanderbilts, this book is Cooper's effort to understand a part of his background that had been purposely pushed aside and suppressed, most of all by his mother, who was perhaps one of the greatest victims of being a Vanderbilt.
This is a book full of stories of broken relationships, unbridled ambition, unparalled desire for power and money and control. At the end, where there are two chapters that focus on Cooper's mother and her mother and the chaos that was her young life, one realizes that this book is a piece of historical therapy. Cooper's chapter on his mother's adult life--which is the only chapter in which he himself appears as a major player--is called "The Last VanderbiIlt." It is, essentially, a distillation of Cooper's feelings about how being a Vanderbilt messed up his mother's life, and transformed her into the damaged, intelligent woman she was, a woman who spent her life desperately seeking something that she only found, in the end, in her son Anderson: steadfast love and endless forgiveness.
Even if you know about the Vanderbilts, this is a worthwhile book to read. Most of the juiciest bits are here. Just understand that this was written to help the author come to grips with who he is, and to exorcise ghosts that have undoubtedly haunted him his whole life.
The other image I posted with my FB review is Joseph Seymour Guy's monumental group portrait of William Henry Vanderbilt and his children in his Fifth Avenue parlor in 1873. It is called "Going to the Opera." Cooper might never have seen this, because it belongs to the Biltmore Estate and another branch of the family. I have used this painting in lots of lectures over the years, and I always get a cheap laugh by referring to it as "Waiting for the Commodore to Die."
If you read the book, you'll get the joke.
By Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe
2021
It's no surprise that Anderson Cooper knew relatively little about his Vanderbilt forebears when he decided to write his new book, "Vanderbilt, the RIse and Fall of an American Dynasty." People like me, curators obsessed with the GIlded Age, inevitably spent more time studying the Vanderbilts and their impact on the material culture of America than Cooper would have. Indeed, I only became really interested in Anderson Cooper when I found out two things: that he was gay, and that he was Gloria Vanderbilt's son.
Cooper's book is not really a history of the Vanderbilt clan. It is a highly "curated" series of a dozen vignettes that focus on specific characters and moments in the long arc of the Vanderbilt name. It is well written and, for the most part, well-researched (Cooper used a historian to help him write this, and I think you can see her voice in contrast to his journalistic voice throughout).
But rather than a history of the Vanderbilts, this book is Cooper's effort to understand a part of his background that had been purposely pushed aside and suppressed, most of all by his mother, who was perhaps one of the greatest victims of being a Vanderbilt.
This is a book full of stories of broken relationships, unbridled ambition, unparalled desire for power and money and control. At the end, where there are two chapters that focus on Cooper's mother and her mother and the chaos that was her young life, one realizes that this book is a piece of historical therapy. Cooper's chapter on his mother's adult life--which is the only chapter in which he himself appears as a major player--is called "The Last VanderbiIlt." It is, essentially, a distillation of Cooper's feelings about how being a Vanderbilt messed up his mother's life, and transformed her into the damaged, intelligent woman she was, a woman who spent her life desperately seeking something that she only found, in the end, in her son Anderson: steadfast love and endless forgiveness.
Even if you know about the Vanderbilts, this is a worthwhile book to read. Most of the juiciest bits are here. Just understand that this was written to help the author come to grips with who he is, and to exorcise ghosts that have undoubtedly haunted him his whole life.
The other image I posted with my FB review is Joseph Seymour Guy's monumental group portrait of William Henry Vanderbilt and his children in his Fifth Avenue parlor in 1873. It is called "Going to the Opera." Cooper might never have seen this, because it belongs to the Biltmore Estate and another branch of the family. I have used this painting in lots of lectures over the years, and I always get a cheap laugh by referring to it as "Waiting for the Commodore to Die."
If you read the book, you'll get the joke.
January 2, 2022
This is the story of the Vanderbilt family. Patriarch Cornelius Vanderbilt made two fortunes, one in shipping and the other in railroads. He was once the richest man in America. For every $20 of wealth in the country, Mr. Vanderbilt had $1. This book, written by Vanderbilt's Great, Great, Great-Grandson, Anderson Cooper, is the story of the greatest American fortune ever squandered. Cooper tells us about the money makers, the lavish homes and summer cottages, the yachts, and the scandals. When Cooper's mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, passed away in 2019, he decided to look into the family history and write this book. He declared that nobody can make money vanish into thin air like a Vanderbilt.
I've been interested in learning about this family since I visited a few of their homes in Newport, RI, and Asheville, NC. Their beautiful homes are full of vintage furniture, tapestries, and stunning artwork. This book brings the family to life. We are told stories about various family members and their places in history. I enjoyed most of the stories, but I didn't like the way the stories were told in a non-linear timeline. My rating: 4 Stars.
I've been interested in learning about this family since I visited a few of their homes in Newport, RI, and Asheville, NC. Their beautiful homes are full of vintage furniture, tapestries, and stunning artwork. This book brings the family to life. We are told stories about various family members and their places in history. I enjoyed most of the stories, but I didn't like the way the stories were told in a non-linear timeline. My rating: 4 Stars.
July 26, 2023
Cooper tells the story of the last several generations of his family - the Vanderbilts.
The first half of this book is fantastic. Great history, very well written, couldn’t hardly put it down.
In the second half the story gets closer to Cooper’s own life, mostly revolving around his mother, Gloria. This causes the book to lose some of the outsider’s objectivity that made the first half of the book so good. Which is fine! It’s Cooper’s story to tell however he wants. It just isn’t as interesting.
But the book ends well. One thing Cooper never loses sight of is the destructive effect money had on his family’s story, and the futility of using it to find happiness.
Overall five stars, maybe 4.5. Enjoyable. Thanks for the book Courtney!
The first half of this book is fantastic. Great history, very well written, couldn’t hardly put it down.
In the second half the story gets closer to Cooper’s own life, mostly revolving around his mother, Gloria. This causes the book to lose some of the outsider’s objectivity that made the first half of the book so good. Which is fine! It’s Cooper’s story to tell however he wants. It just isn’t as interesting.
But the book ends well. One thing Cooper never loses sight of is the destructive effect money had on his family’s story, and the futility of using it to find happiness.
Overall five stars, maybe 4.5. Enjoyable. Thanks for the book Courtney!
October 16, 2021
While I respect and adore Anderson Cooper, I found this very dry for the first 2/3rds. The tone of the book changes when he writes about his mother.
September 7, 2022
Probably the worst book I’ve read so far this year. The writing was boring, clunky, and often irrelevant. The plot (aka the life of the Vanderbilts) was often derailed by the most ridiculous things: New York when it was New Amsterdam, Truman Capote, etc.
The author seemed uncomfortable with any semblance of personal revelation from the beginning, which was drilled home when he finally got to the topic of his own existence and kept it in the third person.
I could have googled the Vanderbilts and learned everything in this book with less time and less annoying word structure. I am not being dramatic when I say it was terrible, to the point where I felt sorry for the author. How did this get good reviews? The one redeeming point was discovering the cat costume of the Vanderbilt ball of 1883. I had to google a photo of it or course, because despite pages of descriptions of ball gowns, no one thought it was important to include photos in this book.
The author seemed uncomfortable with any semblance of personal revelation from the beginning, which was drilled home when he finally got to the topic of his own existence and kept it in the third person.
I could have googled the Vanderbilts and learned everything in this book with less time and less annoying word structure. I am not being dramatic when I say it was terrible, to the point where I felt sorry for the author. How did this get good reviews? The one redeeming point was discovering the cat costume of the Vanderbilt ball of 1883. I had to google a photo of it or course, because despite pages of descriptions of ball gowns, no one thought it was important to include photos in this book.
February 17, 2022
Anderson Cooper has written a loving tribute to his mother Gloria Vanderbilt; the respect he has for his mother’s life shines through this somewhat abbreviated history of one of America’s famous Gilded Age families.
Cooper grew up knowing little about the magnate, Cornelius (who left 100 million dollars to his heirs upon his death) nor the unbelievable excesses of wealth that his relatives had squandered before Anderson came onto the scene. His mother Gloria avoided conversing about her childhood, the painful custody battle when she was eleven and the scandals around the Vanderbilt history. This book became a way for Anderson Cooper to understand his mother and the influences which shaped her- and a discovery of his Vanderbilt roots.
It’s almost chatty versus being a true history, somewhat like diving into celebrity news of over a hundred years ago. Newspapers in the 1800s made it possible for the first time to print details of the comings, goings, clothing, food, drink, celebrations of this rarified group of people - while they transformed New York with colossal mansions- and everyone ate it up. “Old families”, which included the Astors turned their noses up at the nouveau riche who had recently made huge amounts of money in the expansion of America. Alva Vanderbilt’s machinations are gloriously described, as she moved her family into the upper echelon of New York society with extravagant expenditures, homes and balls.
The Vanderbilts touched elbows with the rich, famous and notable casually; this book is saturated with the names of the “hoi polloi” over decades. Frankly, I found this alternately astounding and amusing - almost hard to fathom that these individuals were so well known to each other - that it was such a small, elite world.
I was well entertained. 3.5 strong stars
Cooper grew up knowing little about the magnate, Cornelius (who left 100 million dollars to his heirs upon his death) nor the unbelievable excesses of wealth that his relatives had squandered before Anderson came onto the scene. His mother Gloria avoided conversing about her childhood, the painful custody battle when she was eleven and the scandals around the Vanderbilt history. This book became a way for Anderson Cooper to understand his mother and the influences which shaped her- and a discovery of his Vanderbilt roots.
It’s almost chatty versus being a true history, somewhat like diving into celebrity news of over a hundred years ago. Newspapers in the 1800s made it possible for the first time to print details of the comings, goings, clothing, food, drink, celebrations of this rarified group of people - while they transformed New York with colossal mansions- and everyone ate it up. “Old families”, which included the Astors turned their noses up at the nouveau riche who had recently made huge amounts of money in the expansion of America. Alva Vanderbilt’s machinations are gloriously described, as she moved her family into the upper echelon of New York society with extravagant expenditures, homes and balls.
The Vanderbilts touched elbows with the rich, famous and notable casually; this book is saturated with the names of the “hoi polloi” over decades. Frankly, I found this alternately astounding and amusing - almost hard to fathom that these individuals were so well known to each other - that it was such a small, elite world.
I was well entertained. 3.5 strong stars
November 10, 2021
He was born shortly after George Washington began his second term as President. When he died a decade after the Civil War, he was the richest man the new nation had ever seen. His fortune of $100 million “controlled one of every twenty American dollars in circulation at that time.” Estimates of its equivalent value today would place it upwards of $100 billion. The favored son to whom he left the bulk of his millions doubled the family’s holdings. They controlled the all-important railroad networks that linked New York City with the Midwest. It was a monopoly as great as any ever amassed in American history. And the wealth it generated was to finance the most extreme examples of Gilded Age excess.
WEALTH SQUANDERED THROUGH THE GENERATIONS
The family’s founder “possessed a genius and a mania for making money, but his obsession with material wealth would border on the pathological, and the pathology born of that wealth would go on to infect each successive generation in different ways.” By the middle of the next century, the three generations that followed him—”the original new-money arrivistes”—had squandered the wealth on palatial homes, magnificent yachts, stables of race horses, and other indulgences of every imaginable sort. This was Gilded Age excess to an extreme. The family’s fortune was no more. And when “the last Vanderbilt” died at the age of ninety-five in 2016, the family, too, had passed into the mists of history.
AN OFFSPRING OF THE FAMILY TELLS THE TALE
This is the story so beautifully told in Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty by CNN news anchor Anderson Cooper and novelist Katherine Howe. Cooper is a direct descendent of the man who started it all, “the Commodore,” Cornelius Vanderbilt. And his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt Cooper, was “the last Vanderbilt.” Her photo, and his as a baby, appear on the book’s cover.
GILDED AGE EXCESS THROUGH THE GENERATIONS
Over the century during which the sprawling Vanderbilt family held the nation’s attention, scores of people bore the name. In this short history, the authors judiciously chose to focus on a handful of the Vanderbilts whose lives have been at the same time both more eventful and more emblematic of the family’s declining fortunes.
CORNELIUS VANDERBILT
“Commodore” Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877) built one of the nation’s legendary fortunes, first as a steamboat entrepreneur and later through his ownership of a vast network of railroads that spanned the Northeast, Midwest, and Middle Atlantic. He was unlettered and universally considered boorish, often treating those around him with contempt, including his thirteen children. He was known to take a whip to his namesake son, Cornelius, for the “weakness” he showed as an epileptic.
BILLY VANDERBILT
William (“Bllly”) Vanderbilt (1821-85), the Commodore’s eldest son, survived the abuse he suffered as a child—his father called him “the blockhead”—and proved himself to be a brilliant businessman. He took control of the New York Central Railroad on his father’s death in 1877 and doubled the family’s fortune in the eight years that elapsed before his own death. He passed the bulk of his estate to his two sons, Cornelius II and William. Each, in his own way, acted out the family’s impulse to indulge in Gilded Age excess.
CORNIE VANDERBILT
Cornelius Vanderbilt II (1843-99) headed the family in its third generation. He was the Commodore’s favorite grandson for the strong work ethic he consistently demonstrated. He took command of the family empire on the death of his father and remained at the helm until 1896, when ill health forced him to pull back.
WILLIE VANDERBILT
William Kissam (“Willie”) Vanderbilt (1849-1920) , Cornie’s younger brother, ascended to the head of the Vanderbilt family on his brother’s death in 1899. He devoted himself to raising race horses and was one of the founders of The Jockey Club. He was, in a word, a playboy. Willie may have been better known to the public as Alva Vanderbilt’s husband.
ALVA VANDERBILT
Alva Erskine Smith Vanderbilt Belmont (1853-1933) rivaled Mrs. Caroline Schermerhorn Astor (1830-1908) as the doyenne of The Four Hundred at the peak of New York society. Alva was the wife of Willie Vanderbilt. She was a domestic tyrant who reigned over her household with fear. For example, she forced her daughter Consuelo into an unhappy marriage with the Duke of Marlborough (a close friend of his first cousin Winston Churchill). Alva presided over New York society from palatial homes in the City and in Newport, Rhode Island, distinguishing herself by spending enormous sums of money on lavish balls and other headline-grabbing parties. Later in life, she took up the cause of women’s suffrage, funding much of the action in New York, and supporting soup kitchens and other efforts to support the poor.
ALFRED GWYNNE VANDERBILT
A son of Cornelius Vanderbilt II and thus a member of the family’s fourth generation, Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt (1877-1915) was a passenger on the RMS Lusitania, going to Britain to conduct a meeting of the International Horse Breeders’ Association and traveling with his valet. He went down with 1,100 others on May 7, 1915, when the Germans torpedoed the ship. Alfred was a sportsman, and he particularly enjoyed fox hunting and coaching. He spent a great deal of money before his untimely death, the very personification of Gilded Age excess.
GLORIA VANDERBILT
Gloria Vanderbilt (1924-2019) may be best remembered for the blue jeans that prominently bore her name. She was an artist and fashion designer as well as a socialite. Her father was Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt (1880-1925) of the third generation, the youngest son of Cornelius Vanderbilt II. He gambled away the millions left to him and died of cirrhosis of the liver when Gloria was eighteen months old. In turn, she squandered the millions left to her in trust by her grandparents. She made millions more from her creations but died with little evidence of the fortune, leaving her son, Anderson Cooper, with less than $1.5 million. He characterizes her as “the last Vanderbilt.” In her long life, she married four times, most notably to orchestra conductor Leopold Stokowski, film director Sidney Lumet, and author and screenwriter Wyatt Cooper.
TRACING THE FAMILY’S HISTORY THROUGH PIVOTAL EVENTS
Cooper and Howe tell their story in twelve chapters, each of which revolves around a single significant event. The book opens at the Commodore’s deathbed with reflections on his often tumultuous relations with the large family that surrounded him. Other key events include:
** Alva Vanderbilt’s over-the-top 1883 ball that “out-Astored Mrs. Astor”
** The tragic sinking of the Lusitania
** “The biggest divorce case that America has ever known” when Alva ended her marriage with Willie
** The 1934 America’s Cup yacht race in which Harold Stirling Vanderbilt, one of Willie’s sons, captained the US entrant
** Truman Capote‘s Black and White Ball in 1966
It’s an adroit way to bring focus to a story that otherwise might well have lurched out of control.
COMPARING YESTERDAY’S FORTUNES WITH TODAY’S
Writers who explore the past face a challenge when describing the size of yesterday’s fortunes. As I write today, Forbes tells us, two Americans (Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos) each possess wealth estimated to total more than $200 billion. (Musk’s is close to $300 billion.) Seven others follow them with fortunes greater than $100 billion. Commodore Vanderbilt’s $100 million—one thousand times less—seems paltry by comparison. Yet Cooper and Howe do what authors have been taught to do. They refer to the inflation in the dollar’s value. For example, that $100 million in 1876 would be $2.6 billion today if we simply factor in the inflation. Because one dollar in 1876 would now be “worth” $25.76.
INFLATION ALONE DOESN’T TELL THE STORY
But inflation alone doesn’t tell the story. Economics isn’t just about numbers. Nobody with $2.6 billion today could possibly do what Commodore Vanderbilt and his immediate successors could do with their fortunes. The New York Central Railroad system they commanded represented a monopoly as surely as do Amazon and Google today. Their “paltry” $100 or $200 million enabled them to build vast palaces stuffed with priceless art and artifacts appropriated from the royal homes of Europe. Even $2.6 billion wouldn’t suffice to finance such conspicuous consumption in 2021. Although Anderson and Howe don’t tell the tale, the men at the head of the family bought and sold legions of politicians to protect their interests. In short, the Vanderbilts of the nineteenth century could do pretty much anything they ever chose to do. They were American royalty.
COMPARING DOLLARS TO DOLLARS IS MISLEADING
Comparing nineteenth-century wealth with today’s by citing inflation is misleading. Inflation today is most commonly measured by the Consumer Price Index. As the Brookings Institute explains, “The CPI is constructed each month using 80,000 items in a fixed basket of goods and services representing what Americans buy in their everyday lives—from gasoline at the pump and apples at the grocery store to cable TV fees and doctor visits.” How many of those 80,000 items were available in 1876? Only a tiny fraction, I would guess. And in 1876 there weren’t even anything close to 80,000 consumer items to be had anywhere in America.
Just walk the lanes of a supermarket to get an idea of what I mean. The automobile, which as much as anything is the centerpiece of the American economy, didn’t represent even a dream in its inventors’ minds in 1876. The seemingly small fortunes of the Vanderbilts in the nineteenth century elevated them as far above the rest of us as are Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos today.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Anderson Cooper (1967-) has anchored his eponymous news program on CNN since 2003 and serves as a correspondent for 60 Minutes on CBS News. He is a great-great-great grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, the founder of the fabled family’s fortunes. Cooper is a graduate of Yale University. He came out as gay in 2012 and remains the most prominent openly gay American journalist. Vanderbilt is his third book.
Katherine Howe (1977-) is the author of five novels and one other nonfiction book in addition to Vanderbilt. She specializes in historical novels. Howe holds a bachelor’s degree in art history and philosophy from Columbia University and a master’s in New England Studies from Boston University. She teaches at Cornell University. Her family settled in Massachusetts in the 1620s. She is related to two of the women convicted as witches during the Salem witch trials. Her other nonfiction book is The Penguin Book of Witches.
WEALTH SQUANDERED THROUGH THE GENERATIONS
The family’s founder “possessed a genius and a mania for making money, but his obsession with material wealth would border on the pathological, and the pathology born of that wealth would go on to infect each successive generation in different ways.” By the middle of the next century, the three generations that followed him—”the original new-money arrivistes”—had squandered the wealth on palatial homes, magnificent yachts, stables of race horses, and other indulgences of every imaginable sort. This was Gilded Age excess to an extreme. The family’s fortune was no more. And when “the last Vanderbilt” died at the age of ninety-five in 2016, the family, too, had passed into the mists of history.
AN OFFSPRING OF THE FAMILY TELLS THE TALE
This is the story so beautifully told in Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty by CNN news anchor Anderson Cooper and novelist Katherine Howe. Cooper is a direct descendent of the man who started it all, “the Commodore,” Cornelius Vanderbilt. And his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt Cooper, was “the last Vanderbilt.” Her photo, and his as a baby, appear on the book’s cover.
GILDED AGE EXCESS THROUGH THE GENERATIONS
Over the century during which the sprawling Vanderbilt family held the nation’s attention, scores of people bore the name. In this short history, the authors judiciously chose to focus on a handful of the Vanderbilts whose lives have been at the same time both more eventful and more emblematic of the family’s declining fortunes.
CORNELIUS VANDERBILT
“Commodore” Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877) built one of the nation’s legendary fortunes, first as a steamboat entrepreneur and later through his ownership of a vast network of railroads that spanned the Northeast, Midwest, and Middle Atlantic. He was unlettered and universally considered boorish, often treating those around him with contempt, including his thirteen children. He was known to take a whip to his namesake son, Cornelius, for the “weakness” he showed as an epileptic.
BILLY VANDERBILT
William (“Bllly”) Vanderbilt (1821-85), the Commodore’s eldest son, survived the abuse he suffered as a child—his father called him “the blockhead”—and proved himself to be a brilliant businessman. He took control of the New York Central Railroad on his father’s death in 1877 and doubled the family’s fortune in the eight years that elapsed before his own death. He passed the bulk of his estate to his two sons, Cornelius II and William. Each, in his own way, acted out the family’s impulse to indulge in Gilded Age excess.
CORNIE VANDERBILT
Cornelius Vanderbilt II (1843-99) headed the family in its third generation. He was the Commodore’s favorite grandson for the strong work ethic he consistently demonstrated. He took command of the family empire on the death of his father and remained at the helm until 1896, when ill health forced him to pull back.
WILLIE VANDERBILT
William Kissam (“Willie”) Vanderbilt (1849-1920) , Cornie’s younger brother, ascended to the head of the Vanderbilt family on his brother’s death in 1899. He devoted himself to raising race horses and was one of the founders of The Jockey Club. He was, in a word, a playboy. Willie may have been better known to the public as Alva Vanderbilt’s husband.
ALVA VANDERBILT
Alva Erskine Smith Vanderbilt Belmont (1853-1933) rivaled Mrs. Caroline Schermerhorn Astor (1830-1908) as the doyenne of The Four Hundred at the peak of New York society. Alva was the wife of Willie Vanderbilt. She was a domestic tyrant who reigned over her household with fear. For example, she forced her daughter Consuelo into an unhappy marriage with the Duke of Marlborough (a close friend of his first cousin Winston Churchill). Alva presided over New York society from palatial homes in the City and in Newport, Rhode Island, distinguishing herself by spending enormous sums of money on lavish balls and other headline-grabbing parties. Later in life, she took up the cause of women’s suffrage, funding much of the action in New York, and supporting soup kitchens and other efforts to support the poor.
ALFRED GWYNNE VANDERBILT
A son of Cornelius Vanderbilt II and thus a member of the family’s fourth generation, Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt (1877-1915) was a passenger on the RMS Lusitania, going to Britain to conduct a meeting of the International Horse Breeders’ Association and traveling with his valet. He went down with 1,100 others on May 7, 1915, when the Germans torpedoed the ship. Alfred was a sportsman, and he particularly enjoyed fox hunting and coaching. He spent a great deal of money before his untimely death, the very personification of Gilded Age excess.
GLORIA VANDERBILT
Gloria Vanderbilt (1924-2019) may be best remembered for the blue jeans that prominently bore her name. She was an artist and fashion designer as well as a socialite. Her father was Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt (1880-1925) of the third generation, the youngest son of Cornelius Vanderbilt II. He gambled away the millions left to him and died of cirrhosis of the liver when Gloria was eighteen months old. In turn, she squandered the millions left to her in trust by her grandparents. She made millions more from her creations but died with little evidence of the fortune, leaving her son, Anderson Cooper, with less than $1.5 million. He characterizes her as “the last Vanderbilt.” In her long life, she married four times, most notably to orchestra conductor Leopold Stokowski, film director Sidney Lumet, and author and screenwriter Wyatt Cooper.
TRACING THE FAMILY’S HISTORY THROUGH PIVOTAL EVENTS
Cooper and Howe tell their story in twelve chapters, each of which revolves around a single significant event. The book opens at the Commodore’s deathbed with reflections on his often tumultuous relations with the large family that surrounded him. Other key events include:
** Alva Vanderbilt’s over-the-top 1883 ball that “out-Astored Mrs. Astor”
** The tragic sinking of the Lusitania
** “The biggest divorce case that America has ever known” when Alva ended her marriage with Willie
** The 1934 America’s Cup yacht race in which Harold Stirling Vanderbilt, one of Willie’s sons, captained the US entrant
** Truman Capote‘s Black and White Ball in 1966
It’s an adroit way to bring focus to a story that otherwise might well have lurched out of control.
COMPARING YESTERDAY’S FORTUNES WITH TODAY’S
Writers who explore the past face a challenge when describing the size of yesterday’s fortunes. As I write today, Forbes tells us, two Americans (Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos) each possess wealth estimated to total more than $200 billion. (Musk’s is close to $300 billion.) Seven others follow them with fortunes greater than $100 billion. Commodore Vanderbilt’s $100 million—one thousand times less—seems paltry by comparison. Yet Cooper and Howe do what authors have been taught to do. They refer to the inflation in the dollar’s value. For example, that $100 million in 1876 would be $2.6 billion today if we simply factor in the inflation. Because one dollar in 1876 would now be “worth” $25.76.
INFLATION ALONE DOESN’T TELL THE STORY
But inflation alone doesn’t tell the story. Economics isn’t just about numbers. Nobody with $2.6 billion today could possibly do what Commodore Vanderbilt and his immediate successors could do with their fortunes. The New York Central Railroad system they commanded represented a monopoly as surely as do Amazon and Google today. Their “paltry” $100 or $200 million enabled them to build vast palaces stuffed with priceless art and artifacts appropriated from the royal homes of Europe. Even $2.6 billion wouldn’t suffice to finance such conspicuous consumption in 2021. Although Anderson and Howe don’t tell the tale, the men at the head of the family bought and sold legions of politicians to protect their interests. In short, the Vanderbilts of the nineteenth century could do pretty much anything they ever chose to do. They were American royalty.
COMPARING DOLLARS TO DOLLARS IS MISLEADING
Comparing nineteenth-century wealth with today’s by citing inflation is misleading. Inflation today is most commonly measured by the Consumer Price Index. As the Brookings Institute explains, “The CPI is constructed each month using 80,000 items in a fixed basket of goods and services representing what Americans buy in their everyday lives—from gasoline at the pump and apples at the grocery store to cable TV fees and doctor visits.” How many of those 80,000 items were available in 1876? Only a tiny fraction, I would guess. And in 1876 there weren’t even anything close to 80,000 consumer items to be had anywhere in America.
Just walk the lanes of a supermarket to get an idea of what I mean. The automobile, which as much as anything is the centerpiece of the American economy, didn’t represent even a dream in its inventors’ minds in 1876. The seemingly small fortunes of the Vanderbilts in the nineteenth century elevated them as far above the rest of us as are Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos today.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Anderson Cooper (1967-) has anchored his eponymous news program on CNN since 2003 and serves as a correspondent for 60 Minutes on CBS News. He is a great-great-great grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, the founder of the fabled family’s fortunes. Cooper is a graduate of Yale University. He came out as gay in 2012 and remains the most prominent openly gay American journalist. Vanderbilt is his third book.
Katherine Howe (1977-) is the author of five novels and one other nonfiction book in addition to Vanderbilt. She specializes in historical novels. Howe holds a bachelor’s degree in art history and philosophy from Columbia University and a master’s in New England Studies from Boston University. She teaches at Cornell University. Her family settled in Massachusetts in the 1620s. She is related to two of the women convicted as witches during the Salem witch trials. Her other nonfiction book is The Penguin Book of Witches.
September 26, 2022
A chronicle of one of the oldest New Money families in American history, Vanderbilt is less of a straightforward history and more of a series of anecdotes from the family's centuries-long reign in the highest ranks of the 1% - in other words, Anderson Cooper spends the better part of this book taking us through the greatest hits of his family's history.
These run the gamut from interesting if dry, like the death of the patriarch Cornelius "Commodore" Vanderbilt and the ensuing battle over his will; to the genuinely fascinating, like the contentious and complicated relationship between Alva Eskine Smith and her daughter Consuelo Vanderbilt (and honestly I would read an entire separate book about Consuelo's doomed, forced marriage to the Duke of Malborough). And then there's a chapter that does nothing except give us a blow-by-blow description of a yacht race that one of the Vanderbilts competed in, a section so baffling dull and inconsequential that I kept flipping ahead and wondering when Cooper was going to stop talking about sailing. Also there's a chapter about Truman Capote, whose only connection to the Vanderbilt's is his friendship with Anderson Cooper's mother, Gloria Vanderbilt. It's a stretch, to say the least.
Still, I was entertained and was enjoying this inside look into one of America's most famous families (and probably getting the inside scoop on the next three seasons of The Gilded Age), but where the book starts to kind of go off the rails is when it comes time for Cooper to delve into her mother's personal history. On one hand, this is the strongest section of the book, because of his close connection to the subject. But Cooper has chosen, confusingly, to frame his mother's story around a made-for-TV movie about her childhood that aired in the 1970's. I had never even heard of this show, and I'd bet that most people reading this book haven't either, but man are Anderson Cooper and his mom mad about it! As far as they're concerned, the show was watched by everyone and was huge in the popular consciousness (and Gloria Vanderbilt was so furious about the inaccuracies that she broke off her friendship with one of the actors who appeared in the movie). This weird fixation on a stupid TV movie that I don't think anyone outside the family even cared about was distracting and odd, and gave the final chapters of Vanderbilt an unpleasant "so what?" aftertaste.
Interesting and informative, but if anything, you should approach this book as merely an introduction to the Vanderbilt dynasty, and use the bibliography at the end to find better sources.
These run the gamut from interesting if dry, like the death of the patriarch Cornelius "Commodore" Vanderbilt and the ensuing battle over his will; to the genuinely fascinating, like the contentious and complicated relationship between Alva Eskine Smith and her daughter Consuelo Vanderbilt (and honestly I would read an entire separate book about Consuelo's doomed, forced marriage to the Duke of Malborough). And then there's a chapter that does nothing except give us a blow-by-blow description of a yacht race that one of the Vanderbilts competed in, a section so baffling dull and inconsequential that I kept flipping ahead and wondering when Cooper was going to stop talking about sailing. Also there's a chapter about Truman Capote, whose only connection to the Vanderbilt's is his friendship with Anderson Cooper's mother, Gloria Vanderbilt. It's a stretch, to say the least.
Still, I was entertained and was enjoying this inside look into one of America's most famous families (and probably getting the inside scoop on the next three seasons of The Gilded Age), but where the book starts to kind of go off the rails is when it comes time for Cooper to delve into her mother's personal history. On one hand, this is the strongest section of the book, because of his close connection to the subject. But Cooper has chosen, confusingly, to frame his mother's story around a made-for-TV movie about her childhood that aired in the 1970's. I had never even heard of this show, and I'd bet that most people reading this book haven't either, but man are Anderson Cooper and his mom mad about it! As far as they're concerned, the show was watched by everyone and was huge in the popular consciousness (and Gloria Vanderbilt was so furious about the inaccuracies that she broke off her friendship with one of the actors who appeared in the movie). This weird fixation on a stupid TV movie that I don't think anyone outside the family even cared about was distracting and odd, and gave the final chapters of Vanderbilt an unpleasant "so what?" aftertaste.
Interesting and informative, but if anything, you should approach this book as merely an introduction to the Vanderbilt dynasty, and use the bibliography at the end to find better sources.
November 24, 2021
I really admire Anderson Cooper and added this memoir to my list because of him and all the Vanderbilt hype. In my youth, we grew up hearing about the moneyed Vanderbilts, we toured an old house on the east coast, and of course wore Gloria’s jeans in the 1980’s. And now we can enjoy watching beautiful Gloria’s son, Anderson, deliver the news.
There were interesting historical facts about deaths and homes and parties and weddings and vacations, but it was accompanied with learning of the severe harshness and waste of these nouveau riche and old money families. Extravagant wastes of money, parties, yachting, outdoing each other, etc. It seems so far removed from today’s times until we think about our own nouveau rock and reality stars.
Anderson Cooper and historian Katherine Howe openly detail some of the family’s cringeworthy and horrific behaviors. For instance, Alva Vanderbilt, who married Billy Vanderbilt, threw a ball for her high society friends that cost a ridiculous quarter of a million dollars back then, which is the equivalent to $6 billion nowadays. Huh?!! Just made me disgusted and angry. And although Alva was later a suffragette fighting for womens’ (mostly her own) rights, she also admitted to torturing her slaves’ children due to her “sense of superiority”. This made me almost unable to finish the book.
Women competing with woman by outspending and outdoing each other…spending ridiculous amounts of money on their parties, beyond-extravagant dresses from Paris, out of season flowers, French food, decorations, and huge groups of high society people. Anderson read this with the most detailed of details to the point that it was just plain boring and tres gauche.
I came away disgusted with the wasting of fortunes, lives having little purpose, and miserably unhappy people. Force your daughter to marry a poor English duke so he receives money as a dowry and she gets a useless titlea husband she doesn’t want or love, and a miserable marriage. Report your husband for cheating so you can marry his best friend.
I appreciate the expose but was tempted at times not to finish because it was so ridiculous and tedious in its decadent minutia. On the plus size, it’s a fairly short bio and Anderson is a good narrator. By the end, I came away feeling sorry for (and disgusted by) many of these well known and envied people. I plan sometime in the future to read AC’s other bio on he and his mom.
There were interesting historical facts about deaths and homes and parties and weddings and vacations, but it was accompanied with learning of the severe harshness and waste of these nouveau riche and old money families. Extravagant wastes of money, parties, yachting, outdoing each other, etc. It seems so far removed from today’s times until we think about our own nouveau rock and reality stars.
Anderson Cooper and historian Katherine Howe openly detail some of the family’s cringeworthy and horrific behaviors. For instance, Alva Vanderbilt, who married Billy Vanderbilt, threw a ball for her high society friends that cost a ridiculous quarter of a million dollars back then, which is the equivalent to $6 billion nowadays. Huh?!! Just made me disgusted and angry. And although Alva was later a suffragette fighting for womens’ (mostly her own) rights, she also admitted to torturing her slaves’ children due to her “sense of superiority”. This made me almost unable to finish the book.
Women competing with woman by outspending and outdoing each other…spending ridiculous amounts of money on their parties, beyond-extravagant dresses from Paris, out of season flowers, French food, decorations, and huge groups of high society people. Anderson read this with the most detailed of details to the point that it was just plain boring and tres gauche.
I came away disgusted with the wasting of fortunes, lives having little purpose, and miserably unhappy people. Force your daughter to marry a poor English duke so he receives money as a dowry and she gets a useless titlea husband she doesn’t want or love, and a miserable marriage. Report your husband for cheating so you can marry his best friend.
I appreciate the expose but was tempted at times not to finish because it was so ridiculous and tedious in its decadent minutia. On the plus size, it’s a fairly short bio and Anderson is a good narrator. By the end, I came away feeling sorry for (and disgusted by) many of these well known and envied people. I plan sometime in the future to read AC’s other bio on he and his mom.
November 25, 2021
Having always been enthralled by the history of The Vanderbilt family I knew I had to read this. Wonderfully written by Anderson Cooper (son of the late Gloria Vanderbilt) this book chronicles the lives of one of the oldest and richest families to ever grace history complete with the origins of their ancestry to the magnificent splendour of their mansions and scandalous family drama. Though we will never see the likes of this kind of wealth and prominence ever the Vanderbilt name will always be synonymous with the opulence of The Gilded Age and one of the names that New York city built it's fame and history on. An absolutely engrossing read.
September 23, 2021
A cleverly written historical autobiography
I wasn’t expecting such an entertaining book, though Anderson Cooper’s smile would lead you to believe he is never boring. The chronicle of the Vanderbilts is a chronicle of America in many ways. Briskly written, carefully documented, and never tedious. Well worth reading.
I wasn’t expecting such an entertaining book, though Anderson Cooper’s smile would lead you to believe he is never boring. The chronicle of the Vanderbilts is a chronicle of America in many ways. Briskly written, carefully documented, and never tedious. Well worth reading.
February 16, 2022
I have long had lots of respect for Anderson Cooper professionally and now after this book, I have even more respect for him personally. I listened to this on Audible where it was read by Anderson which made it an even better book for me. He did have a co-author, Katherine Howe, a NY Times best selling novelist, and he is quick to give her credit for her help.
However, it is basically an intimate story of his family - the Vanderbilt family - beginning with Cornelius Vanderbilt in the early 1800s through to the story of his mom, Gloria Vanderbilt. It tells of Cornelius having amassed the largest fortune ever known in America up until that time as well as how the lavish lifestyles and careless, even wasteful spending caused that massive fortune to for the most part disappear over 5 generations. It paints a vivid picture of the period of time in America known as the Gilded Age, the elaborate mansions, fashion, decor, and travel. It tells of New York's 400 as defined by Caroline Astor, the Grande Dame of New York society at its height, and how they strictly excluded those who did not qualify as per the "guidelines", albeit the guidelines were written to ensure that old money and old genteel society ruled. New money was excluded basically for 3 generations making all pay their dues and wait their turn - even the Vanderbilts. I saw so many similarities to the current series on HBO - "The Gilded Age".
It tells intimate details of those next generations ending with his mom's childhood as a "poor little rich girl" who was wanted by many for her inheritance, but truly loved and cared for by none, least of all by her own mother. I was mesmerized by all of it but truly loved hearing about his special relationship with his mom.
However, it is basically an intimate story of his family - the Vanderbilt family - beginning with Cornelius Vanderbilt in the early 1800s through to the story of his mom, Gloria Vanderbilt. It tells of Cornelius having amassed the largest fortune ever known in America up until that time as well as how the lavish lifestyles and careless, even wasteful spending caused that massive fortune to for the most part disappear over 5 generations. It paints a vivid picture of the period of time in America known as the Gilded Age, the elaborate mansions, fashion, decor, and travel. It tells of New York's 400 as defined by Caroline Astor, the Grande Dame of New York society at its height, and how they strictly excluded those who did not qualify as per the "guidelines", albeit the guidelines were written to ensure that old money and old genteel society ruled. New money was excluded basically for 3 generations making all pay their dues and wait their turn - even the Vanderbilts. I saw so many similarities to the current series on HBO - "The Gilded Age".
It tells intimate details of those next generations ending with his mom's childhood as a "poor little rich girl" who was wanted by many for her inheritance, but truly loved and cared for by none, least of all by her own mother. I was mesmerized by all of it but truly loved hearing about his special relationship with his mom.
September 24, 2021
I've always been fascinated by Gilded Age excesses and have profound memories of touring the various "cottages" at Newport Beach the Vanderbilt family had. Anderson Cooper is also a remarkable fellow in his own right, so I started reading this the first day it came out.
It was a quick read, breezy. Went through history focusing chapters on different family members, moving forward through chronological time, putting them in a historical context based on some struggle in gender, class, or race issues. There was nothing really wrong with it, I just didn't learn much I didn't already know. I noticed more salacious details were in the People interview with Anderson I read this morning, part of his book promo tour. It's not that I just wanted dirt on the family, it's just it all seemed so general. The epilogue, tying the family to landmarks and different spots in Manhattan or Staten Island, was the most compelling writing, but it came at the very end.
Perhaps I am too harsh, but I think the targeted audience does not have much sense of history. I read the T. J. Stiles biography on the Commodore, the scion that started the family, several years ago, and I suspect the thorough details and scholarly tone there had set me up to expect more depth here than there is. But for those unfamiliar with the Vanderbilt lineage in America, or their impact on its economy, culture, and the arts, this book is a fine place to start. And it is told with a 21st century sensibility.
It was a quick read, breezy. Went through history focusing chapters on different family members, moving forward through chronological time, putting them in a historical context based on some struggle in gender, class, or race issues. There was nothing really wrong with it, I just didn't learn much I didn't already know. I noticed more salacious details were in the People interview with Anderson I read this morning, part of his book promo tour. It's not that I just wanted dirt on the family, it's just it all seemed so general. The epilogue, tying the family to landmarks and different spots in Manhattan or Staten Island, was the most compelling writing, but it came at the very end.
Perhaps I am too harsh, but I think the targeted audience does not have much sense of history. I read the T. J. Stiles biography on the Commodore, the scion that started the family, several years ago, and I suspect the thorough details and scholarly tone there had set me up to expect more depth here than there is. But for those unfamiliar with the Vanderbilt lineage in America, or their impact on its economy, culture, and the arts, this book is a fine place to start. And it is told with a 21st century sensibility.
September 22, 2021
Journalist Anderson Cooper has written an excellent biography of his mother, Gloria’s, family, the Vanderbilts. It’s not written in a conventional style by time, but rather by individual. The book is really a series of vignettes about various family members. There are more conventional bios out there of this illustrious family and it’s many homes but Cooper puts a personal touch on it. Almost melancholy but so, so interesting..
The book is coauthored by novelist Katherine Howe. I don’t know how the actual writing was divided, but you can tell there’s a novelist touch to the book. Very good.
The book is coauthored by novelist Katherine Howe. I don’t know how the actual writing was divided, but you can tell there’s a novelist touch to the book. Very good.
November 27, 2021
Nearly finished but stopped at the last few chapters. It was fine. Not organized at all and felt like it went all over the time periods. I went to the Breakers and was amazed at how lavish and beautiful the house was but wealth truly is root to so much evil and sadness if you are consumed by it. The best part of the book was the beginning as it was far more interesting interwoven with major historical events.
December 2, 2023
i only read this because i'm obsessed with truman capote's scandalous ass lmao
January 17, 2022
Actual rating: 4.5 stars After visiting the Breakers in Rhode Island last year, I was really excited to read this book and learn more about the background of the Vanderbilt family.
And I'm so glad I read it because I really enjoyed Cooper's telling of his family's history. It's filled with stories about the sordid details of the family- inside toxic marriages, dysfunctional parent/child relationships, and the way many of the Vanderbilt's squandered away their fortunes.
Cooper also wove into the story bits and pieces of other history from the time period and dug into the personal histories of people closely intertwined in the Vanderbilt family. The chapter on Truman Capote and his relationship with Gloria Vanderbilt was fascinating! All the historical background helped me to visualize the different time periods and to ground myself in the politics of the day, which helped me understand certain choices the family made.
Some chapters, though, were uninteresting to me on a personal level. For example, there is an entire chapter about Harold Vanderbilt defending the American Cup in the 1930's that bored me. I'm sure to many readers this would be an exciting chapter, but I find boat racing a bit boring so that chapter was a bit of a struggle to get through.
All in all, if you have ever been curious about the Vanderbilt family, how they achieved their wealth and how they lost it, I'd highly recommend reading this book, especially as it is written by a member of the Vanderbilt family and you get a perspective that you would otherwise miss in any other biography.
And I'm so glad I read it because I really enjoyed Cooper's telling of his family's history. It's filled with stories about the sordid details of the family- inside toxic marriages, dysfunctional parent/child relationships, and the way many of the Vanderbilt's squandered away their fortunes.
Cooper also wove into the story bits and pieces of other history from the time period and dug into the personal histories of people closely intertwined in the Vanderbilt family. The chapter on Truman Capote and his relationship with Gloria Vanderbilt was fascinating! All the historical background helped me to visualize the different time periods and to ground myself in the politics of the day, which helped me understand certain choices the family made.
Some chapters, though, were uninteresting to me on a personal level. For example, there is an entire chapter about Harold Vanderbilt defending the American Cup in the 1930's that bored me. I'm sure to many readers this would be an exciting chapter, but I find boat racing a bit boring so that chapter was a bit of a struggle to get through.
All in all, if you have ever been curious about the Vanderbilt family, how they achieved their wealth and how they lost it, I'd highly recommend reading this book, especially as it is written by a member of the Vanderbilt family and you get a perspective that you would otherwise miss in any other biography.
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