| Description |
xxviii, 456 pages, 24 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), genealogical table, map ; 25 cm |
| Summary |
When journalist Bill Dedman noticed a property listing for a grand estate that had been unoccupied for nearly sixty years, he stumbled into one of the most surprising American stories of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Empty Mansions is a rich tale of wealth and loss, complete with copper barons, Gilded Age opulence, and backdoor politics. At its heart is a reclusive 104-year-old heiress named Huguette Clark. Dedman has collaborated with Huguette's cousin, Paul Clark Newell, Jr., to tell a fairy tale in reverse: the bright, talented daughter who is born into an almost royal family of amazing wealth and privilege, yet who secrets herself away from the outside world. Empty Mansions reveals a complete picture of the enigmatic Huguette Clark, heiress to one of the greatest fortunes in American history, a woman who had not been photographed in public since the 1920s. Though she owned three palatial homes in California, New York, and Connecticut, they sat vacant while she lived out her final two decades in a New York City hospital room, despite being in excellent health. Illustrated with more than seventy photographs, some never before seen, Empty Mansions is a touching story of an eccentric of the highest order, a last jewel of the Gilded Age who lived life on her own terms. |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages [371]-429) and index. |
| Contents |
Family Tree -- Introduction -- An Apparition -- Still Life -- The Clark Mansion, Part One -- The Log Cabin -- The Copper King Mansion -- The U.S. Capitol -- The Clark Mansion, Part Two -- 907 Fifth Avenue, Part One -- 907 Fifth Avenue, Part Two -- Bellosguardo -- Le Beau Château -- Doctors Hospital -- Beth Israel Medical Center -- Woodlawn Cemetery -- Surrogate's Courthouse -- Epilogue: The Cricket. |
| Subject |
Clark, Huguette, 1906-2011.
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Heiresses -- United States -- Biography.
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Eccentrics and eccentricities -- United States -- Biography.
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Recluses -- United States -- Biography.
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Collectors and collecting -- United States -- Biography.
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Clark, William Andrews, 1839-1925 -- Family.
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Clark, Huguette, 1906-2011 -- Family.
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Clark, Huguette, 1906-2011 -- Homes and haunts -- United States.
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Mansions -- United States -- History.
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| Added Author |
Newell, Paul Clark, Jr.
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| ISBN |
9780345534521 (hardback : acid-free paper) |
|
0345534522 (hardback : acid-free paper) |
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