#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Janet Maslin, The New York Times - St. Louis Post-Dispatch When Pulitzer Prize - winning journalist Bill Dedman noticed in 2009 a grand home for sale, unoccupied for nearly sixty years, he stumbled through a surprising portal into American history. Empty Mansions is a rich mystery of wealth and loss, connecting the Gilded Age opulence of the nineteenth century with a twenty-first-century battle over a $300 million inheritance. At its ...
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#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Janet Maslin, The New York Times - St. Louis Post-Dispatch When Pulitzer Prize - winning journalist Bill Dedman noticed in 2009 a grand home for sale, unoccupied for nearly sixty years, he stumbled through a surprising portal into American history. Empty Mansions is a rich mystery of wealth and loss, connecting the Gilded Age opulence of the nineteenth century with a twenty-first-century battle over a $300 million inheritance. At its heart is a reclusive heiress named Huguette Clark, a woman so secretive that, at the time of her death at age 104, no new photograph of her had been seen in decades. Though she owned palatial homes in California, New York, and Connecticut, why had she lived for twenty years in a simple hospital room, despite being in excellent health? Why were her valuables being sold off? Was she in control of her fortune, or controlled by those managing her money? Dedman has collaborated with Huguette Clark's cousin, Paul Clark Newell, Jr., one of the few relatives to have frequent conversations with her. Dedman and Newell tell a fairy tale in reverse: the bright, talented daughter, born into a family of extreme wealth and privilege, who secrets herself away from the outside world. Huguette was the daughter of self-made copper industrialist W. A. Clark, nearly as rich as Rockefeller in his day, a controversial senator, railroad builder, and founder of Las Vegas. She grew up in the largest house in New York City, a remarkable dwelling with 121 rooms for a family of four. She owned paintings by Degas and Renoir, a world-renowned Stradivarius violin, a vast collection of antique dolls. But wanting more than treasures, she devoted her wealth to buying gifts for friends and strangers alike, to quietly pursuing her own work as an artist, and to guarding the privacy she valued above all else. The Clark family story spans nearly all of American history in three generations, from a log cabin in Pennsylvania to mining camps in the Montana gold rush, from backdoor politics in Washington to a distress call from an elegant Fifth Avenue apartment. The same Huguette who was touched by the terror attacks of 9/11 held a ticket nine decades earlier for a first-class stateroom on the second voyage of the Titanic . Empty Mansions reveals a complex portrait of the mysterious Huguette and her intimate circle. We meet her extravagant father, her publicity-shy mother, her star-crossed sister, her French boyfriend, her nurse who received more than $30 million in gifts, and the relatives fighting to inherit Huguette's copper fortune. Richly illustrated with more than seventy photographs, Empty Mansions is an enthralling story of an eccentric of the highest order, a last jewel of the Gilded Age who lived life on her own terms. Praise for Empty Mansions "An amazing story of profligate wealth . . . an outsized tale of rags-to-riches prosperity." -- The New York Times "An evocative and rollicking read, part social history, part hothouse mystery, part grand guignol ." --The Daily Beast "Fascinating . . . [a] haunting true-life tale." -- People "One of those incredible stories that you didn't even know existed. It filled a void." --Jon Stewart, The Daily Show "Thrilling . . . deliciously scandalous." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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Add this copy of Empty Mansions: the Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark to cart. $1.99, good condition, Sold by Valleys Books & More rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Roanoke, VA, UNITED STATES, published 2014 by Ballantine Books.
Add this copy of Empty Mansions: the Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark to cart. $2.01, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Atlanta rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Brownstown, MI, UNITED STATES, published 2014 by Ballantine Books.
Add this copy of Empty Mansions: the Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark to cart. $2.01, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Reno rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Reno, NV, UNITED STATES, published 2014 by Ballantine Books.
Add this copy of Empty Mansions: the Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark to cart. $2.01, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Dallas rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2014 by Ballantine Books.
Add this copy of Empty Mansions: the Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark to cart. $2.01, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Baltimore rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Halethorpe, MD, UNITED STATES, published 2014 by Ballantine Books.
Add this copy of Empty Mansions: the Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark to cart. $2.30, fair condition, Sold by Dream Books Co. rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Denver, CO, UNITED STATES, published 2014 by Ballantine Books.
Add this copy of Empty Mansions: the Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark to cart. $2.34, good condition, Sold by Open Books Ltd rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Chicago, IL, UNITED STATES, published 2014 by Ballantine Books.
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Seller's Description:
Good. Spine creased, but binding still sound. Open Books is a nonprofit social venture that provides literacy experiences for thousands of readers each year through inspiring programs and creative capitalization of books.
Add this copy of Empty Mansions: the Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark to cart. $2.46, good condition, Sold by Blue Vase Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Interlochen, MI, UNITED STATES, published 2014 by Ballantine Books.
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Seller's Description:
The item shows wear from consistent use, but it remains in good condition and works perfectly. All pages and cover are intact (including the dust cover, if applicable). Spine may show signs of wear. Pages may include limited notes and highlighting. May NOT include discs, access code or other supplemental materials.
Add this copy of Empty Mansions: the Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark to cart. $2.46, fair condition, Sold by Blue Vase Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Interlochen, MI, UNITED STATES, published 2014 by Ballantine Books.
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Seller's Description:
Fair. The item is very worn but continues to work perfectly. Signs of wear can include aesthetic issues such as scratches, dents, worn and creased covers, folded page corners and minor liquid stains. All pages and the cover are intact, but the dust cover may be missing. Pages may include moderate to heavy amount of notes and highlighting, but the text is not obscured or unreadable. Page edges may have foxing (age related spots and browning). May NOT include discs, access code or other supplemental materials.
Add this copy of Empty Mansions: the Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark to cart. $2.77, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Atlanta rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Brownstown, MI, UNITED STATES, published 2013 by Ballantine Books.
Seriously? This person, Huguette Clark, was beyond imagination! I looked online to learn the outcome of her will.
After reading this I thought, what a wonderful thing it would be to have all her money, no responsibilities of children or husbands and no regrets; to be perfectly happy and in control of your life for most of your life and die believing you helped those you wanted to help. Yet how sad to be her.
I enjoyed learning about this unknown woman.
