Vanderbilts » (Illustrated)

In The Vanderbilts the family's astounding story is told in full: from the farmstead beginnings of the Commodore on Staten Island to the pinnacle of wealth, fame, and social standing achieved by the legendary Vanderbilt ladies: Consuelo, Alva, Grace, Gertrude, and Gloria. The text traces the commercial machinations that established their fortune and the Vanderbilt mania for house building that engaged some of America's finest designers and architects.

More than 200 pictures reveal the striking personalities of this extraordinary family and the glittering interiors in which they led their fabled lives. Their art treasures are beautifully reproduced in color; and pictured, too, are many of the press photos that kept the Vanderbilts in the public eye. Genealogical charts and a map showing the "Vanderbilt Country" of old New York are included as well. All in all, it is an epic story, clearly chronicled and dazzlingly portrayed.

Publishers Weekly

Those fond of the smell of money will adore this book, crammed with photographs of Persian rugs, crystal chandeliers, a never-ending train of evening dress and sprawling grounds of New England castles. In chronicling the rise of the Vanderbilts, Patterson ( Living It Up ) traces the ever-interesting story of American-style getting and spending. As devotees of Edith Wharton--and others practiced at distinguishing ``old'' from merely ``big'' money--may be surprised to learn, the first ``van der Bilt'' of record was a resident, ca. 1650, in Flatbush, N.Y. The family never had much money until, in the 19th century, Cornelius parlayed a $100 investment into America's greatest fortune. Railroads entered Vanderbilt holdings relatively late: Cornelius, the man whose statue scowls over Manhattan's Grand Central Station, had no use for the locomotive until, in his old age, a son showed him he could turn a profit with railroads. (Nov.)