Empty Mansions : : the Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune

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Call Number: 328.73 De, Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / General / Clark, Huguette
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Malletts Creek Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	328.73 De	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	328.73 De	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / General / Clark, Huguette	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / General / Clark, Huguette	4-week checkout	Due 05-17-2024

Family Tree -- Introduction: House Hunting -- An Apparition -- Time Capsule -- 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 -- Authors' Note -- List of Illustrations -- Appendix: Siblings of W.A. Clark -- Appendix: Inflation Adjustment.
"When Pulitzer Prize-winning 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., one of the few relatives to have had frequent conversations with her, 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. Her father was self-made copper industrialist W. A. Clark, who at the dawn of the twentieth century was one of the richest men in America. Huguette's inheritance afforded her untold luxury: gorgeous paintings by Degas and Renoir, a world-renowned Stradivarius violin, a vast collection of antique dolls, lavish gifts for her friends, the freedom to pursue her own work as an artist, and, most important, the privacy she valued above all else. The Clark family story takes the reader nearly the entire span of American history in just three generations. The same Huguette who held a ticket for the return trip of the Titanic was touched by the terror attacks of 9/11. In this scrupulously detailed account, we meet Huguette's extravagant father, her publicity-shy mother, her star-crossed sister, her noble French boyfriend, the nurse who received morethan $30 million in gifts, and the relatives seeking to inherit Huguette's $300 million fortune. Richly 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"-- Provided by publisher.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

History submitted by scarrieliz on August 5, 2014, 8:29am Fascinating story of William Clark's rise to the richest man in the nation to the decline of his descendant's sanity and fortune.

The Life of a Wealthy Recluse submitted by Sara W on August 22, 2014, 8:15am Having never heard of Huguette Clark, or her copper magnate father, W.A. Clark, before I picked up this book, I was amazed at how drawn into the story I became. Author Bill Dedman's explanation of how he discovered Huguette's never-occupied, monumental real estate holdings worked its magic on me and I was hooked. It's not just Huguette's bizarre reclusive lifestyle that fascinated me, but the fact that due to unusual longevity, she and her father combined lived for a total of 190 years. Between the two of them, they lived through a pretty sizable chunk of American history.

Interesting book submitted by melissahimich on June 30, 2019, 9:23pm This book isn’t what I expected but I was very intrigued by the story. It’s an interesting read!

I thought this would be about empty mansions... submitted by bookher on August 13, 2019, 2:43pm This book turned out to be about WA Clark's rise to extreme riches and is a good history book but very little on empty mansions.

Excellent book submitted by denisemw on July 30, 2022, 10:29am Fascinating and well told story of Huguette Clark’s unusual life, born to riches and lived past 100. Good read for those who like biographies and history.