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 … 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.
Advance praise for Empty Mansions
“Empty Mansions is a dazzlement and a wonder. Bill Dedman and Paul Newell unravel a great character, Huguette Clark, a shy soul akin to Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird—if Boo’s father had been as rich as Rockefeller. This is an enchanting journey into the mysteries of the mind, a true-to-life exploration of strangeness and delight.”—Pat Conroy, author of The Death of Santini: The Story of a Father and His Son
“Empty Mansions is at once an engrossing portrait of a forgotten American heiress and a fascinating meditation on the crosswinds of extreme wealth. Hugely entertaining and well researched, Empty Mansions is a fabulous read.”—Amanda Foreman, author of A World on Fire
From the Hardcover edition.
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I guess I did’t expect it to be a history book of the mansions.
Very very interesting.
Interesting facts on the life and family of a very wealthy lady and all the people that benefited from her and also of the ones that took advantage of her goodness
Made the characters and the situation interesting.
Fascinating History.
Very interesting family. Not so well known today, which is a shame. Contributed a lot to society.
I bought this book because I like architecture, especially old houses. I was not disappointed. The houses were interesting, but the life of the heiress was even more so. It made me want to go and see the mansions that are still standing.
Fascinating read with historical figures I’d never heard of.
Interesting read. Fascinating to read how their lives evolved.
While you don’t generally think of the subject of non-fiction books as “characters”, this look at the life of one of the richest, unknown women in the world during her 105-year life is filled with characters whose real lives are as fantastic as any fictional lives ever created. An amazing life, well lived from her own perspective and about as strange as one could imagine from almost anyone else’s. A story of the hard struggle to find a place in the world, make a literal fortune, live a life of incomparable luxury, escape to self-imposed “exile”, and leave a fortunes to be fought over by friends, charities, institutions and avaricious relatives. Money can buy happiness; depending on how you define it.
Amazing story of a family and its reclusive wealth which i never knew of, but whose $$ has affected Americans over generations. Well-researched, presented like a mystery novel, and photos to bring the reader to the decades involved.
Too long , it was informative but a lot of repeating . I finally lost interest 2/3 of way done and skimmed to the end .
Interesting historical book.
A well written book about a very wealthy and eccentric woman who collected dolls, never married and had money beyond belief. Money does not bring happiness.
I enjoyed the information.
Had no idea about the person in our history. Very interesting read.
Fassinating account of a woman who chose to be a recluse even with a fortune to live on. Or, did she really choose to be a recluse or was it mental illness? Great read.
Very interesting story about a prominent family back in the early 1900’s and their lives. The copper heiress is an unusual woman of great generosity but extremely private.
Fascinating
A history lesson!