Download or read book Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt written by Steven H. Gittelman and published by Hamilton Books. This book was released on 2013-06-13 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At a young age, Alfred Vanderbilt inherited a massive fortune of $40 million and control of the Vanderbilt railroading empire. With no interest in business matters, the youth squandered his wealth on horses and women on two continents. None of the Vanderbilts gave as much fuel for gossip to the curious public as Alfred. By the time the extravagant playboy boarded the Lusitania on May 7, 1915, he was the subject of numerous scandals, including the suicide of four different women. But as the ship went down, he spent the last minutes of his life rescuing women and children and forgoing his own life. How is it that this wraith, this gluttonous, opulent youth, could undergo an entire change of character in his last few moments? Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt follows Alfred’s journey from philanderer to hero in this incredible, never-before-told story of the hero of the Lusitania.
Download or read book The Vanderbilt Legend written by Wayne Andrews and published by . This book was released on 1941 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Vanderbilt written by Anderson Cooper and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-09-21 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times bestselling author and journalist Anderson Cooper teams with New York Times bestselling historian and novelist Katherine Howe to chronicle the rise and fall of a legendary American dynasty—his mother’s family, the Vanderbilts. One of the Washington Post's Notable Works of Nonfiction of 2021 When eleven-year-old Cornelius Vanderbilt began to work on his father’s small boat ferrying supplies in New York Harbor at the beginning of the nineteenth century, no one could have imagined that one day he would, through ruthlessness, cunning, and a pathological desire for money, build two empires—one in shipping and another in railroads—that would make him the richest man in America. His staggering fortune was fought over by his heirs after his death in 1877, sowing familial discord that would never fully heal. Though his son Billy doubled the money left by “the Commodore,” subsequent generations competed to find new and ever more extraordinary ways of spending it. By 2018, when the last Vanderbilt was forced out of The Breakers—the seventy-room summer estate in Newport, Rhode Island, that Cornelius’s grandson and namesake had built—the family would have been unrecognizable to the tycoon who started it all. Now, the Commodore’s great-great-great-grandson Anderson Cooper, joins with historian Katherine Howe to explore the story of his legendary family and their outsized influence. Cooper and Howe breathe life into the ancestors who built the family’s empire, basked in the Commodore’s wealth, hosted lavish galas, and became synonymous with unfettered American capitalism and high society. Moving from the hardscrabble wharves of old Manhattan to the lavish drawing rooms of Gilded Age Fifth Avenue, from the ornate summer palaces of Newport to the courts of Europe, and all the way to modern-day New York, Cooper and Howe wryly recount the triumphs and tragedies of an American dynasty unlike any other. Written with a unique insider’s viewpoint, this is a rollicking, quintessentially American history as remarkable as the family it so vividly captures.
Download or read book The Vanderbilts and Their Fortunes written by Edwin Palmer Hoyt and published by . This book was released on 1962 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Picture of an affluent era when the family amassed a fabulous fortune through domination of the shipping world and absolute control of railroads.
Download or read book At the Plaza written by Curtis Gathje and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2014-03-25 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At The Plaza is a pictorial record and an anecdotal history of the world's most famous hotel: New York's Plaza. As a story, it traverses the breadth and scope of Gotham's high society during the American Century. As a photo collection, it's like no other, capturing the hotel's remarkable presence on the ever-changing New York scene. For almost one hundred years, The Plaza has mirrored the social history of Manhattan: its tastes in design, entertainment, restaurants and accommodations, as well as its adjustment to Prohibition, the Great Depression, two World Wars, the Cold War, women's rights, smokers' rights, animals' rights and British rock-and-roll. The first guests to sign the register-Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt-set the standard for the long procession of luminaries that followed: Mark Twain, Diamond Jim Brady, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Marlene Dietrich, Frank Lloyd Wright, Marilyn Monroe, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and the Beatles, among many others. In At The Plaza, the hotel's official historian, Curtis Gathje, has compiled a tremendous collection of photographs and vignettes chronicling the colorful history of a building, an institution, and a city.
Download or read book The Lusitania Saga Myth written by David Ramsay and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2015-08-28 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An account of one of the greatest maritime disasters in history—the Lusitania’s proud service, its sinking by a German U-Boat, and the tragic aftermath. When the RMS Lusitania entered service in 1907, she was the pride of the Cunard fleet. The first transatlantic express liner powered by marine turbines, she had a top speed of twenty-five knots and could make the Liverpool-New York crossing in five days, restoring British supremacy along the key North Atlantic route. All this ended during World War I, on 7 May 1915, when she was torpedoed by a German submarine and sank eighteen minutes later, taking with her the lives of the 1,198 passengers and crew. In this well-researched book, the author concentrates not just on the disaster but its consequences, including the political recriminations and the governmental inquiry. The loss of American citizens was a major reason why the United States entered the War. Fully-illustrated with rare historical photographs, this is a fascinating study of a major shipping catastrophe with profound repercussions that would have an effect not just on maritime law, but on the future of the world.
Download or read book The Long Island Motor Parkway written by Howard Kroplick and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2008-09-01 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A forerunner of the modern highway system, the Long Island Motor Parkway was constructed during the advent of the automobile and at a pivotal time in American history. Following a spectator death during the 1906 Vanderbilt Cup Race, the concept for a privately owned speedway on Long Island was developed by William K. Vanderbilt Jr. and his business associates. It would be the first highway built exclusively for the automobile. Vanderbilt’s dream was to build a safe, smooth, police-free road without speed limits where he could conduct his beloved automobile races without spectators running onto the course. Features such as the use of reinforced concrete, bridges to eliminate grade crossings, banked curves, guardrails, and landscaping were all pioneered for the parkway. Reflecting its poor profitability and the availability of free state-built public parkways, the historic 48-mile Long Island Motor Parkway closed on Easter Sunday, April 17, 1938.
Download or read book Fortune s Children written by Arthur T. Vanderbilt, II and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2013-04-16 with total page 544 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Vanderbilt: the very name signifies wealth. The family patriarch, "the Commodore," built up a fortune that made him the world's richest man by 1877. Yet, less than fifty years after the Commodore's death, one of his direct descendants died penniless, and no Vanderbilt was counted among the world's richest people. Fortune's Children tells the dramatic story of all the amazingly colorful spenders who dissipated such a vast inheritance.
Download or read book Great Camp Sagamore written by Beverly Bridger and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2012-05-15 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Great Camp Sagamore was built by William West Durant and bought by Alfred Vanderbilt in 1901 to be his family's Adirondack retreat. Vanderbilt and his wife, Margaret, welcomed family and friends, who enjoyed its sprawling grounds and buildings for decades. After Margaret's death, though, the camp changed hands and began to decline until it was rescued by preservationists and then became a National Historic Landmark in 2000. Today, visitors to the camp participate in maintaining its grandeur, learning about and preserving the past. Read the remarkable story of one of the most unique places in the Adirondacks, written by Sagamore's director, Beverly Bridger.
Download or read book William and Henry James written by William James and published by University of Virginia Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 620 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of 216 letters offers an accessible, single-volume distillation of the exchange between celebrated brothers William and Henry James. Spanning more than fifty years, their correspondence presents a lively account of the persons, places, and events that affected the Euro-American world from 1861 until the death of William James in August 1910. An engaging introduction by John J. McDermott suggests the significance of the Selected Letters for the study of the entire family.
Download or read book The First Tycoon written by T.J. Stiles and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2010-04-20 with total page 738 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD In this groundbreaking biography, T.J. Stiles tells the dramatic story of Cornelius “Commodore” Vanderbilt, the combative man and American icon who, through his genius and force of will, did more than perhaps any other individual to create modern capitalism. Meticulously researched and elegantly written, The First Tycoon describes an improbable life, from Vanderbilt’s humble birth during the presidency of George Washington to his death as one of the richest men in American history. In between we see how the Commodore helped to launch the transportation revolution, propel the Gold Rush, reshape Manhattan, and invent the modern corporation. Epic in its scope and success, the life of Vanderbilt is also the story of the rise of America itself.
Download or read book Lusitania written by Diana Preston and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2015-05-05 with total page 787 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On May 7, 1915, toward the end of her 101st eastbound crossing, from New York to Liverpool, England, R.M.S. Lusitania-pride of the Cunard Line and one of the greatest ocean liners afloat-became the target of a terrifying new weapon and a casualty of a terrible new kind of war. Sunk off the southern coast of Ireland by a torpedo fired from the German submarine U-20, she exploded and sank in eighteen minutes, taking with her some twelve hundred people, more than half of the passengers and crew. Cold-blooded, deliberate, and unprecedented in the annals of war, the sinking of the Lusitania shocked the world. It also jolted the United States out of its neutrality and hastened the nation's entry into World War I. In her riveting account of this enormous and controversial tragedy, Diana Preston recalls both a pivotal moment in history and a remarkable human drama. The story of the Lusitania is a window on the maritime world of the early twentieth century: the heyday of the luxury liner, the first days of the modern submarine, and the climax of the decades-long German-British rivalry for supremacy of the Atlantic. Above all, it is the story of the passengers and crew on that fateful voyage-a story of terror and cowardice, of self-sacrifice and heroism, of death and miraculous survival.
Download or read book The Cyclop dia of American Biography written by James Grant Wilson and published by . This book was released on 1900 with total page 928 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book LIFE written by and published by . This book was released on 1940-07-08 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: LIFE Magazine is the treasured photographic magazine that chronicled the 20th Century. It now lives on at LIFE.com, the largest, most amazing collection of professional photography on the internet. Users can browse, search and view photos of today’s people and events. They have free access to share, print and post images for personal use.
Download or read book Legacies of the Turf written by Edward L. Bowen and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2023-05-01 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book traces the careers of the men and women who bred the most outstanding Thoroughbreds of the 20th century.
Download or read book Jack Helen Frye Story written by Randall D Reynolds and published by Sedona Legend Publishing. This book was released on 2015-04-07 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the shadows of beyond the words pour forth like summer rain…. The Jack and Helen Frye Story is much more than the chronology of two people’s lives, it’s a spiritual quest, a yearning from the heart of soul-mates Helen and Jack who desire their story to be told, their priceless paths not be erased! Time has a way of forgetting who was, and what was, but the written word lays it all at our feet. From a small town in West Virginia, to the gold-paved streets of Fifth Avenue, Helen Varner knew she was born to walk a path; a path that would lead her far and away from her origins. Her talents as a hat-maker and seamstress, writer, sculptor, and artist, opened doors to a gilded and rose-hued horizon. Within these pages, unfolds the sojourn of a woman who knows what she wants and goes after it. Voluptuous and beautiful, the world’s most powerful men fall at her feet. In 1935, 26-year-old Helen Varner marries 36-year-old playboy Cornelius Vanderbilt IV. Later, after a separation, she moves to mystical Shanghai and Hollywood. By 1938, Helen meets the love of her life, aviation-legend Jack Frye. As President of TWA, Frye trail-blazes the dawning of aviation and tames Helen’s heart with his fleet of sleek airliners and big western charm. Jack and Helen marry by January 1941, and embark on the wings of an American Love Story, as only soul mates can share. In flights over the Western United States in their private plane, Jack and Helen settle on the Red Rock Country of Sedona Arizona to build a new life together. With a grand act of chivalry, Jack buys a massive ranch adjoining Oak Creek and hands the deed to Helen. Frye and Howard Hughes develop the Lockheed Constellation during W.W. II and Frye loans his planes to the U.S. Government, culminating in a wartime partnership with the White House. Meanwhile, Helen secures a grand colonial mansion on the shores of the Potomac, as a political power-center for TWA, and a home. By war’s end, in 1946, TWA has gained enough experience flying war personnel overseas, for Jack to secure the world’s commercial air routes. Jack’s dream of the first transatlantic commercial air service and round-the-world passenger travel is realized and the ‘Camelot Years of TWA’ have unfolded! By 1950, after Helen and Jack divorce, Helen remains at their Sedona Ranch. Soon though, she is engaged to Tyrone Power. Later still, she plans a re-marriage to Frye. Tragically, though, Frye is killed by a drunk driver, returning home from a secret meeting with Howard Hughes at Tucson. Sinking into the depths of despair, Helen becomes fodder for a notorious new-age cult called Eckankar. By 1979, she dies of cancer, but not before the group fleeces her of most her assets. Helen’s Will is burned by an ex-cult member con artist who had craftily befriended Helen before her death with his youthful charm ending her saga with a sensational estate trial. Is this really the end of Helen’s story? Thankfully, no, Helen saw to that! Reaching across the sands of time, she engaged the services of a kindred spirit, a member of her soul-family, a writer with the passion and dedication to insure that she and Jack; their ‘telling’ was not forgotten. Welcome to the World of Jack and Helen Frye! Note: (The Jack & Helen Frye Story – The Camelot Years of TWA is a Biography, however, it is written in a Novel format. This to reflect a movie script style for future development.) Cover photo by Randall Reynolds- Helen Frye’s Wings of the Wind House- View of Cathedral Rock to the North.
Download or read book Commodore Vanderbilt and His Family written by Dorothy MacDowell Wood and published by . This book was released on 1989 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877) was the son of Cornelius Van Der Bilt (1764-1832) and Phebe Hand (1767-1854) of Port Richmond, Staten Island, New York. He married (1) Sophia Johnson (1795-1868, the daughter of Nathaniel Johnson and Elizabeth Hand (1770-1841) of Richmond Co., New York. Cornelius was the descendant of Jan Aertsen Van Der Bilt (c.1620/25-1705) who married (1) Anneken Hendricks in 1650; (2) Dierber Cornelis and (3) Magdalentje Hanse in 1681. Jan was the first of the family to come to New Amsterdam. He was from the village of Bilt in the province of Utrecht, The Netherlands. Cornelius and Sophia were the parents of thirteen children. Descendant lines are given for their son William Henry Vanderbilt and for the descendants of their daughters.
