Download or read book Empty Mansions written by Bill Dedman and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2013-09-10 with total page 498 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #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)

Download or read book The Castle of Llyr written by Lloyd Alexander and published by Henry Holt and Company (BYR). This book was released on 2006-05-16 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Castle of Llyr by Lloyd Alexander, Book Three in The Chronicles of Prydain Princess Eilonwy hates to leave her friend Taran, Assistant Pig-Keeper, and her beloved home, Caer Dallben. Why does she have to go to the Isle of Mona to train as a proper lady when she's already a princess? But Eilonwy soon faces much more than the ordeal of becoming a dignified young maiden, for she possesses magical powers sought by the evil enchantress Queen Achren. When Eilonwy is put under a deep spell, Taran and his companions set out on a dangerous quest to rescue her. Yet how can a lowly Assistant Pig-Keeper hope to stand against the most evil enchantress in all of Prydain?

Download or read book Ashford Castle written by and published by Other Press. This book was released on 2017-10 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nestled on the shore of Lough Corrib, Ashford Castle has only grown in esteem over the last eight centuries, passing through the hands of esteemed Lords and Ladies and hosting visitors over the years ranging from King George V, Oscar Wilde, and John Lennon. The reputed estate even provided a setting for the Hollywood production of The Quiet Man starring John Wayne. This publication will present the newly renovated Ashford Castle, a window into its illustrious past and a preview of its promising future.

Download or read book Escape the Medieval Castle written by Stella A. Caldwell and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-04-19 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beware! You've been imprisoned in a medieval castle, and may be trapped forever! Can you escape the fortress walls? It is 1389, and you are locked in a tower of a medieval castle. The door is guarded. The castle bustles with nobles, servants, craftspeople, and entertainers. But it is also a mighty fortress fiercely defended by soldiers. The castle's massive walls protect it from enemy attack, while inside there is a maze of dark passageways. Stay calm, use your wits, and consult the heraldic wheel on the front cover. If you follow the clues, solve the riddles, and decode the puzzles, you will make your escape! -- publisher website.

Download or read book We Have Always Lived in the Castle written by Shirley Jackson and published by . This book was released on 1962 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a deliciously unsettling novel about a perverse, isolated, and possibly murderous family and the struggle that ensues when a cousin arrives at their estate.

Download or read book Shadow Castle written by Marian Cockrell and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2016-02-16 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the middle of a deep forest is an enchanted valley and a castle where only shadows live, shadows of kings and queens who have waited for hundreds of years for the spell cast upon them to be broken. One day, a girl named Lucy follows a little dog through a tunnel into the valley and meets the mysterious red-haired Michael, who takes her into the shadow world to meet Prince Mika and his mortal wife Gloria, their children and their children’s children, and to learn the magic that will lift the spell. This new expanded edition contains additional chapters not published in the original 1946 edition.

Download or read book A Year in a Castle written by Rachel Coombs and published by First Avenue Editions. This book was released on 2009 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Illustrates one year of daily life at a medieval castle.

Download or read book Mr King s Castle written by Genevieve Cote and published by Kids Can Press Ltd. This book was released on 2013-08 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mr. King likes big things and transforms his house into a castle. But his friends have lost their favorite spots and Mr King has lost his lovely view. How can he fix the situation and make his friends happy?

Download or read book Abandoned Palaces written by Michael Kerrigan and published by . This book was released on 2025-06-14 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Built to last, built to impress, built with style and grandeur - it is all the more remarkable when the most ostentatious of buildings fall into disrepair and become ruins. From imperial residences and aristocratic estates to hotels and urban mansions, Abandoned Palaces tells the stories behind dilapidated structures from all around the world. From ancient Roman villas to the French colonial hill station in Cambodia that was one of the final refuges of the Khmer Rouge, the book charts the fascinating decline of what were once the homes and holiday resorts of the most wealthy. Ranging from crumbling hotels in the Catskill Mountains or in Mozambique to grand mansions in Taiwan, and from an unfinished Elizabethan summerhouse to a modern megalomaniac's estate too expensive ever to be completed, the reasons for the abandonment of these buildings include politics, bankruptcy, personal tragedies, natural and man-made disasters, as well as changing tastes and fashions. With 150 outstanding colour photographs exploring more than 100 hauntingly beautiful locations, Abandoned Palaces is a brilliant and moving pictorial examination of worlds we have left behind.

Download or read book The Last Castle written by Denise Kiernan and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-09-26 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times bestseller with an "engaging narrative and array of detail” (The Wall Street Journal), the “intimate and sweeping” (Raleigh News & Observer) untold, true story behind the Biltmore Estate—the largest, grandest private residence in North America, which has seen more than 120 years of history pass by its front door. The story of Biltmore spans World Wars, the Jazz Age, the Depression, and generations of the famous Vanderbilt family, and features a captivating cast of real-life characters including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas Wolfe, Teddy Roosevelt, John Singer Sargent, James Whistler, Henry James, and Edith Wharton. Orphaned at a young age, Edith Stuyvesant Dresser claimed lineage from one of New York’s best known families. She grew up in Newport and Paris, and her engagement and marriage to George Vanderbilt was one of the most watched events of Gilded Age society. But none of this prepared her to be mistress of Biltmore House. Before their marriage, the wealthy and bookish Vanderbilt had dedicated his life to creating a spectacular European-style estate on 125,000 acres of North Carolina wilderness. He summoned the famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted to tame the grounds, collaborated with celebrated architect Richard Morris Hunt to build a 175,000-square-foot chateau, filled it with priceless art and antiques, and erected a charming village beyond the gates. Newlywed Edith was now mistress of an estate nearly three times the size of Washington, DC and benefactress of the village and surrounding rural area. When fortunes shifted and changing times threatened her family, her home, and her community, it was up to Edith to save Biltmore—and secure the future of the region and her husband’s legacy. This is the fascinating, “soaring and gorgeous” (Karen Abbott) story of how the largest house in America flourished, faltered, and ultimately endured to this day.

Download or read book Wrassle Castle Book 1 written by Paul Tobin and published by Vault Comics. This book was released on 2021-09-21 with total page 99 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lydia Riverthane has always dreamed of being a professional wrassler, the greatest of all fighters in the kingdom of Grimslade. There are just a few pesky things standing between her and the big tournament at Wrassle Castle. THERE'S ONLY ONE WAY LYDIA CAN SAVE HER BROTHER—WRASSLING! Lydia Riverthane has always dreamed of being a professional wrassler, the greatest of all fighters in the kingdom of Grimslade. Growing up in the shadow of Wrassle Castle, where her older brother routinely racks up championship belts, has only fueled her competitive fire. But when her brother is mysteriously arrested for treason, Lydia and her friends must find a way into the year-end tournament. There she can win back his freedom the only way she knows how…wrassling! Book 1 of the three volume series of original graphic novels.

Download or read book Entering the Castle written by Caroline Myss and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2007-03-06 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Internationally renowned motivational teacher, spiritual instructor, and popular theologian Caroline Myss has created a transcendent work of unique insight and revelation in Entering the Castle. This exciting new teaching of contemporary mysticism is also a brilliant synthesis of the psychology of consciousness and of Eastern and Western mystical traditions. Myss provides a highly original inner path to self-knowledge -- which is also the road into a spiritual knowledge of God and your own soul -- as she reveals a necessary external path, one that takes you out into the world to serve God and others as a mystic without a monastery -- without having to retreat into total silence, self-denial, or isolation. As her main template for this extraordinary, modern spiritual journey, Myss uses the beloved, revered writings of The Interior Castle by Teresa of Ávila. Adapting Teresa's vision of the soul as a beautiful crystal castle with many floors, or mansions, and many rooms within those mansions, Myss guides us from room to room, helping us meet different aspects of our self, our soul, and our spirit -- preparing us for the ultimate encounter with God and our own divinity. Through intense practices and methods of spiritual inquiry adapted for contemporary life, she helps us to develop our personal powers of prayer, contemplation, and intuition and to ascend the seven levels of soul knowledge that build an ever stronger interior castle of our own -- a soul of strength and stamina. As in all her books, Myss also recounts stories of profoundly moving real-life experiences -- of her own, as well as of her students and of renowned spiritual figures -- that bring home the universal truth of her insights. Presiding over the entire book and journey are the great mystics, ancient and contemporary, of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism with their inspiring lives and discerning spirits. And over all, the benevolence, truth, and gentle and tough love of Teresa of Ávila shine through. Doubtless Myss's most deeply personal, revealing, compassionate, and transforming book yet, Entering the Castle is a comprehensive guidebook for the journey of your life -- a journey into the center of your soul. There, peace, God, and a fearless bliss wait for you to discover them...and claim them for your own.

Download or read book Empty written by Suzanne Weyn and published by Scholastic Inc.. This book was released on 2010-10-01 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A dystopic look at what happens to one American town when all the fossil fuels run out...It's the near future - the very near future - and the fossil fuels are running out. No gas. No oil. Which means no driving. No heat. Supermarkets are empty. Malls have shut down. Life has just become more local than we ever knew it could be.Nobody expected the end to come this fast. And in the small town of Spring Valley, decisions that once seemed easy are quickly becoming matters of life and death. There is hope - there has to be hope - just there are also sacrifices that need to be made, and a whole society that needs to be rethought.

Download or read book Draw 50 Buildings and Other Structures written by Lee J. Ames and published by Watson-Guptill. This book was released on 2013-02-12 with total page 66 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Draw 50 Buildings and Other Structures teaches aspiring artists how to draw with ease by following simple, step-by-step instructions. Celebrated author Lee J. Ames shows readers how to draw famous structures from all over the world, as well as an igloo, a barn and silo, a windmill, and even a teepee. Ames's illustration style and renowned drawing method has made him a leader in the step-by-step drawing manual, and the 31 books in his Draw 50 series have sold more than three million copies. Ames's instruction allows seasoned artists to refine their technique and guides amateurs to develop their own artistic abilities. Even the youngest artists can draw the tallest, grandest structures. It's easy to construct any type of building when it's done the Draw 50 way.

Download or read book Castle of Lies written by Kiersi Burkhart and published by Carolrhoda Lab ®. This book was released on 2019-05-07 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thelia isn't in line to inherit the crown, but she's been raised to take power however she can. She's been friends with Princess Corene her whole life, and she's scheming to marry Bayled, the heir to the throne. But her plans must change when an army of elves invades the kingdom. Thelia, her cousin Parsifal, and Corene become trapped in the castle. An elf warrior, Sapphire, may be Thelia's only hope of escape, but Sapphire has plans of their own. Meanwhile, an ancient magic is awakening within the castle, with the power to destroy the whole kingdom. Can Thelia find a way to protect her future—and her life?

Download or read book Montezuma written by Jon Bowman and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Montezuma Castle near Las Vegas, New Mexico ranks among the undisputed architectural gems of the state. Built in the 1880s as arguably the most opulent and fashionable resort west of the Mississippi, the Montezuma hosted US presidents and titans of industry as well as European and Japanese nobility and the outlaw Jesse James. Patrons enjoyed the first bowling alley in the West, the first electric lighting in New Mexico, celebrated hot springs and spas, and exquisite cuisine, including fresh fish and sea turtles hauled by rail from the West Coast and Mexico. In spite of its illustrious past, the Montezuma stood empty for much of the last century -- the structure vandalised and falling into ruin. Chances for its resurrection looked dim until 1997 when the National Trust for Historic Preservation designated the former hotel as one of America's eleven Most Endangered Historic Places. It was the first property west of the Mississippi to gain that attention, and a committed preservation effort followed.Here is the story of the castle's heritage, its architectural grandeur and its rebirth as an educational complex serving the diverse, global population of students attending the United World College of the American West, founded by Armand Hammer with help from Prince Charles.

Download or read book Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up Volume 3 written by Waruiotoko and published by J-Novel Club. This book was released on 2023-10-25 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Erhin has succeeded in saving Euracia and her people from the war with the Brijit Kingdom. Having won a secret iron mine for himself in the process, he begins making his move toward world domination in earnest. Meanwhile, Frann Valdesca, the Naruyan commander he defeated during the previous invasion, is preparing for a revenge match in the form of the Grand Subjugation. With his prior knowledge of the event, Erhin comes up with a clever plan to take over Runan in the chaos. Will it work, or will Erhin’s efforts go up in flames?!