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 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 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 601 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 Commodore written by Edward J. Renehan Jr. and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2009-04-14 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Armed with a trove of previously unreleased archives, Edward J. Renehan Jr. offers a compelling portrait of Cornelius Vanderbilt, who built large shipping and rail enterprises into cornerstones of the American economy, and amassed one of the greatest fortunes the world has ever known. This is the definitive biography of a man whose influence on American business was unsurpassed in his day -- or any other.
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.
Download or read book Commodore Vanderbilt written by Arthur Douglas Howden Smith and published by . This book was released on 1927 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Vanderbilts written by Jerry E. Patterson and published by . This book was released on 1989-09 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nearly 250 pictures reveal the striking personalities of this extraordinary family and the glittering interiors in which they led their fabled lives.
Download or read book Willie K Vanderbilt II written by Steven H. Gittelman and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-10-01 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Vanderbilts were one of the great American families of the industrial era. This book explores the life of one of its lesser-known scions of the fourth generation, William Kissam Vanderbilt II, known simply as Willie K. An inheritor, not a builder, Willie K. lacked the drive and ambition necessary for furthering the Vanderbilt dynasty, especially in the political atmosphere of bank failures, the dawn of progressivism, and the First World War. This biography, while the story of one man, is also an exploration of the burden of enormous wealth, the danger of inherited dreams, and the struggle for self-actualization regardless of wealth or social status.
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 The Vanderbilts and the Story of Their Fortune written by William Augustus Croffut and published by . This book was released on 1886 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Fortune s Children written by Arthur T. Vanderbilt and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the story of one of America's richest families, the Vanderbilts. It follows the life of "Commodore" Vanderbilt who became wealthy and died in 1877, the world's richest man. His relatives embarked on the most extravagant spending sprees. 96 years after Commodore's death, there were no millionaires left in the family.
Download or read book The Myth of the Robber Barons written by Burton W. Folsom and published by Young Americas Foundation. This book was released on 1991-01-01 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his book The Myth of the Robber Barons, Folsom distinguishes between political entrepreneurs who ran inefficient businesses supported by government favors, and market entrepreneurs who succeeded by providing better and lower-cost products or services, usually while facing vigorous competition.
Download or read book Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt written by Amanda Mackenzie Stuart and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2007-01-09 with total page 626 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Consuelo Vanderbilt's grandfather died, he was the richest man in America. Her father soon started to spend the family fortune, enthusiastically supported by Consuelo's mother, Alva, who was determined to take the family to the top of New York society—forcing a heartbroken Consuelo into a marriage she did not want with the underfunded Duke of Marlborough. But the story of Consuelo and Alva is more than a tale of enterprising social ambition, Gilded Age glamour, and the emptiness of wealth. It is a fascinating account of two extraordinary women who struggled to break free from the world into which they were born—a world of materialistic concerns and shallow elitism in which females were voiceless and powerless—and of their lifelong dedication to noble and dangerous causes and the battle for women's rights.
Download or read book Gilded Age Cocktails written by Cecelia Tichi and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2021-05-04 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A delightful romp through America’s Golden Age of Cocktails The decades following the American Civil War burst with invention—they saw the dawn of the telephone, the motor car, electric lights, the airplane—but no innovation was more welcome than the beverage heralded as the “cocktail.” The Gilded Age, as it came to be known, was the Golden Age of Cocktails, giving birth to the classic Manhattan and martini that can be ordered at any bar to this day. Scores of whiskey drinks, cooled with ice chips or cubes that chimed against the glass, proved doubly pleasing when mixed, shaken, or stirred with special flavorings, juices, and fruits. The dazzling new drinks flourished coast to coast at sporting events, luncheons, and balls, on ocean liners and yachts, in barrooms, summer resorts, hotels, railroad train club cars, and private homes. From New York to San Francisco, celebrity bartenders rose to fame, inventing drinks for exclusive universities and exotic locales. Bartenders poured their liquid secrets for dancing girls and such industry tycoons as the newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst and the railroad king “Commodore” Cornelius Vanderbilt. Cecelia Tichi offers a tour of the cocktail hours of the Gilded Age, in which industry, innovation, and progress all take a break to enjoy the signature beverage of the age. Gilded Age Cocktails reveals the fascinating history behind each drink as well as bartenders’ formerly secret recipes. Though the Gilded Age cocktail went “underground” during the Prohibition era, it launched the first of many generations whose palates thrilled to a panoply of artistically mixed drinks.
Download or read book Eagle s Nest The William K Vanderbilt II Estate written by Stephanie Gress and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2015 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Designed and constructed by the eminent New York City architectural firm of Warren & Wetmore, Eagle's Nest estate is the easternmost Gold Coast mansion on Long Island's affluent North Shore. From 1910 to 1944, the palatial Spanish Revival estate was the summer home of William K. Vanderbilt II, great-grandson of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt. Eagle's Nest hosted the most exclusive guests and intimate gatherings of Vanderbilt family members and close friends. Included among them were the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, golfer Sam Snead, and the Tiffanys. Vanderbilt embarked on many of his legendary world voyages from this locale, along with a 50-person crew and a few fortunate invited passengers. During his travels, he collected natural history specimens and ethnographic artifacts from every corner of the earth. With the help of scientists and museum professionals, Vanderbilt created exhibits at Eagle's Nest to showcase his collections. "Willie K.," as he was known, bequeathed his estate and museum to the public, fulfilling his intended mission.
Download or read book Commodore Vanderbilt written by Wheaton Joshua Lane and published by . This book was released on 1973 with total page 546 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Cornelius Vanderbilt and the Railroad Industry written by Therese M. Shea and published by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. This book was released on 2016-07-15 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the 19th century, Cornelius Vanderbilt amassed great wealth through his steamship and railroad ventures. Best remembered for building the New York Central Railroad, Vanderbilt’s name has gone down in history as one of the greatest entrepreneurs in U.S. history. Readers will learn why through this biographical text, which uses historical context, detailed photographs, and fundamental social studies concepts to enumerate the details and accomplishments of Vanderbilt’s life. A timeline and primary sources provide opportunities for additional learning.
