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 Mansions of the Moon for the Green Witch written by Ann Moura and published by Llewellyn Worldwide. This book was released on 2010-12-08 with total page 119 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ann Moura, the author of the popular Green Witchcraft series, is back with a new, one-of-a-kind spellbook on lunar magic. This is the only guidebook available that uses Mansions of the Moon correspondences to empower Esbat rituals and spellwork. The moon goes through twenty-eight distinct "mansions," or sections of the sky, as it travels through the twelve signs of the zodiac. Each mansion is appropriate for certain types of magic, as described in ceremonial magic books, such as Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy or Barrett's The Magus. Now this esoteric information is available to Witches, complete with suggested workings for both the waxing and the waning lunar phase in each mansion. Moura provides the tools, the instruction, and examples of how to utilize the Mansions of the Moon to add depth and potency to your spells and rituals. More than one hundred workings are presented, including candle spells, charm bags, meditations, magical oils, talismans, amulets, incense, teas, and much more.

Download or read book Green Mansions written by W. H. Hudson and published by e-artnow. This book was released on 2019-12-18 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This eBook edition has been formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. Green Mansions is an exotic romance about a traveler to the Guyana jungle of southeastern Venezuela and his encounter with a forest dwelling girl. Abel, a young man of wealth, fails at a revolution in Venezuela, near the end of the 19th century, and flees Caracas into the uncharted forests of Guayana. Surviving fever, failing at journal-keeping and gold hunting, he settles in an Indian village to waste away his life. After some exploring, Abel discovers an enchanting forest where he hears a strange bird-like singing. His Indian friends avoid the forest because of its evil spirit-protector, "the Daughter of the Didi." Persisting in the search, Abel finally finds Rima the Bird Girl. She has dark hair, a smock of spider webs, and can communicate with birds in an unknown tongue. When she shields a coral snake, Abel is bitten and falls unconscious.

Download or read book Corduroy Mansions written by Alexander McCall Smith and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2010-07-13 with total page 445 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: CORDUROY MANSIONS - Book 1 In the Corduroy Mansions series of novels, set in London’s hip Pimlico neighborhood, we meet a cast of charming eccentrics, including perhaps the world’s most clever terrier, who make their home in a handsome, though slightly dilapidated, apartment block. Corduroy Mansions is the affectionate nickname given to a genteel, crumbling mansion block in London’s vibrant Pimlico neighborhood and the home turf of a captivating collection of quirky and altogether McCall-Smithian characters. There’s the middle-aged wine merchant William, who’s trying to convince his reluctant twenty-four-year-old son, Eddie, to leave the nest; and Marcia, the boutique caterer who has her sights set on William. There’s also the (justifiably) much-loathed Member of Parliament Oedipus Snark; his mother, Berthea, who’s writing his biography and hating every minute of it; and his long-suffering girlfriend, Barbara, a literary agent who would like to be his wife (but, then, she’d like to be almost anyone’s wife). There’s the vitamin evangelist, the psychoanalyst, the art student with a puzzling boyfriend and Freddie de la Hay, the Pimlico terrier who insists on wearing a seat belt and is almost certainly the only avowed vegetarian canine in London. Filled with the ins and outs of neighborliness in all its unexpected variations, Corduroy Mansions showcases the life, laughter and humanity that have become the hallmarks of Alexander McCall Smith’s work.

Download or read book Green Mansions written by William Henry Hudson and published by . This book was released on 1916 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1904, this novel is a poignant meditation on the loss of wilderness, the dream of a return to nature, and the bitter reality of the encounter between savage and civilized man.

Download or read book Green Mansions written by William Henry Hudson and published by BEYOND BOOKS HUB. This book was released on 2022-02-01 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Green Mansions, novel by W.H. Hudson, published in 1904. An exotic romance set in the jungles of South America, the story is narrated by a man named Abel who as a young man had lived among the aboriginal people. He tells of Rima, a strange birdlike woman with whom he falls in love.

Download or read book Ghetto at the Center of the World written by Gordon Mathews and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2011-06-30 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 4e de couv.: Chungking Mansions, a dilapidated seventeen-story commercial and residential structure in the heart of Hong Kong's tourist district, is home to a remarkably motley group of people. Traders, laborers, and asylum seekers from all over Asia and Africa live and work there, and even backpacking tourists rent rooms in what is possibly the most globalized spot on the planet. But as Ghetto at the center of the world shows us, the Mansions is a world away from the gleaming headquarters of multinational corporations -instead it epitomizes the way globalization actually works for most of the world's people. Through candid stories that both instruct and enthrall, Gordon Mathews lays bare the building's residents' intricate connections to the international circulation of goods, money, and ideas.

Download or read book Observatory Mansions written by Edward Carey and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2010-02-24 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Easily the most brilliant fiction I've seen this year -- it proves the potential brilliance of the novel form." -- John Fowles, author of The Magus Observatory Mansions, once the Orme family's magnificent ancestral home set on beautiful grounds, is now a crumbling apartment block stranded on a traffic island, peopled with eccentrics. Thirty-seven-year-old Francis Orme lives in Observatory Mansions with his peculiar parents and a collection of misfits. By day he is a street performer, earning money as "a statue of whiteness" in the park, wearing white gloves to ensure that his skin never touches anything. He steals items for his museum of significant objects (996 in all), not for their monetary value but because they have been loved, often bringing grief to their erstwhile owners. His bedridden mother, Alice, who has created for herself an alternative time frame called "fiction," and his father, Francis, are among the occupants set apart from the rest of the busy city by their histories, their memories, and their relationships with the other seven inhabitants of the flats. Each of the house dwellers has his or her own story, as seen through Francis's eyes, and the careful routine and harmony of the house are shaken when along comes a new resident, the half-blind, vulnerable Anna Tap. She is sympathetic and resourceful, and slowly the desperately lonely residents begin to open up their long-closed hearts. As the delicate balance of Observatory Mansions begins to shift, Francis finds himself having to protect the secrets of his past and the sanctity of his collection, while growing emotionally closer to Anna. Hailed as no less than a tour de force, Observatory Mansions is a debut novel of immense originality--a strangely haunting landscape occupied by compelling and unforgettable characters.

Download or read book The Sea Demons written by Victor Rousseau Emanuel and published by . This book was released on 1976 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book CliffsNotes on Hudson s Green Mansions written by Lawrence H Klibbe and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 1999-03-03 with total page 54 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This CliffsNotes guide includes everything you’ve come to expect from the trusted experts at CliffsNotes, including analysis of the most widely read literary works.

Download or read book Green Mansions A Romance of the Tropical Forest written by William Henry Hudson and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2020-02-18 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1904, Hudson's jungle love story became instantly popular, inciting a cultural obsession with "jungle girls." While some critics have noted the novel as an early proponent of ecological interest, Hudson's work provides a great deal of insight into early 20th century colonialism and social gender roles.

Download or read book The Mansion written by Henry Van Dyke and published by Franklin Classics. This book was released on 2018-10-06 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Download or read book Down a Narrow Path written by Faith Martin and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A sniper is at large, killing police officers all over the UK. The atmosphere at Thames Valley Police HQ is tense and DI Hillary Greene is feeling the strain. But it's business as usual when a wealthy woman is found murdered in her home in the village of Bletchington. The victim was unpopular and suspects are thick on the ground. Things don't improve as Hillary faces the secretive DC Keith Barrington and her underhand sergeant, Gemma Fordham. But even as Hillary searches for a cold-blooded killer, a tragic event will rock her world. Will this be the end for her?

Download or read book Many Mansions written by Isabel Bolton and published by . This book was released on 1952 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Audrey Hepburn written by Bob Willoughby and published by . This book was released on 2010-08-15 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his distinguished career as a Hollywood photographer, Bob Willoughby took iconic photos of Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor and Jane Fonda, but remains unequivocal about his favourite subject: Audrey Kathleen Ruston, best known as Audrey Hepburn. This title features his photographs that seek out the many facets of Hepburn's beauty and elegance.

Download or read book Rose written by Suzanne Wilson and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2021-10-27 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A privileged chance to see Rose Uniacke's work in the form of a private tour of her London home-the crucible for all her design ideas-in her first book, produced as a limited edition of 2,500 copies. Airy and light, delicate and robust, grand and intimate, raw and luxurious: these are just some of the qualities and contradictions that resonate within the work and home of Rose Uniacke. This sumptuous volume, the first on the designer, has been conceived with Uniacke to her bespoke specifications. Masterfully photographed by François Halard, the book unfolds gatefold after gatefold as a series of privileged glimpses inside Uniacke's home, with the designer's own words as our guide-an intimate and exclusive portrait of a home rarely gained access to as well as a window onto the workings of one of our leading design minds. Her work is distinguished by warmth, character, and an extraordinary serenity, and mirroring these qualities the book is a luxury object made from some of the same materials featured in Uniacke's home: a unique cotton duck canvas slipcase houses the book itself, which is wrapped in pure new wool. Completing this indispensable book in design history are texts from the architect of Uniacke's home, Vincent Van Duysen, and her landscape architect, Tom Stuart-Smith.

Download or read book Fourth Mansions written by R. A. Lafferty and published by Wildside Press LLC. This book was released on 1999-12 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: