Vanderbilt, Anderson Cooper
Vanderbilt, Anderson Cooper
106 Rating(s)
List: $26.99
On Sale: $4.99

Vanderbilt
The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty

Bestseller

Author: Anderson Cooper, Katherine Howe

Narrator: Anderson Cooper

Unabridged: 8 hr 50 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 09/21/2021

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

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.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.Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

About Anderson Cooper

Anderson Cooper is an anchor at CNN and a correspondent for CBS’s 60 Minutes. He has won twenty Emmys and numerous other major journalism awards. Cooper is the author of the New York Times bestseller Astor (with Katherine Howe) and three number one New York Times bestsellers: The Rainbow Comes and Goes, Dispatches from the Edge, and Vanderbilt (with Katherine Howe). He lives in New York with his two sons.

About Katherine Howe

Katherine Howe is a novelist and a historian of America. She is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, The House of Velvet and Glass, and (with Anderson Cooper)Vanderbilt and Astor; the young adult novels Conversion and The Appearance of Annie van Sinderen; and she was the editor of The Penguin Book of Witches. She lives with her family in New England.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Barbara on July 18, 2024

Journalist Anderson Cooper, scion of the (once) fabulously wealthy Vanderbilt family, was silent about his heritage for most of his life. Then, when Anderson's mother Gloria Vanderbilt reached her nineties, Cooper published the book The Rainbow Comes and Goes: A Mother and Son on Life, Love, and Los......more

Goodreads review by Venesa on November 24, 2024

I listened to the audiobook (narrated by Anderson Cooper) and thoroughly enjoyed it. If you're interested in the Gilded Age in New York or the HBO series, the first part of the book offers a fascinating look at how the Vanderbilts operated and thrived in that social caste. Hearing the story in audiob......more

Goodreads review by Annette on April 18, 2022

As a reader of historical fiction, I’ve read a few novels involving some members of the Vanderbilt dynasty. And when I came across this nonfiction book, I decided to learn more about this famous dynasty, especially their beginnings and what caused the fall. This fascinating story stars with Jan Aerts......more

Goodreads review by Katherine on July 21, 2021

This book rocks. I promise.......more

Goodreads review by hayley on November 13, 2021

Really overestimated my interest in this family history.......more