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Vanderbilt

The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty

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Vanderbilt

Written by: Anderson Cooper, Katherine Howe
Narrated by: Anderson Cooper
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About this listen

New York Times best-selling author and journalist Anderson Cooper teams with New York Times best-selling historian and novelist Katherine Howe to chronicle the rise and fall of a legendary American dynasty - his mother’s family, the Vanderbilts.

When 11-year-old Cornelius Vanderbilt began to work on his father’s small boat ferrying supplies in New York Harbor at the beginning of the 19th 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 70-room summer estate in Newport, Rhode Island, that Cornelius’ 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.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2021 Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers
Entertainment & Celebrities Professionals & Academics United States Celebrity New York Transportation Gilded Age Heartfelt Business Summer Business History
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What listeners say about Vanderbilt

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Very Engaging Story

Interesting story of the "gilded age" and the history of this family. I really enjoyed Anderson reading it - a familiar and easy to listen to voice. I enjoyed it enough that when returning from walks, I often wanted to keep listening :-) The only issue I have with it, is that it could have easily been longer. With all of the stories and interconnected storylines (Truman Capote, the Astors, the Lusitania), it was very entertaining and interesting to listen to the way the world was in ages gone by.

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Read this one first

I read this book first, before The Rainbow Comes and Goes, and suggest you do the same. This was quite an eye opening look inside a famous family, and it wasn’t pretty. Very thorough. The things that happened to Gloria Vanderbilt, Anderson’s mom, are truly shocking. And of course she would have been lost, and with a burden it took a lifetime to sort out. Don’t despair… hearing her voice in her 90’s talk about how she came to terms with it in The Rainbow Comes and Goes is inspiring.

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Very interesting

Nicely read and easy to listen to by Anderson Cooper.
Especially when you are older and remember some of the names and events

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Incredible

While my business and family may not, I thank you Anderson and Katherine for writing this book. It has piqued so many curiosities and sent me down so many rabbit holes of history I may never return.

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fascinating history from a great raconteur

rarely do we hear such first person accounts from the descendants of famous and vaccinating people...

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Interesting and Enjoyable

Loved this book as much for the fascinating story as the smooth and enjoyable narration. One minor thing and only annoying because it is said so many times by a narrator whose diction is really beautiful; Anderson please pronounce ‘satin’ with a ‘t’ not a ‘d’.

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Enjoyable Book

I found this book most interesting and especially enjoyed Anderson Cooper narrating his family history through the last Vanderbilt.

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An interesting history lesson

I enjoyed every minute of this book. It’s smooth and gripping and connects some dots in history. A fun look back through time.

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Fascinating

Fascinating and yet such a sad tale of how money can infect individuals differently on so many levels. A must read!!

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Vanderbilt, by Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe

This is an enchanting book. It paints a picture of life in the guilded age without turning it into a fairytale. At times, it is a modern-day Grimms farytale.

Anderson is a born storyteller. he also juxtaposes events that occurred on a stratosphere almost unimaginable for its wealth and extravagance, with historic and often tragic events that happened concurrently, to very ordinary men and women who struggled for a meager livelihood.

The people are shown in their entirety as much as the author could glean from letters, diaries, newspapers, and other historic documents. Most are shown with more or less equal amounts of the good as well as their less than desirable characteristics.

Even his own mother, Gloria, is described in ways that make her very human. While her actions and ideas concerning the material things money can buy, make her appear very shallow, her views on love, family, art and philosophy of death, ensure the reader that she has incredible depth of character.

New York City of yester year comes alive in this book, from the time before explorers and settlers reached it's shore to today.

A fascinating book.

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