Book-The Court of Mrs. Astor in Gilded Age NY
Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2009 8:52 am
The book "A Season of Splendor - The Court of Mrs. Astor in Gilded Age New York" by Greg King has been offered by the History Book Club, and it keeps calling to me.
Here is a description of the book, from History Book Club.com:
A Season of Splendor
Each winter from 1872 to 1897, the crème de la crème of New York society gathered at Caroline Astor’s Patriarch Ball, an event designed to bring together the most prominent of the city’s families. As large as the Astor ballroom was, it could—according to legend—only accommodate 400 people. Thus was born the “famous 400,” according to Caroline’s compatriot, wealthy southerner Ward McAllister, the exact number of New Yorkers fit to be considered truly elite (in fact, the list encompassed just over three hundred individuals, but the point was made). Even after a hundred years, the “famous 400” continue to captivate us. In A Season of Splendor, bestselling author Greg King brings to life the glittering era of the Gilded Age, from the people and their delicious scandals to their extravagant palaces and opulent balls—a time when New York was the most glamorous, most envied and most condemned city in America. Ward McAllister once declared, “A fortune of a million is only respectable poverty.” Indeed, late nineteenth-century New York was shaken by the arrival of railroad barons and industrialists who ascended to unimaginable wealth in the wake of the Civil War. King chronicles the emergence of this moneyed class and the ways in which they transformed New York society from a quiet, patrician world to one whose pace was set by the nouveaux riches. He charts the rise of families like the Vanderbilts, one-time social outcasts who reinvented themselves as paragons of refined taste. And he offers astute portraits of such events as McAllister’s fall from grace after he committed the unpardonable sin of releasing a list of the famous 400 to the New York Times. In addition to chronicling the history of New York’s elite, King vividly describes a variety of gilded age manners and mores, from the way a society lady enacted the time-tested ritual of the social call to the necessity for a society gentleman to belong to an exclusive club. He also reveals a wealth of details about how the rich lived, from the clothing and jewelry they wore to the dinner parties they hosted to the homes they built, from elaborate Fifth Avenue mansions to sprawling palaces at such summer playgrounds as Newport, Rhode Island. The world created by Caroline Astor was to last a mere twenty years. As the dawn of the twentieth century loomed, new arrivals, infused with less-than-noble ideals and given to truly outlandish displays of conspicuous consumption, set the stage for the downfall of Gilded Age society. But, despite its passing into legend, King show us that “behind the legend rests the real story, a complex tale of aspiration at a time when America’s wealthiest citizens bemused and bewitched a nation, and a party in New York could capture the imagination of the entire world.”
The publisher's price is $35. Members' editions are $24.99.
A member posted that you can pick this book up at any place in it to read (it has 528 pages), and the manners, clothing, houses, etc., the person said are fabulous - but few photographs.
I do not have any affiliation with the History Book Club, other than being a member. I am Greg King's neice. -- kidding!
Here is a description of the book, from History Book Club.com:
A Season of Splendor
Each winter from 1872 to 1897, the crème de la crème of New York society gathered at Caroline Astor’s Patriarch Ball, an event designed to bring together the most prominent of the city’s families. As large as the Astor ballroom was, it could—according to legend—only accommodate 400 people. Thus was born the “famous 400,” according to Caroline’s compatriot, wealthy southerner Ward McAllister, the exact number of New Yorkers fit to be considered truly elite (in fact, the list encompassed just over three hundred individuals, but the point was made). Even after a hundred years, the “famous 400” continue to captivate us. In A Season of Splendor, bestselling author Greg King brings to life the glittering era of the Gilded Age, from the people and their delicious scandals to their extravagant palaces and opulent balls—a time when New York was the most glamorous, most envied and most condemned city in America. Ward McAllister once declared, “A fortune of a million is only respectable poverty.” Indeed, late nineteenth-century New York was shaken by the arrival of railroad barons and industrialists who ascended to unimaginable wealth in the wake of the Civil War. King chronicles the emergence of this moneyed class and the ways in which they transformed New York society from a quiet, patrician world to one whose pace was set by the nouveaux riches. He charts the rise of families like the Vanderbilts, one-time social outcasts who reinvented themselves as paragons of refined taste. And he offers astute portraits of such events as McAllister’s fall from grace after he committed the unpardonable sin of releasing a list of the famous 400 to the New York Times. In addition to chronicling the history of New York’s elite, King vividly describes a variety of gilded age manners and mores, from the way a society lady enacted the time-tested ritual of the social call to the necessity for a society gentleman to belong to an exclusive club. He also reveals a wealth of details about how the rich lived, from the clothing and jewelry they wore to the dinner parties they hosted to the homes they built, from elaborate Fifth Avenue mansions to sprawling palaces at such summer playgrounds as Newport, Rhode Island. The world created by Caroline Astor was to last a mere twenty years. As the dawn of the twentieth century loomed, new arrivals, infused with less-than-noble ideals and given to truly outlandish displays of conspicuous consumption, set the stage for the downfall of Gilded Age society. But, despite its passing into legend, King show us that “behind the legend rests the real story, a complex tale of aspiration at a time when America’s wealthiest citizens bemused and bewitched a nation, and a party in New York could capture the imagination of the entire world.”
The publisher's price is $35. Members' editions are $24.99.
A member posted that you can pick this book up at any place in it to read (it has 528 pages), and the manners, clothing, houses, etc., the person said are fabulous - but few photographs.
I do not have any affiliation with the History Book Club, other than being a member. I am Greg King's neice. -- kidding!