The fabulous life of Brooke Astor, a pioneer of philanthropy and for decades a luminary of New York society. Hers is a story out of Edith Wharton. After a disastrous early marriage, Brooke Astor wedded the notoriously ill-tempered Vincent Astor, who died in 1959. In a highly publicized courtroom battle, Brooke fought off an attempt to break Vincent's will, which left some $67 million to the Vincent Astor Foundation. As the foundation's president, Brooke would use this legacy to benefit New York, where the Astor fortune had been made.
Brooke would personally visit each grant applicant and charm anyone she met. At her one-hundredth birthday, princes and presidents honored her, but in 2006 a grandson petitioned the courts to have his father removed as Brooke's guardian. Once again an Astor court battle became the stuff of headlines. This biography―based on firsthand knowledge and interviews with Brooke's friends and the heads of New York's great cultural institutions―gives us back the woman so loved and admired, whose hands-on approach would inspire future philanthropists. 16 pages of photographs
This book was awful. I was interested in reading about Brooke Astor, as I live in Newport, home of the first Mrs Astor's summer home, and because my husband's first ship, the USS Russell, named for her father, was brought to life by Mrs Astor with my husband present in the audience. The first half of the book was somewhat interesting, covering her three marriages and the first 57 years of her life. The next third of the book was absolutely horrific. Full of name-dropping and boring writing, there were so many people thrown at the reader that it was hard to keep them straight. It was amazing how much Mrs Astor cared about her philanthropic ventures, but there was too much detail covering how much was given and when. It read more like a financial statement than a biography. I ended up skipping most of this section and began reading again with the discussion of whether her son was guilty of elder abuse.
The entire book suffered from bad writing and worse editing. Fragmentary sentences ran rampant and really offended my sense of grammar. In one paragraph, Kiernan writes: "To her mind this shift in direction was only fitting. Just as it was only fitting that as president she take responsibility for putting this change into effect." She ends the very same paragraph with the following: "As she set about this, she began taking John D. Rockefeller's advice one step further. One that played to her strengths." The writing, as published, read far too choppily and was very distracting to the reader.
If one wants to learn more about Brooke Astor and her life, this is not the book to pick up.
Starting from a humble beginning as the daughter of a Marine Corps Lieutenant, Brooke Astor’s life is chronicled by Frances Kiernan in a slow-paced matter-of-fact way, until about the middle of the biography, when the author makes her connection to the main character, the Grande Dame of New York society, and the story takes off. The words then begin to sparkle and true admiration emerges to demonstrative heights as we get into some real meaty insights of this patriarch of Manhattan.
Brooke Astor had married three times and Kiernan tells her story as it was lived for the hundred plus years of Brooke’s life. The great love she had for Vincent Astor and the wealth which was bestowed upon her and the Vincent Astor Foundation is breathtaking. Yet, through all this, Brooke only thought of the people of New York and making their lives culturally better. She endowed art projects, museums, parks, and many charities which needed assistance in the years when she was the chair of the Astor Foundation. Much to the chagrin of previous board and chair members, she imposed her will to those charities which needed special attention. As the years unfold, we are shown the strength of a lady who was indeed gracious, impeccable, and very strong minded in the face of others who had their own agendas to accomplish. She gave away over 200 million dollars!
We are given a glimpse inside her manipulations of those around her and how she was able to accomplish many great projects for the people of New York.
Her biggest disappointment was that of her son Tony Marshall, who allegedly took advantage of this strong lady towards the end of her life by swindling the foundation and her funds out of millions of dollars. He is currently under indictment and trial is set to begin in February 2009. He commenced his activities of taking control of her money when she was in her 90’s and she died in 2007 at age 105. Replete with 24 pages of photographs, I heartily recommend this book, if only to see how the other half live.
Why does New York Society interest me so? Maybe because the life of privilege and wealth is so far from my reality that it borders on fantasy to read about these people. Brooke Astor’s early life was not what I expected. While it was exotic, living in China while her Father served in the military, she was not born into great wealth. She had a disastrous first marriage, a happy second one, and was recruited by the fabulously wealthy Mr. Astor’s second wife to become his third wife, so she could divorce him and marry her lover. Who could make this stuff up? I have to respect what she did with Mr. Astor’s money, though, giving the entire trust away for the benefit of New York City. BTW, this is the Brooke Astor you may have read about whose son was supposedly holding her captive and feeding her bread and water when she was in her late 90’s so he could control what was left of his inheritance.
Brooke Astor was a writer and philanthropist who was married to William Vincent Astor. The pair were married in 1953. The marriage was not a great one by any means. Brooke was an interesting person, as this book outlines, and enjoyed the arts. Her later life was marred with elder abuse and other unfortunate ne'er do wells. She died in 2007, aged 105.
This is the second book that I have read about Brooke Astor, and I preferred the previous one to this one. The research was good, the writing was good, the story was good. I also happen to like this author. If you are looking for a solid book about Brooke Astor, this is a good one to consider picking up. Also, Brooke Astor is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, if any of you fellow necrotoursists are interested in that.
I don't really know why I purchased this title, but glad I did. Brooke Astor was a philanthropic force to be reckoned with. The book contained brief sketches of her childhood and first 2 marriages, rather it focused on Brooke during the 70s and 80s when she was head of the Vincent Astor Foundation, a foundation her third husband set up to promote NYC organizations. At Vincent's Brooke stepped to the helm and grew the foundation beyond the city's wildest dreams and to its good fortune.
It was full of New York gliterati, politicians and those with more money then God. It was a fun read, full of Mrs Astor's personality and her devotion to NYC.
The author tells about Brooke's early life in China and the family's early departure because of war. Brooke always put others before herself. She loved animals and always had many dogs with her. Her third marriage was to Vincent Astor. She enjoyed entertaining and seeing that the Astor Trust was distributed to many New York establishments, Library, Zoo, hospitals. A quote in the book, sums up her life. " to receive, one must give."
Oh my god. There was absolutely nothing remarkable about this woman. She married rich, and then married again, and then married again. And then became a pathological liar.
I came to this book in a funny, karmic way. I don’t have particular fondness or interest in Brooke Astor, but I’m glad to have read the book because it tied together a lot of NY lore and folk for me, and I was finishing up another book about NY history. Anyway, I was on vacation in Wellfleet, on Cape Cod. Scrolling through Instagram one morning, I saw a post made by a woman I follow who shared the image of Brooke on this book’s cover - in a stunning green gown and swathed in emeralds. (Turns out she posted it on the anniversary of Brooke’s death.) Later that same day, I was browsing in a used bookstore and lo and behold, a book with this same photo on the cover was among the stacks. I picked it up. The author - Frances Kiernan - was familiar to me because several years ago, I’d read and enjoyed her biography of the author Mary McCarthy. Mary McCarthy happened to live in Wellfleet, on Cape Cod, during one part of her life. I was sold. In making all those connections, I had to buy the book.
Like other reviewers say, this book is repetitive and the author drops a lot of names; names of a very specific niche of NYC society. It gets tedious. That said, I didn’t hate it either.
The remarkable thing is what the book conveys about Brooke’s life and how she helped save a handful of NYC institutions that are flourishing today. Among these are: the Met Museum, the NY Public Library, the Seaport, the Bronx Zoo, and Central Park. In learning about her philanthropy and her style of doing business - and with whom- it brought full circle what I’d known about major players in NY society and why, exactly, they were important. It also explained a lot about big name, old money, NY families: Astor, Vanderbilt , Rockefeller, Roosevelt, Schemerhorn, etc.
It was very, very repetitive. Same information over and over several times throughout the book. This bio mostly covers her philanthropic years heading the Vincent Astor foundation, which was pretty freaking boring. I learned that Brooke Astor was #1 an awful mother, #2 a not so great wife, #3 a spendthrift and #4 a gold digger. I had hoped to read more about the legal battle at the end of her life, but it was the last, briefest chapter with a minimum of real information. One thing is for certain, the Astors were awful to each other throughout the generations and Brooke Astor was no exception. I highly doubt that she was as sweet as the author portrayed her to be given the facts of her life.
The biography of a great New York society lady. Brooke Astor married into the famed Astor family and rose to the highest echelons of New York royalty. She generously dispersed the Astor Foundation's money into helping many charitable causes. This her story.
The book chronicles Brooke Astor's life from her childhood as the daughter of a military man, her disastrous first marriage, her second marriage with the love of her life, and her third marriage, for which she would ultimately be remembered.
I would recommend following this book with "Mrs. Astor Regrets" by Meryl Gordon, as it covers in detail Mrs. Astor's death and the circumstances surrounding her guardianship. At the time of this book's publication, Mrs. Astor had not yet died.
I really wanted to know more about Brooke Astor. While I did learn so things, I didn't enjoy the writing style of Kiernan at all. I felt there was a lot of what I call "noise." The author devoted a lot of space to Astor's son. I understand her son plays into her story, but less focus was needed on his backstop. It seemed as if the first half of this book was a regurgitation of Astor's first book. So many times Kiernan referenced it, I found it distracting. I learned some, but feel like there's more to be uncovered and will seek it out elsewhere.
Easy to put down and walk away from, but easy to get into as well. Sometimes the writing was a bit queer, referring to people with nicknames that hadn’t previously been used. Also what was the reference to the death of “little Marshall” mentioned in the last few pages? That was utterly confusing. Otherwise an interesting look into the lives of philanthropists, socialites, caring friends and servants, and one heartless son.
Ugh how could this have gotten so many stars!!?! At first I was excited the Astor’s have always intrigued me but this book seems to go chronologically by chapter titles but within the chapters it’s all over the place. I never abandon book but did after 1/2 too many other good books out there than to waste time on this one ={
What a life. Exciting and interesting, Lady could have "lunched" her way through life but chose to work hard at causes she was passionate about. Last of the breed of women that thrived on independence (and husbands money). Demanded what they wanted but gave as good as they got. Would have loved to see the New York they occupied.
This is one of the most boring books I have ever read. If you want a book with lots of mentions of New York Socialites/Elites then this is the book for you.
All of the paragraphs were disjointed and rambling. Reading the first sentence or two of every paragraph in this book would suffice. No need to read more.
As good as non-fiction can get about the rich. I went down a serious rabbit hole reading about the Astors, Vanderbilts, Gettys, and Johnsons. This was a product of my own personal gilded age period. I know she wasn't a part of the gilded age per se, but the money she inherited was.
I have numerous minor quibbles with this book that I won't go into here. However, I also have two major complaints that I can't overlook. First, the author is not nearly objective enough about her subject. I'm sure Mrs. Astor was a lovely woman, but I've read less effusive praise of Mother Theresa. And it's not that the author didn't know that her subject didn't qualify for sainthood; she just doesn't give details on anything that could be seen in a negative light. While that's certainly admirable in one's personal life, it doesn't do in a biography.
Second, I have grave doubts about the author's sources. The bibliography is extremely light and there is no criticism of the sources that are listed, save for a minor comment early on about the reliability of the subject's memoirs. Plus, there is a great deal of "[Person] thought [X]" or "[Person] felt [Y]." How does she know what they thought or felt? Several of them are dead, so the author couldn't have asked them. There's simply too much conjecture that appears to be based on comments made by friends to the newspapers over the years, which are hardly likely to be anything other than flattering.
My conclusion is that, if you're looking for a hagiography of a rich American socialite and philanthropist, this is for you. But if you're looking for a scholarly biography of that same socialite and philanthropist, look elsewhere.
I was recently reminded that not all my friends like high society books, so I'll just post my thoughts here. Yikes, class warfare! But... for me, reading about high society brings me so much pleasure as long as it isn't tawdry/sexual. This book brought me a lot of pleasure. :-)
I found it fascinating to read about Brooke Astor's philanthropy work and how she ran her 'small' foundation. There was a lot of elegance to her life and she used her fortune and position well. It was (mostly) inspiring to read. It really reminded me of my Junior League days and playing the society game. You do have to have a certain moral flexibility (unfortunately) to stay connected and current with the modern fashions and stay in the it crowd. There were also a few odd moments (like when she seriously advises new wives that the secret to a good marriage is to have side affairs - ick!) that made me not like her. But then she'd be enchanting again a few pages later. Her charm oozed across the pages, even when you know not great things about her.
She liked to make spicy comments hinting about sexual improprieties but actually lead a conservative life, or so it seemed. She did yoga. :-/ But there were also hints that she was catholic-friendly and possibly a republican. It was a mixed bag. There were things to like and dislike. Definitely not as bad as it could be for a society person/book. Mostly enjoyable.
I possessed no knowledge, but perhaps some preconceptions, of Brooke Astor before reading this book. Turns out, she was a much more interesting -- and accomplished -- person than your average rich socialite. In fact, one could wish that the contemporary bunch took a page from Mrs. Astor's book. First, she wasn't always rich, and in fact only became known for her money after living half a century of a (relatively) normal mortal's life. Second, through the Astor Foundation and her own personal funds, she did so much good for her beloved city of New York. Third, she recognized that every time she stepped out of her front door, she was being held to a certain very public standard, and she never faltered, even when she was 100+ years old (take note, Hilton heiresses). Finally, at least according to this biographer, despite all that money, she remained interested in, and connected to, people from all walks of life. I underestimated someone I only knew of from society columns, and reading this makes me curious to learn more about her. A good, quick read about a fascinating person, whose like we probably won't encounter again.
Interesting biography of a woman who made an indelible mark on America's largest city. While she didn't earn her money and wasn't even married very long to the man who left it to her to distribute, Brooke Astor made excellent use of her late husband's fortune in the nearly 50 years after his death until her own. Known as a philanthropist and socialite, those parts of her life didn't really even begin until she was of an age at which most women are retiring from social and business life. Her backstory is interesting, if not remarkable.
While some biographers have referenced Mrs. Astor's "modest" beginnings, she was always at least moderately privileged compared to most Americans. Kiernan's biography doesn't buy into the "poor little girl made good" story that others have tried to peddle, but instead provides what seems to be a "warts-and-all" portrait of a woman who may not have been as saintly as others have tried to portray, but certainly did a lot of good for others while having a good time doing so.
Not great literature, but an interesting weekend read.
I used women's studies as a category as Mrs. Astor was anything but liberal minded or the advancement of women. She liked being the sole focus in a room full of men, and in the two biographies I just finished on her, both authors seem to concur she did little to support women around her. She was born to marry wealthy and she did (to an alcoholic abuser, to a man who lied about his financials and then Mr. Astor--very wealthy and conveniently dead. She remarried him after being a widow for a few months. A lifetime of "golddigger" and "married for the money" trailed her throughout her life. She was vain, controlling, threatening, and a terrible mother. The wealthy sucked up to her--for what? Her patronage? Donations from her to "their" favorite charities? I would have stayed clear of her, like a poison garden.
I'm 46 and I lived in Northern New Jersey from birth through 32 and I was always fascinated by Brooke Astor. She was always in the papers for the amazing work that she did for the people of the city of New York. This book for me was a major let down. This is a very LIGHT biography. I don't get the depth of research by the author that I have from other biographies. I just recently read The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family by Mary L. Lowell where the author goes into great detail about the each woman. I was left really wanting more information about Mrs. Astor. The end of the book barely addresses the scandal surrounding her son. I'm going to look for another book to feed my curiosity.
I read this book because I had heard a story about Brooke Astor, in her very old age, sitting fully dressed for dinner, with handbag and jewelery, in front of a TV tray. I wanted to see how she arrived in that rather poignant state. The book didn't really answer that, other than to suggest she was always a lady and impeccably turned out. And that her son ripped her off quite badly. [Postscript to this story: Her elderly 80-something son was just found guilty of essentially robbing her when she was old and ill with dementia. He could very well go to jail, unless he dies first.]As one other reviewer pointed out, the book was rather fawning, which made it a bit boring.
As I was able to give a verbal review of Mrs Astor's life to a co-worker and new nothing about her prior to reading this book I'd say I rather liked it. Her life was quite interesting and the constant struggle amongst her friends and family was covered in an unbiased manner. I would have given this book 5 stars but throughout the book there were references back to her first marriage and how life altering it was for Mrs Astor yet I don't feel the coverage of her first marriage supported the numerous references in enough detail.