American Rascal: How Jay Gould built Wall Street's Biggest Fortune

The Gilded Age wasn't just about the Vanderbilt fortune.You should enjoy this newer 2023 look at Jay Gould. "American Rascal: How Jay Gould  built Wall Street's Biggest Fortune", by Greg Steinmetz. You can learn more about this book HERE.

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Fifth Avenue: A Very Social History

 

“Fifth Avenue, A Very Social History,” by Kate Simon, is one of my favorite books. It not only delves into the opulent Gilded Age mansions of Fifth Avenue but also weaves captivating stories about the people who inhabited them. For more information about this 1978 book, you can visit the following link HERE.  While it’s readily available on Amazon in various price ranges, you can also find it online at other used bookstores, eBay, or your local library.

Gilded Age Books

Click HERE to see all posts that feature books about Gilded Age Mansions & Lifestyle.

 

Long Island Country Houses & Their Architects: 1860-1940

For those that want to learn and see the most complete reference book about the great estates & mansions of Long Island's Gold Coast. I highly recommend this book. The book is filled with certainly more than a thousand listings and while the photos are often small, it does make you aware of so many mansions, obscure & familiar.

Please click HERE to see it on Amazon. If you choose to buy from the Amazon Link, "As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases", which helps to maintain this blog, two FB groups and two Instagram accounts. Thank you.

The First Four Hundred: Mrs. Astor's New York in the Gilded Age

The First Four Hundred, by Jerry E. Patterson

The First Four Hundred, By Jerry E. Patterson, Please click HERE to see it on Amazon. If you choose to buy from the Amazon Link, "As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases", which helps to maintain this blog, two FB groups and two Instagram accounts. Thank you.

Season of Splendor: The Court of Mrs. Astor in Gilded Age New York

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Fortune's Children: The Fall of the House of Vanderbilt

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In Pursuit of Privilege

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Hearst, The Collector

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Buy at Amazon

If you choose to buy from the Amazon Link, "As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases", Thank you. More  Gilded Age related books, HERE

Buy at Amazon

 "As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases", Thank you. More  Gilded Age related books, HERE

Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune

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Newport Villas: The Revival Styles 1885-1915 by Michael Kathrens

One of the best newer books about the splendid mansions of Newport, Rhode Island.  The book also has a chapter on Seaview Terrace, aka Collinwood. Buy at Amazon "As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases",  More  Gilded Age related books, HERE  

Book of the Day: Consuelo & Alva Vanderbilt

Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt

Consuelo & Alva Vanderbilt, A must read about this famous Gilded Age mother, daughter relationship. Click HERE to buy on Amazon. 

Stan and Gus: Art, Ardor, and the Friendship That Built the Gilded Age

A new book about the famous Gilded Age architect Stanford White and sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Their collaborative efforts during the Gilded Age left behind a world of lost splendor. 

 Available at Amazon HERE. Note: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases".

Playhouses and Privilege

A wonderful new book covering the cottages of the children of the Gilded Age families. Authored by, Abigail A. Van Slyck Dayton Professor Emerita of Art History and Architectural Studies Connecticut College. New London, CT. Published by the University of Minnesota Press. Color Photos: Abigail Van Slyck Examining playhouses of the super-rich to understand how architecture contributed to the construction of elite identity and modern childhood Playhouses and Privilege explores children’s playhouses built on British and American estates between the 1850s and the mid-1930s. Different from the prefabricated buildings that later populated suburban backyards, these playhouses were often fully functional cottages designed by well-known architects for British royalty, American industrialists, and Hollywood stars. As Abigail A. Van Slyck shows, these buildings were more than extravagant spaces to cultivate children’s imaginations and fantasy lives. Reviewing a rich archive that includes extant buildings, site plans, family photographs, baby books, and intimate household correspondence, Van Slyck demonstrates that these structures were tools of social reproduction shaped by elite parents’ attitudes toward child-rearing, education, and class privilege. Recognizing playhouses as stages for the purposeful performance of upper-class identity, she illuminates their importance in influencing children to internalize gendered codes of conduct as they enacted rituals of hospitality and learned how to supervise servants. From Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s Swiss Cottage, built on their Osborne estate in 1853, to the children’s cottage constructed on the grounds of Cornelius Vanderbilt’s Newport mansion in 1886, and from the miniature bungalow commissioned in 1926 for the Dodge Brothers Motor Company heiress to the corporate-sponsored glass-block playhouse given to Shirley Temple in 1936, Van Slyck surveys a variety of playhouses and their milieus to trace the evolution of elite childhood and the broader social practices of wealth. Playhouses and Privilege makes clear that, far from being frivolous, playhouses were carefully planned architectural manifestations of adult concerns, integral to the reproduction of class privilege. Available at Amazon HERE. Note: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases".

Houses of Los Angeles: Volume II by Sam Waters

 A two volume look at the great mansions of LA, some gone, some still existing. Volume II has a good chapter on the Greystone mansion at Beverly Hills.  Buy at Amazon "As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases",  More  Gilded Age related books, HERE  NOTE: The link is only for Volume II, but there is link below that if you are interested in Volume I also. 
 

Ghosts of Greystone Beverly Hills by Clete Keith

 

A in-depth look at the tragic events that took place at Greystone, shortly after it was built and the ghostly  sightings & odd occurrences that linger on.   Buy at Amazon "As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases",  More  Gilded Age related books, HERE 

Dark Shadows: Return to Collinwood by Kathryn Leigh Scott & Jim Pierson

 

A  favorite book about the "Dark Shadows" co- authored by Kathryn Leigh Scott who played the roles of Maggie Evans & Josette Collins.  Buy at Amazon "As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases",  More  Gilded Age related books, HERE