Empty mansions: the mysterious life of Huguette Clark and the spending of a great American fortune
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Contributors:
Published:
New York : Ballantine Books, 2013.
Format:
Book
Edition:
First edition.
Physical Desc:
xxiii, 456 pages, 16 pages of plates (some color) : illustrations ; 25 cm
Status:
Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
Janet Maslin, The New York Times • St. Louis Post-Dispatch

When Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist Bill Dedman noticed in 2009 a grand home for sale, unoccupied for nearly sixty years, he stumbled through a surprising portal into American history. Empty Mansions is a rich mystery of wealth and loss, connecting the Gilded Age opulence of the nineteenth century with a twenty-first-century battle over a $300 million inheritance. At its heart is a reclusive heiress named Huguette Clark, a woman so secretive that, at the time of her death at age 104, no new photograph of her had been seen in decades. Though she owned palatial homes in California, New York, and Connecticut, why had she lived for twenty years in a simple hospital room, despite being in excellent health? Why were her valuables being sold off? Was she in control of her fortune, or controlled by those managing her money?
Dedman has collaborated with Huguette Clark’s cousin, Paul Clark Newell, Jr., one of the few relatives to have frequent conversations with her. Dedman and Newell tell a fairy tale in reverse: the bright, talented daughter, born into a family of extreme wealth and privilege, who secrets herself away from the outside world.
Huguette was the daughter of self-made copper industrialist W. A. Clark, nearly as rich as Rockefeller in his day, a controversial senator, railroad builder, and founder of Las Vegas. She grew up in the largest house in New York City, a remarkable dwelling with 121 rooms for a family of four. She owned paintings by Degas and Renoir, a world-renowned Stradivarius violin, a vast collection of antique dolls. But wanting more than treasures, she devoted her wealth to buying gifts for friends and strangers alike, to quietly pursuing her own work as an artist, and to guarding the privacy she valued above all else.
The Clark family story spans nearly all of American history in three generations, from a log cabin in Pennsylvania to mining camps in the Montana gold rush, from backdoor politics in Washington to a distress call from an elegant Fifth Avenue apartment. The same Huguette who was touched by the terror attacks of 9/11 held a ticket nine decades earlier for a first-class stateroom on the second voyage of the Titanic.
Empty Mansions reveals a complex portrait of the mysterious Huguette and her intimate circle. We meet her extravagant father, her publicity-shy mother, her star-crossed sister, her French boyfriend, her nurse who received more than $30 million in gifts, and the relatives fighting to inherit Huguette’s copper fortune. Richly illustrated with more than seventy photographs, Empty Mansions is an enthralling story of an eccentric of the highest order, a last jewel of the Gilded Age who lived life on her own terms.
Also in This Series
Copies
Location
Call Number
Status
Branford/Blackstone Adult Biography
BIO.CLARK (HUGUETTE)
Due Apr 15, 2024
East Lyme Public Adult Biography
B CLARK, HUGUETTE (Dedman)
On Shelf
Essex Adult Biography
B CLARK
On Shelf
Essex Adult Nonfiction
B CLARK
Lost and Paid
Guilford Adult Biography
BIOG CLARK, HUGUETTE
On Shelf
Haddam/Brainerd Adult Biography
B CLARK
Storage
Hamden/Miller Adult Biography
B/CLARK
On Shelf
Hamden/Whitneyville Adult Nonfiction
B/CLARK
On Shelf
Ivoryton Adult Nonfiction
BIO CLARK
On Shelf
Ledyard/Gales Ferry Nonfiction
B Clark
On Shelf
Lyme Adult Nonfiction
92 CLARK
On Shelf
New London Adult Non Fiction
B CLARK
On Shelf
Norwich/Otis Adult Biographies
BIO CLARK
On Shelf
Old Saybrook/Acton Adult Non-Fiction
B CLARK DEDMAN
On Shelf
Orange/Case Adult Biography
Biography CLARK [Huguette] Dedman
On Shelf
Preston Adult Nonfiction
B CLARK
On Shelf
Wallingford Adult Biographies
B CLARK DE
On Shelf
Woodbridge Adult Biography
B CLARK
On Shelf
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More Details
Language:
English
ISBN:
9780345534521

Notes

Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
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Citations
APA Citation (style guide)

Dedman, B., & Newell, P. C. (2013). Empty mansions: the mysterious life of Huguette Clark and the spending of a great American fortune. First edition. New York, Ballantine Books.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)

Dedman, Bill and Paul Clark Newell. 2013. Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune. New York, Ballantine Books.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)

Dedman, Bill and Paul Clark Newell, Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune. New York, Ballantine Books, 2013.

MLA Citation (style guide)

Dedman, Bill, and Paul Clark Newell, Jr. Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune. First edition. New York, Ballantine Books, 2013.

Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.
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Grouped Work ID:
8886eaf0-c6f7-7ac0-124e-7f8e0905c026
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Record Information

Last Sierra Extract TimeMar 25, 2024 07:08:39 AM
Last File Modification TimeMar 25, 2024 07:23:24 AM
Last Grouped Work Modification TimeMar 28, 2024 10:18:08 PM

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