Wall Street Journal Bestseller
For fans of Downton Abbey, a real-life American version of the Crawley family—Fortune's Children is an enthralling true story that recreates the drama, splendor, and wealth of the legendary Vanderbilts.
Vanderbilt: The very name is synonymous with the Gilded Age. The family patriarch, "the Commodore,” built a fortune that made him the world's richest man by 1877. Yet, less than fifty years after his death, no Vanderbilt was counted among the world's richest people. Written by descendant Arthur T. Vanderbilt II, Fortune's Children traces the dramatic and amazingly colorful history of this great American family, from the rise of industrialist and philanthropist Cornelius Vanderbilt to the fall of his progeny—wild spendthrifts whose profligacy bankrupted a vast inheritance.

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

Vanderbilt II, Arthur T.

Humor & Entertainment

William Morrow Paperbacks

As significant as the mansion of a great Gilded Age estate like Florham, the New Jersey country home of Florence Vanderbilt Twombly, was its landscape. This book explores how that greatest of all landscape architects, Frederick Law Olmsted,visualized 1,200 acres of woodlands and scrub growth and swamps and transformed them into a magical country retreat for a family which could afford, and demanded, "the best of the best." The book includes planning drawings that illustrate specific concepts for the development of the estate and many paste and present photographs that show what was and what is.This historical record describes the origins of the estate and the people involved--from the landscape architects of Olmsted's firm to the men who dug and planted.

Olmsted's Vision: The Landscape of Florham

History

Cummins, Walter

Americas

Florham Books

"Though an old man," Thomas Jefferson wrote at Monticello, "I am but a young gardener." In Gardening in Eden, we enter Arthur T. Vanderbilt's small enchanted world of the garden, where the old wooden trestle tables of a roadside nursery are covered in crazy quilts of spring color, in pansies with crayon-yellow noses and eyes and mouths painted on as if with water colors and india ink; where a catbird comes to eat raisins from one's hand, and a chipmunk demands a daily ration of salted cocktail nuts; where ferns, like cats, leisurely, luxuriously stretch out in the warm spring sun and tulips, luscious as lollipops, dance in one's winter dreams. Vanderbilt has gardened for over twenty years at his home in northern New Jersey, and in this familiar, small-scale suburban setting he finds the extraordinary and teaches us about the delights, joys, and occasional disappointments of gardening. In this celebration of life, we journey with the author through the four seasons of the gardening year. We feel the oppressiveness of endless winter days, the magic of an old-fashioned snow day, the heady, healing qualities of wandering through a greenhouse on a frozen February afternoon, the restlessness of a gardener waiting for spring. We hear the spring peepers down in the swamps around Surprise Lake and play hooky to go to the nursery on a day when a warm breeze is pushing the clouds across the sky. We experience firsthand the front lines of battle against the enemy gangs gathered at the garden's borders, the winged and stealthy destroyers of plants and flowers. We hear the field crickets and katydids prophesy of summer's end and watch marmalade leaves drift to earth and, later, the skeletal branches of bare trees claw at the twilight sky like the bony arms and grasping fingers of a witch. Together, we share in seasons of trial and error, of creating and maintaining a garden, of great plans laid and gone awry, of crushing defeats and tiny victories and unexpected insights into nature. With a sense of wonder and humor on each page, Arthur Vanderbilt takes us along with him to discover that for those who wait, watch, and labor in the garden, it's all happening right outside our windows. This is that rare book on gardening that will carry the gardener through the long winter months and help him or her plan for what to do when the snow melts and the gardening seasons begin again.

Gardening in Eden: The Joys of Planning and Tending a Garden

Crafts, Hobbies & Home

Gardening & Landscape Design

Simon&Schuster

"Though an old man," Thomas Jefferson wrote at Monticello, "I am but a young gardener." Every gardener is. In Gardening in Eden, we enter Arthur Vanderbilt's small enchanted world of the garden, where the old wooden trestle tables of a roadside nursery are covered in crazy quilts of spring color, where a catbird comes to eat raisins from one's hand, and a chipmunk demands a daily ration of salted cocktail nuts. We feel the oppressiveness of endless winter days, the magic of an old-fashioned snow day, the heady, healing qualities of wandering through a greenhouse on a frozen February afternoon, the restlessness of a gardener waiting for spring. With a sense of wonder and humor on each page, Arthur Vanderbilt takes us along with him to discover that for those who wait, watch, and labor in the garden, it's all happening right outside our windows.

Gardening in Eden: Seasons in a Suburban Garden

Religion & Spirituality

Vanderbilt: The very name is synonymous with the Gilded Age. The family patriarch, "the Commodore," built a fortune that made him the world's richest man by 1877. Yet less than fifty years after his death, no Vanderbilt was counted among the world's richest people. Written by descendant Arthur T. Vanderbilt II, Fortune's Children traces the dramatic and amazingly colorful history of this great American family, from the rise of industrialist and philanthropist Cornelius Vanderbilt to the fall of his progeny-wild spendthrifts whose profligacy bankrupted a vast inheritance.

Biographies & Memoirs

Leaders & Notable People

Tantor Audio

Antiques aren't for everyone but Arthur Vanderbilt's enthusiasm in The Soul of a House makes it seem like they absolutely should be. A nineteenth-century clipper on a rough sea, a Chinese vase, a knickknacks box, a Hepplewhite, who knows what can be found in an old money American country house when it goes up for sale, curtains and all. But that is only the start: what about the thrill of the auction when an item fetches triple the purchase price? What about that rare piece that you get home only to discover it is worth millions? For Arthur Vanderbilt, antiques are alive with history, alive with that part of a family now gone, the arm of a chair worn smooth because that is where the dog rested its head every night. The Soul of a House is a fascinating read for those with any interest in the world of antiques as a hobby or a business.

The Soul of a House: Adventures in Building an Antique Retirement Account

Children's Books

Biographies

Austin Macauley Publishers

The prolific Georges Simenon was convinced that "writing is not a profession but a vocation of unhappiness." "Let's face it," William Styron concluded, "writing is hell."But now, under the oaks on a summer afternoon, I remember none of that. I remember only the joy, the exuberance of taking an idea and working with it, of daily tackling and solving the myriad challenges each chapter, each page, every paragraph can present, of reading over a page that seems just right and adding another page to it, and then another. Of seeing pages accumulate and reading them again and again, with mounting satisfaction and pleasure.

A Slant of Wind: A Summer Afternoon’s Reflections on Writing and Publishing

Arts & Literature

Serving House Books

It is tiny specks of gold from the blowing dust of our lives that can be the most memorable. Way does indeed lead on to way, and there is never time to revisit the wonder of these special moments in our lives--except in memory. The people are gone. The places we knew are gone. Seasons turn. Years rush by. Decades vanish. And then, something will remind you: Sunlight swimming on a carpet as if filters through the blowing leaves of the tree outside your window. The way a fat cloud sails through the blue, windy sky. A face in a passing car. The sound of a voice. A fragment of a song from long ago. And suddenly, a glimpse of a memory starts to come into focus, until, once again, I'm back. These are not transformational moments. And it may be that they mean nothing. Or maybe everything. Either way, for a few minutes, come join me there.

Treasures of Memories: How Way Leads on to Way

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Vanderbilt II, Arthur T.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Vanderbilt II, Arthur T.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Vanderbilt II, Arthur T.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

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

Olmsted's Vision: The Landscape of Florham

Gardening in Eden: The Joys of Planning and Tending a Garden

Gardening in Eden: Seasons in a Suburban Garden

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

The Soul of a House: Adventures in Building an Antique Retirement Account

A Slant of Wind: A Summer Afternoon’s Reflections on Writing and Publishing

Treasures of Memories: How Way Leads on to Way