Books Set in North America: United States

The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post, by Allison Pataki (2022)

I didn’t know that much about Marjorie Post other than she was the Post cereal heiress and had Mar-a-Largo built as her winter escape.

In this novel, based on her life, the 4-time married and divorced heiress comes across as a wealthy name-dropper more interested in her enormous wealth than her husbands.  She came from humble beginnings, although by the time she was a teenager, her father had established the Postum Cereal Company, and she lived a life on great wealth.  Although she had three daughters, her daughters barely play a role in the novel.

Her first husband, whom she married as a teenager, was Edward Bennett Close.  They divorced after 14 years.  Her second husband was E.F. Hutton, of the stock brokerage firm.  Together they expanded her company which ultimately was renamed General Foods Corporation.

Her third husband was Joseph E Davies.  He was a lawyer and diplomat who served as Ambassador to represent the United States in the Soviet Union after Stalin came into power.  It was during this period that Post acquired scads of Russian art, including works by Fabergé.  He was later sent to Belgium and Luxembourg during World War II.  In the novel, Marjorie is portrayed more concerned about her art and money than her husband being near the War front.

After the War, Marjorie spends millions of dollars building a home to showcase all her art.  She loves to throw parties and have people fawn over her.  She is also very proud of her jewelry, which the book references on every other page.  Although Marjorie is considered a philanthropist, the novel doesn’t focus as much on her philanthropic efforts as it does her spending habits on homes, jewelry, and art.

If the real-life Marjorie Post is anything like the Marjorie portrayed in this novel, she really wasn’t the type of person I would want as a friend.

I had previously read Sisi: Empress on Her Own, also by Allison Pataki.  That novel was about Empress Elizabeth of Austria-Hungary, wife of Franz Joseph I of Austria.  I loved that novel and looked forward to reading about Marjorie Post.  It didn’t live up to my expectations.

Read:  September 20, 2023

2 Stars

Books Set in North America: United States: New York, New York

Vanderbilt, by Anderson Cooper (2021)

 

CNN anchor Anderson Cooper is the great-great-great grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, known as Commodore, the shipping and railroad magnate who amassed the great Vanderbilt fortune.  His book recounts his family history from the Commodore’s meagre beginnings to his great fortune and how subsequent generations squandered that money.  While it may be true that Cooper didn’t inherit the mass fortune of his ancestors, he did live a life of privilege that most of us never experience.

 

The book begins with a prologue recounting how Gladys Vanderbilt, a great-great grandchild of the Commodore was forced out of The Breakers in 2018.  This was the home where she had been living in the third-floor apartment for years.  Soon after the opulent mansion was built, its maintenance and upkeep became oppressive, not to mention the passage of the 16^th Amendment that imposed income taxes on the wealthy.  The Vanderbilt’s found The Breakers too costly and slowly it was turnover to a Preservation Society.

 

Then, we turn to the Commodore.  He became obsessed with making money but wasn’t concerned with the finer aspects of society.  When he died, he was said to have been the richest man in America.  Although he had 12 children who survived to adulthood, only three were son.  He didn’t consider is daughters, as they would marry and cease to be known as Vanderbilts’.  His youngest surviving son died young, and his middle son, Cornelius Jeremiah Vanderbilt had epilepsy, so the Commodore discounted him when it came to inheritance.  The bulk of the Commodore’s fortune was left to his eldest son, William Henry Vanderbilt.

 

William Henry doubled his father’s fortune, allowing his children to grow up in great wealth and lots of leisure.  William Henry’s children grew up with great wealth and lots of leisure.  Cornelius II, William Henry’s son, built The Breakers.  No expense was spared.

 

William Henry’s elder son, William Kissam Vanderbilt, known as Willie, married Alva Erskine Smith, who was a social climber.  She forced her way into New York society by hosting lavish parties.  Again, she spared no expense, often spending tens of thousands of dollars of just flowers for her parties.

 

By the 1920s, times had changed, but the Vanderbilt reputation for having money lingered.  Family members spent like they still owned the fortune.  The family spent money on yachts (Harold Sterling Vanderbilt competed in the America’s Cup), and horses, hobbies that ate away at the family fortune.

 

Cooper’s mother, Gloria Vanderbilt was the daughter of Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt and Gloria Morgan.  Reginald, who was 45 years old when she was born, and died before she was 2.  When he died, he was greatly in debt and most of his property was sold to pay off his debt.  A trust fund for Gloria was safe from her father’s creditors, but her 20-year-old mother was left virtually penniless.  A court decree granted her mother a large “allowance” from Gloria’s trust, ostensibly to be used for Gloria’s care.  Her mother, however, still wanted to live in her jet-setting style.  Ultimately, Gloria became the center of a “trial of the century” between Gloria’s mother and her aunt Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney over Gloria’s welfare and her money.

 

Gloria Vanderbilt, herself, grew up in wealth and continued spending money throughout her life, all the way up to the end.

 

This book was a very fast and fascinating read.  Having recently read The Social Graces (by Renée Rosen), which recounts Alva’s feud with Carolina Astor and her struggle to break into New York Society, it was interesting to read Cooper’s take on these events.  Cooper also discussed New York Society women in the 1950s and their relationship with Truman Capote.  These events were also depicted in Melanie Benjamin’s novel The Swans of Fifth Avenue (by Melanie Benjamin).

 

The rich are different.

 

Read:  January 8, 2022

 

5 Stars

Books Set in Africa: Cairo, Egypt

Sipping from the Nile: My Exodus from Egypt, by Jean Naggar (2008)

 

Sipping from the Nile is a memoir of a young women who grew up in a wealthy and privileged Jewish family in Egypt.  The author was born in December 1937, on the cusp of World War II.  She grew up in a pampered and sheltered environment, so the horrors of the War largely escaped her.

 

Although her family had Italian passports, they had roots in Egypt going back centuries.  Over the years, the family had amassed an enormous fortune through banking and lived in a large mansion with many servants.  They were integral members of high Egyptian society and rubbed shoulders with high level diplomats and kings.

 

As a young girl growing up, she and her family traveled extensively throughout Europe and she (as well as other members of the family) was fluent in many languages, including English, Italian, French and Arabic.  When she entered high school, she was sent to a boarding school in England.  It was her first time being separated from her family and, although it gave her some freedom, she was also very along among her British classmates.

 

It wasn’t until the Suez crisis in 1956 that the author began to realized that being Jewish in Egypt had consequences.  Although she describes the losses of their home and property, as she recounts the family’s life in exile, they seemed not to have suffered too badly financially.  She is still able to maintain a high-society lifestyle.

 

I found the first part of the memoir more interesting that the latter part.  I tired of reading of all the “fabulous” connections her family made: winning Olympic medals, meeting all the rich and famous, all the designer clothing her mother had commissioned, etc.

 

Interestingly, it wasn’t until after she moved to the United States that she began to realized that her Jewishness was and identifying factor.  While growing up in Egypt, although her family was Jewish and observed all the rituals and holidays, being Jewish was just a fact of life (until after WWII and the country itself had a massive political turnabout).

 

Scattered throughout the book are numerous family photos and scene of Egypt.  They added to the book, and I enjoyed perusing them.

 

Read: October 4, 2021

 

3.5 Stars