Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Empty Mansions

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

by
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 it...more
Hardcover, 496 pages
Published September 10th 2013 by Ballantine Books (first published January 1st 2013)

sponsored links


Science Fiction, Fantasy Adventure
"The plot is riveting. . .an exhilarating new series with solid characters and an intriguing new world." - Publishers Weekly
www.amazon.com

Yesterday: A Novel of Reincarnation
Debut in Print, Kindle, Audible.com, or Nook! Click for details.
www.goodreads.com

more links...

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Add this book to your favorite list »

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)
Kris
Huguette Clark was born to nearly unimaginable wealth and privilege. Her father, William A. Clark, was a copper baron who made several fortunes, particularly in mining and railroads, booming industries during America's Gilded Age. At the time of his death in 1925, he had a huge fortune to leave to his heirs, including his youngest child, Huguette Marcelle Clark.

Huguette married once, but got divorced after approximately a year. She then turned to a very private life, far from the social whirl o...more
Amelia Gremelspacher
This book is wonderful mansion porn. Bill Dedham had found himself confounded by a mysterious mansion that he stumbled across while dream house shopping. He discovered it was owned by Huguette Clark who had not lived in it for sixty years yet maintained it in lovely condition. With Paul Newell, a relation of Clark's, he has set upon the mystery of this wealthy heiress of the W.A. Clark copper fortune. The cultural and historical detail is exquisite and complete. Indeed the prose is a pleasure. B...more
David Stone
Let me answer the big question first. Yes, there is a lot of new information about Huguette Clark in this book by journalist Dedman and Huguette's cousin Paul Newell.

I thought I already knew the whole story about the woman with three of the most expensive homes in America who didn't visit them for decades, instead choosing to live in a small hospital room, even though she was healthy. But Huguette leaps out of these pages like no other recluse since Edie Beale. She ought to do for wearing six l...more
P.e.lolo
An excellent book. This book begins with the finding of an empty castle or so that is the listing for sale. The author starts researching and comes across a name, Huguette Clark. He finds a relative and gets some back ground information. She is the last and youngest daughter of C.A. Clark. Who at one time was one or the richest men in America. She is from his second marriage and the mansions she owns are from after her mother passed on. But she has enough funds to pay the taxes, staff and benefi...more
Nancy Kennedy
Huguette Clark was born into an unimaginably wealthy family in the early 1900s. Her father, W.A. Clark, was a mining tycoon and at one time a U.S. senator. In adulthood, she becomes a recluse who, though she owned multimillion-dollar homes and apartments around the country, chose to spend her final 20 years as the healthy occupant of a hospital room in Manhattan.

Author Bill Dedman delves into the life of this little-known and entirely forgotten woman after he serendipitously comes across one of...more
Nancy
A Fairytale Life

Hugette Clark, the youngest daughter of W.A. Clark, the Copper King, lived a reclusive life. The fabulous amount of money inherited from her father allowed her to live exactly the way she wanted which included having two homes and three apartments that she didn't visit for over 20 years or more. One, Bellosguardo, was kept ready for an immanent visit for nearly forty years.

She collected dolls, paintings and musical instruments. She paid for doll houses built to her specification...more
Lyn
Absolutely Wonderful! A Must-Read!
The press has written much about the Clark Family due to W A Clark being one of the richest men in America. What? You haven’t heard of him? Once he was a household word similar to Carnegie or Rockefeller. What happened, why haven’t we heard of the Clark family for decades? The answer is found in the book Empty Mansions – the Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of an American Fortune. While many articles have been written about Huguette Clark, this...more
kathryn w
I wonder why I never heard of William A Clark because I live in western Pennsylvania and I've been to his birthplace Connellsville PA on the Youghiogheny River and grew up knowing about the philanthropy of Andrew Carnegie but from reading this book I think I have the answers.
If the fascinating story told in Empty Mansions was written as fiction it would be cited as being too over the top.

The first part of the book tell how Huguette Clark's father W.A. Clark made his fortune and fame and the for...more
Sara
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Melissa McCauley
I can’t quit thinking about this story and telling everyone Huguette’s sad tale. After her mother’s death, this super-wealthy heiress (who was obviously not “normal”) withdrew from the world and descended into an unhealthy existence, locked away in her darkened apartment. (When you are super wealthy, you are not a hoarder, you have an assistant who curates your doll collection)

It makes me so sad that there was no one to be her advocate, a cautionary tale for financial and estate planning. When...more
Don
Empty Mansions is a fascinating trip into the lives of one gilded age family, ending with the youngest daughter of W. A. Clark, a copper baron and U.S. Senator. Huguette Clark valued her privacy and the privacy of her family above all else. Fueled by a life of losing her closest loved ones, fear of kidnapping as a child, and people always seeking money, she became reclusive...and somewhat eccentric. Viewed by many as crazy or senile, she was neither. She was intelligent, an artist, and a caring...more
Jamie
I was lucky enough to receive this book as an ARC through Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

When I began to read Empty Mansions, I was startled to find that this book was about a woman that had piqued my curiosity years ago when I had read about her in the New York Post. At the time, the press had not released her name or many facts about her at all - only saying that she had been living in the hospital for around 30 years and that she had no visitors and appeared to have no family. I r...more
Christina Dudley
What a fascinating read! Dedman recounts the history of the W. A. Clark fortune: how it was built by Clark through copper mining, how he divided it evenly on his death among his children from two marriages, and how his youngest child Huguette lived an opulent yet increasingly bizarre and reclusive life because of her wealth. The rich are different, indeed. If not for Huguette's immense fortune, it's hard to imagine her providing enough interest for a book this length (she collects dolls and enjo...more
Leslie
Empty Mansions had me riveted at the authors’ introductions! Often such beginnings are dry, leaving me eager to skip on to Chapter One, but not with this book! The mention of the 170 year span of time between a father’s birth and a daughter’s death, along with the dramatic changes in history that occurred during that time, is more than enough to make this book a page-turner for me. The collaboration of Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell, Jr., on this project, must have been kismet. A superb inves...more
Nancy
Looking at the cover of the ARC of Empty Mansions, you see a blurb that says “The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune”. I thought that from page one the reader would learn about this mysterious woman. That is not the case, the first one hundred and eight pages are about her father, W.A. Clark and his questionable business practices and his even more questionable relationship with the young woman that would eventually be Hugette’s mother.

You also see tha...more
Kathy Moberg
I received my copy of this book through a Goodreads giveaway. I was a bit surprised by how much I enjoyed reading this. Huguette Clark was an interesting recluse who had a remarkably full life, thanks to her art, interests and the people in which she took an interest and corresponded with or phoned. She seems to have thoroughly enjoyed helping people and doing good, and had a cheerful, positive outlook. Of course, it's highly unusual and strange to be a recluse, whether in a New York luxury apar...more
Denise
I remember hearing about Huguette Clark and the battle over her estate a few months ago. It seemed really interesting so I knew that this would be a book worth checking out. I started out really enjoying this book but the further I read it the more my interest in it began to wane. This book covers not only Huguette but also the life of her father. I happened to find her father more interesting than her (he wasn't as much of a recluse as her so he actually went out and did things). Ultimately I g...more
Lisa
A very wealthy and reclusive Hugette Clark became the subject of numerous news stories late in her long life. Why did a relatively healthy woman, who owned numerous homes, choose to live in a hospital? How did she come to own so many homes? Where did her wealth come from? Who is set to inherit her estate?

I am not a big fan of this type of story because they always seem to be slanted one way or the other. I prefer them to basically be unbiased. To present the facts and evidence as fair and balanc...more
Nicole R
When I saw Empty Mansions on netgalley, I knew I had to request it! While it sounded interested, it was far more interesting than I ever could have imagined.

Huguette was such an interesting and eccentric woman, and she really came to life in Empty Mansions. The book does jump around in terms of time and place, but I didn't mind it, because it gave a really good picture of who Huguette was as a person, and why maintaining mansions that she never visited or hadn't visited in decades was something...more
Julie
I had followed the NBC coverage of reclusive heiress Huguette Clark when the fate of her fortunes was being investigated. But there’s so much more to the woman than the headlines portray, many of which Dedman himself wrote. His meticulous research provides the portrait of a woman who never had to worry about money, was extremely generous and loyal, and who did not live her life according to social standards. The book details her father’s acquisition of wealth in the copper mines of the west in t...more
Janet
I loved this book and give it high praise. I must admit that I did feel like a voyeur and realized that Hughette Clark would probably not have appreciated my reading her life story. However, I feel that the authors treated her story with great respect and dignity. Hughette Clark led a remarkable life, one that few people can understand. I am in awe of her artistic gifts. She was an accomplished artist, and the attention she gave to the details of creating her doll houses rival the skill of an en...more
Patsy
I am truly amazed about how much research and detail went
into this book. Co-authored by a Pulitzer Prize–winning
journalist and a cousin who had frequent conservations
with Huguette Clark,no wonder this book leaves one saying
that readers will have all their questions answered about
the Clark family and especially about Huguette's life,
interests, and her wishes for her final will. She was
like a Santa Claus or a Pere Noel giving presents
and toys to her chosen recipients continuing up to
their deaths...more
Kristine Stevens
I was intrigued about this book because I wanted a better understanding of Huguette, what she was thinking and feeling and why she made the decisions that she did, but the book didn't provide that information. The first 90-some pages were all about her industrialist father - interesting but not why I was reading the book. It doesn't seem that Huguette kept diaries so all the authors could do was piece together her actions, and there seemed to be a few decades - like after her divorce - where the...more
Claire
I received Empty Mansions as part of a Goodreads giveaway.

Triggered by the discovery of the Clark family's palatial homes languishing on the real estate market, journalist Dedman and family member Newell trace the origins and life of Huguette Clark, the eccentric heiress who died at age 104.

Much of the first half of the book centers of the history of her immediate family, in particular her father, W.A. Clark. Beginning with his early life on a Pennsylvania farm, to his rise via Western copper mi...more
Lucy
A biography/history of the reclusive Hugette Clark and her wealthy family. This was very well researched and even though there was lots of information, it wasn't heavy going and was really interesting to read. Hugette inherited a huge amount of wealth and yet the Clark name faded from public knowledge. It was fascinating to read how such wealth affected her life. Despite finding this a very good read, I gave it only three stars because the book does seem quite invasive given the fact that Hugett...more
Doug Cornelius

If you've ever been house hunting, you've likely spent some time looking at houses way out of your price range. Bill Dedman did the same thing. He discovered Le Beau Chateau, a $24 million mansion containing almost 15,000 square feet on 52 acres. The property taxes alone were $161,000 per year. But what really caught his eye was that the property had been unoccupied since the owner bought it. In 1951.

Dedman, a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, smelled a story.

He discovered the owner of the prop...more
Jennifer
Thanks to the publisher & NetGalley for a preview copy.

Huguette Clark was born in a different age; one of robber barons and the industrialization of the U.S. Born into a life of privilege and excess, one would have never guessed to meet her at the end of her days, living a life of self-imposed seclusion in a hospital in New York even though she owned several million dollar homes. This is the story of her life and that of her family.

I loved how the story is started with the mystery of two emp...more
Shannon
In 2009, Bill Dedman noticed a massive home for sale and, though it was far out of his price range, was instantly intrigued by its near-perfect preservation. The home piqued Dedman's journalistic curiosity and was the starting point for his journey into the life of Huguette Clark, the daughter of Gilded Age industrialist W.A. Clark. In Empty Mansions, Dedman pairs with Clark's cousin Paul Clark Newell, Jr. to collect the pieces of Huguette's past, highlighting her family's place in history along...more
Robyn
I read an Advanced Reading Copy Kindle edition.

The story is remarkable: one of the wealthiest women in America that no one knew. Who was Huguette Clark and why do so few people know anything about her or her family? The author, with the help of a relative of Clark's, puts together the biography of the most reclusive of heiresses, a woman who defines eccentricity. The story is compelling really because it is mostly unknown.

The book itself feels a bit uneven in the reading, with the heft of conten...more
Toni
I looked forward to reading this book, especially as Dedman, one of the authors, is a Puliter Prize winner. It was interesting and chock full of research. However, it was too full of research—such as the enormous size of the water heater in the Connecticut chateau or the census results with regard to the servants at the Fifth Avenue apartment—that seemed to me to have been included whether or not they moved along the admittedly fascinating tale of the Clark family, especially Huguette Clark and...more
« previous 1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 99 100 next »
topics  posts  views  last activity   
Video: A first look at Huguette Clark's $2 million doll collection 1 3 Sep 08, 2013 10:01am  
Photos in Empty Mansions 3 8 Sep 08, 2013 09:58am  
Here are the covers for Empty Mansions. What do you think? 1 8 Jul 29, 2013 10:17pm  
Early reviews of "Empty Mansions" 1 5 Jul 11, 2013 04:52pm  

No comments: