{"title":"Books by Katherine Howe","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780062964625","title":"Vanderbilt","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e“Splendid. . . . haunting and beautifully written.” \u003c\/strong\u003e — \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe #1 \u003cem\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/em\u003ebestselling chronicle of the rise and fall of a legendary American dynasty, from CNN anchor and journalist Anderson Cooper and historian and novelist Katherine Howe.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOne of the \u003cem\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/em\u003e's Notable Works of Nonfiction\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen eleven-year-old Cornelius Vanderbilt began to work on his father’s small boat ferrying supplies in New York Harbor at the beginning of the nineteenth century, no one could have imagined that one day he would, through ruthlessness, cunning, and a pathological desire for money, build two empires—one in shipping and another in railroads—that would make him the richest man in America. His staggering fortune was fought over by his heirs after his death in 1877, sowing familial discord that would never fully heal. Though his son Billy doubled the money left by “the Commodore,” subsequent generations competed to find new and ever more extraordinary ways of spending it. By 2018, when the last Vanderbilt was forced out of The Breakers—the seventy-room summer estate in Newport, Rhode Island, that Cornelius’s grandson and namesake had built—the family would have been unrecognizable to the tycoon who started it all.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNow, the Commodore’s great-great-great-grandson Anderson Cooper, joins with historian Katherine Howe to explore the story of his legendary family and their outsized influence. Cooper and Howe breathe life into the ancestors who built the family’s empire, basked in the Commodore’s wealth, hosted lavish galas, and became synonymous with unfettered American capitalism and high society. Moving from the hardscrabble wharves of old Manhattan to the lavish drawing rooms of Gilded Age Fifth Avenue, from the ornate summer palaces of Newport to the courts of Europe, and all the way to modern-day New York, Cooper and Howe wryly recount the triumphs and tragedies of an American dynasty unlike any other.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWritten with a unique insider’s viewpoint, this is a rollicking, quintessentially American history as remarkable as the family it so vividly captures.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43201356759218,"sku":"9780062964625","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780062964625_6cded287-52ff-4c0f-bb64-953e9f17d8a3.jpg?v=1786011426"},{"product_id":"9780861547456","title":"A True Account","description":"From a New York Times-bestselling author comes this daring account of one woman's adventure among the most feared sea rovers of all time, perfect for fans of Kate Mosse and Jess Kidd'An absolute page turner, full of unexpected twists and turns.' Celia Rees, author of Pirates! She was one of the most terrifying seafarers of all time. This is her story.   The Golden Age of Piracy is drawing to a close when Hannah Masury watches the public hanging of the infamous William Fly in a Boston town square. Rumours about the location of Fly's buried treasure are rampant, and when Hannah finds a clue as to where it might be hidden, she decides it's time to take the future into her own hands. Two centuries later in a dusty university archive, Professor Marian Beresford is captivated by Hannah's story and the many unanswered questions she left behind. Hannah was determined to take her secrets with her to the grave, but in Marian, she might finally have met her match. A True Account is the page-turning story of two women from two very different worlds, both shattering the rules of their own society, both willing to risk everything to forge their own adventure. 'A feast for the sea-loving senses.' Sarah Penner, author of The Lost Apothecary","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44581193253042,"sku":"9780861547456","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780861547456_a4c5e617-f2c9-47f5-99f7-638bd78dda2e.jpg?v=1786016307"},{"product_id":"9780062964663","title":"Astor","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA NPR Best Book of the Year\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe number one \u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e bestselling authors of \u003cem\u003eVanderbilt\u003c\/em\u003e return with another riveting history of a legendary American family, the Astors, and how they built and lavished their fortune.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe story of the Astors is a quintessentially American story—of ambition, invention, destruction, and reinvention.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom 1783, when German immigrant John Jacob Astor first arrived in the United States, until 2009, when Brooke Astor’s son, Anthony Marshall, was convicted of defrauding his elderly mother, the Astor name occupied a unique place in American society.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe family fortune, first made by a beaver trapping business that grew into an empire, was then amplified by holdings in Manhattan real estate. Over the ensuing generations, Astors ruled Gilded Age New York society and inserted themselves into political and cultural life, but also suffered the most famous loss on the \u003cem\u003eTitanic,\u003c\/em\u003e one of many shocking and unexpected twists in the family’s story.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this unconventional, page-turning historical biography, featuring black-and-white and color photographs, #1 \u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e bestselling authors Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe chronicle the lives of the Astors and explore what the Astor name has come to mean in America—offering a window onto the making of America itself.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56222388027765,"sku":"9780062964663","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780062964663_5e9b2cd5-a3e3-4987-9079-6e2db3b6fe3e.jpg?v=1786011427"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-katherine-howe.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}