Saturday, March 14, 2009
The Last Mrs. Astor
The Last Mrs. Astor
"Kiernan's sharp-eyed biography brings back a woman who, far into her 90s, relished the dance of life."—O Magazine The fabulous life of Brooke Astor, a pioneer of philanthropy and for decades a luminary of New York society. Hers is a story out of Edith Wharton. After a disastrous early marriage, Brooke Astor wedded the notoriously ill-tempered Vincent Astor, who died in 1959. In a highly publicized courtroom battle, Brooke fought off an attempt to break Vincent's will, which left some $67 million to the Vincent Astor Foundation. As the foundation's president, Brooke would use this legacy to benefit New York, where the Astor fortune had been made.
Brooke would personally visit each grant applicant and charm anyone she met. At her one-hundredth birthday, princes and presidents honored her, but in 2006 a grandson petitioned the courts to have his father removed as Brooke's guardian. Once again an Astor court battle became the stuff of headlines. This biography—based on firsthand knowledge and interviews with Brooke's friends and the heads of New York's great cultural institutions—gives us back the woman so loved and admired, whose hands-on approach would inspire future philanthropists.Product Details
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Until last summer's reports that Brooke Astor's son was keeping her on a shoestring budget in her Manhattan apartment, the widow of millionaire Vincent Astor was known as a society maven who doled out money to worthy causes. But in this enjoyable and flattering biography, former New Yorker editor Kiernan, who knows Mrs. Astor personally, describes how the thrice-married woman was raised to be charming and agreeable, and learned her lessons well. Kiernan finds some detractors, who saw Astor's charm as manipulative and her agreeable nature as sugarcoating on a single-minded determination to advance her status. But even the negative comments have a positive spin. Responding to the theory that Astor married the ill-tempered and reclusive Vincent for money, Louis Auchincloss said, "I wouldn't respect her if she hadn't. Only a twisted person would have married him for love." Then again, it was an odd pairing, and not just because the matchmaker was Vincent's then-second wife, who allegedly wanted out and believed the way to obtain a generous settlement was to find "a suitable replacement." Tidbits like these add zip to Kiernan's affectionate portrait of the poet and writer who really made her mark when she took over her husband's philanthropic foundation. A portrait of the grande dame in decline, manipulated by her son is a poignant end to a grand saga. 16 pages of photos. (May 21)
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About the Author
A former editor at The New Yorker, Frances Kiernan is the author of Seeing Mary Plain: A Life of Mary McCarthy. She lives in New York City.
Customer Reviews
Our Miss Brooke
Brooke Astor, the beloved lady-like (on the surface) doyenne of philanthropy, gets the biographer she deserves in the amazing Frances Kiernan. Kiernan digs deep and shows us two Brookes, the genteel lady we know from her good acts, and the one we could not have imagined. Brooke lived and loved large. Her life was full-blown, loaded with bad sex, great sex, abuse, genteel-poverty and in the end, all the money in the world. Kiernan lays this amazing saga in front of us with wit and brilliant writing. I adore The Last Mrs. Astor. A must-read.
A TERRIFIC READ!
History and drama--all you could want! Even my lawyer husband, who "never reads novels or other silly stuff" read it and couldn't stop talking about it. Five Stars well deserved!
Didn't Brooke deserve better?
This biography is so scattered: events are present, past, and confused that I doubt Mrs. Astor herself would be able to follow it! The more recent "Mrs. Astor Regrets" is ever so much more readable and interesting! Mrs. Astor was a more than adequate wordsmith herself; she wouldn't have been pleased with this, I bet! The author alternates between being full of herself, and in awe of Mrs. Astor; I wish she would find her voice and then keep herself on track.
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