Brooke Astor's life has been called "a story out of Edith Wharton." After an early marriage to Charles Henry Marshall (after whom the Library's rare book reading room is named), she wedded the notoriously ill-tempered Vincent Astor, who died in 1959. In a highly publicized courtroom battle, Mrs. Astor fought off an attempt to break his will, which left more than $67 million to the Vincent Astor Foundation. Mrs. Astor came into her own as the foundation's president, using his legacy to benefit New York City in hundreds of creative ways.
This definitive biography of New York society's grande dame reveals her fabulous life with the help of Astor's hard-to-find memoir, interviews with her friends, and first-hand experience. The New York Times says, "Kiernan resurrects the monument as she appeared when the author first met her, over lunch at the Carlyle in 1999: neither polished to a blinding luster nor especially tarnished, but imposing and original just the same."
