Vanderbilt

Vanderbilt by Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe is the first book that I've finished since I did my massive catch-up. It was a long, slow read for me that sometimes read like a textbook and sometimes read like narrative non-fiction. In the early pages, it reminded me a little of The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America by Russell Shorto. Even at the end of the book, I felt like I'd read something about the history of NYC society just as much as I learned about this specific branch of the Vanderbilt family. I think if I wasn't a New Yorker, I might have put the book down unfinished, even though this is my February title for Books & Beer Club.

Prior to visiting the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina in 2022, I read one fiction and one non-fiction about that particular branch of the Vanderbilt family. Both branches start with "the Commodore." Maybe those books that I read were more interesting, maybe that branch was more interesting, but I remember being much more engaged reading. See The Wedding Veil  and The Last Castle.

Writing this family history with Katherine Howe must have been so enlightening to Anderson Cooper. Not many people have these sort of access to specifics of their family history.

The Last Castle

 

I really enjoyed reading The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation's Largest Home by Denise Kiernan. I am sure the fact that I started reading this days before heading to Asheville, North Carolina and my first visit to the Biltmore Estate and I finished reading the morning after arriving back home was a huge contributing factor. I would highly recommend that everyone visiting Biltmore takes the time to read this non-fiction accounting of George W. Vanderbilt's visions of his mountain home becoming a reality and then the fight by Edith Dresser Vanderbilt to keep her husband's dream alive after his death.I'm glad that I first read The Wedding Veil by Kristy Woodson Harvey, the fictionalized version of basically the same story. (It also became incredibly obvious that Harvey did her research well. Reading both these books in conjunction with my trip gave me enough information so that I had a good background about the city of Asheville, the history of the area, the Vanderbilt connection to the area, and some specific history of Biltmore.It also insured that I was more curious about things that I saw while sightseeing. And that sightseeing included a trolley around Asheville, time spent at the Grove Park Inn, spending time at the Estate and driving around the Piegan Forest. Now that I finished The Last Castle, I wish I was close enough to go back to the Asheville and look at some specific things a little more closely.

Sadly, it was too cold on the day of our visit to explore the gardens the way that I'd hoped. I'd done research on how to best maximize your time at the estate so we got their mid-morning, giving us time to shuttle to the house, then get to the gardens (I thought that would be a walk and not a shuttle), explore, and time to get back to the house to enjoy a hot chocolate before getting to go inside for our audio tour appointed time. We took the audio tour slowly, savoring lots of the rooms. From there, we shuttled back to the parking area and then drove to the Antler Hill Winery, a new business started by. the latest generation of the family. After the wine tasting, we went to the Legacy exhibit which I really enjoyed. That brought even more of the book to life. It also got me thinking about the generation running the estate now. A brother and sister about my age running their family home as a business. George and Edith's great granddaughter lives on property so she's running her home as a business. Intriguing. 

Wealth is a strange thing. There's so much curiosity about how "the other half" lives as well as such disdain for those who have so much. At least this branch of the Vanderbilt family did a lot of good with their riches. And fascinating how they've struggled financially for many years trying to maintain the house the way George dreamed it could be.

Day 1 in Asheville we spent several hours at 
The Omni Grove Park Inn

The view from the Inn

Interesting construction






Day 2 was our Biltmore Day

The Wedding Veil

Preparing for a return trip to Asheville - and my first visit to the Biltmore, I was interested in reading something to give me a little background. The Wedding Veil by Kristy Woodson Harvey fit the bill. It's a perfect cross between well-researched historical fiction and a Hallmark movie. And I love Hallmark movies!

The novel unfolds in dual storylines. Some people don't like this format for novels. I don't mind. 

The historical fiction storyline is about the Vanderbilt family, the building and maintaining of Biltmore in Asheville, North Carolina. Edith Vanderbilt is determined to preserve her husband's legacy after his untimely death. Their daughter, Cornelia, would also like to preserve the legacy, as well as maintain her "safe" home away from the spotlight in the mountains. Until she comes to the realization that she needs to make her own mark on the world.

The romance storyline is about runaway bride, Julia, and her determination to find out more about the history of the wedding veil that her great-grandmother, grandmother, and mother all had worn before her. It was while putting on the wedding veil, which comes with the promise of a "happily ever after" that Julia realizes the guy she's about to marry at, where else, but at the Biltmore, isn't going to be her happily ever after.

It doesn't hurt that Julia and her grandmother, Babs, my favorite character in the novel, have a special connection to the Biltmore. Babs has a mountain home in Asheville. It's a place where both Babs and and Julia go to think about life.

After reading this, I'm more excited than before to make my trip.