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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 974.7043092
EAN num: 9780393331608
ISBN number: 0393331601
Label: W. W. Norton
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 320
Printing Date: May 19, 2008
Publishing house: W. W. Norton
Sale Popularity Level: 24757
Studio: W. W. Norton
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Product Description:
'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 endeavor 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. 24 pages of photographs.
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Rated by buyers 
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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.
Rated by buyers -
This was a book club selection that was unanimously voted "thumbs down." Since the inception of our club, this was a very first ever voting event. We are a diverse group of (mostly retired) women, educators, businesswomen, homemakers, etc. We felt that we could have saved our time by reading Mrs. Astor's "Footprints" instead since so much of the author's writing referenced this publication. We, as a whole, felt it was simply a chronicle of a name-dropping, superficial, pearl-wearing, aristocrat we couldn't have cared less about. It did not hold our collective interest and most were too bored to finish the book.
Rated by buyers 
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This book was what I wanted to know about Mrs. Aster's life and her charitable giving. I was very interested and enjoyed the book.
Rated by buyers 
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One would think it couldn't be done. But the author has turned the dazzling Mrs. Astor into a consummate bore.
I think we'd better wait for the subsequent biography.
Rated by buyers -
Overall, a good comprehensive look at Brooke Astor's life and trials. I didn't know much about Mrs. Astor other than from the newspapers so this gave much further insight as to her life before Vincent Astor and aspects of her childhood.
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