Anderson Cooper

I've always had a fascination with the Vanderbilt family and was excited to see this book by Anderson Cooper, CNN anchor and a member of the most recent generation of Vanderbilts. I purchased the audiobook, and it did not disappoint. I finished it in two days--a testament to how engaging the story is and to Cooper as a reader.

Cooper begins with Cornelius Vanderbilt, the family patriarch who was known as "The Commodore." He worked on his father's ferry as a boy and, with a loan from his show more mother, purchased his own boat when only a teenager. It was he whop made the family fortune in shipping and railroads. Cooper makes a brief digression a few chapters later to take us back to the first family member to emigrate to New York from the Netherlands. He arrived as an indentured servant in 1650. Like many immigrant families, the Vanderbilts struggled through generations until The Commodore rose to the top of American industry and commerce. Love him or hate him (and many certainly hated him), he was one heck of a self-0made man.

The Vanderbilts did not lead a charmed life. The Commodore had thirteen children but discounted his nine daughters and wrote off two of his sons in his will. One son died young, another suffered from epilepsy and was for a time confined to a mental institution, and a third was rejected as a "wastrel"--a drinker with debts. That left his son Billy and Billy's four sons to inherit most of the Vanderbilt fortune. Although they reigned at the top of New York high society for decades, the family history is riddled with multiple divorces, scandals, suicides, alcoholism, and tragedies, including one son who went down with the Lusitania. Cooper spares no details. It wasn't until near her death that his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, began to talk abut her troubled childhood and the infamous legal case in which her paternal aunt and her mother battled over her custody. Gloria was estranged from her mother until shortly before her death; she considered her nurse, nicknamed Dodo, as her mother, even fantasizing that she was her biological mother, and she never forgave her mother or her aunt for agreeing to fire Dodo. She and Anderson suffered through the early death of his father, Wyatt Cooper, from cancer and his brother Carter's suicide at the age of 23; Anderson was in the room when he jumped from the family's 14th-story apartment window.

Part of Cooper's purpose in revealing so much about his family is to let the public know that money does not always bring happiness--nor does it last. While he acknowledges that the Vanderbilt name opened doors for him along the way, by the time his father died, there was no fortune left for Gloria or for her sons to inherit. Gloria had to work hard and make her own way in the world through modeling, fashion design, and a home decor line. Sadly, she retained her Vanderbilt tastes and went through any money she earned like it was water. Cooper himself earned spare cash as a teenager by modelling and says that early on he did his best never to let people know about his Vanderbilt background.

This is a fascinating portrait of an extraordinarily successful and extraordinarily flowed family, told candidly by one of the last Vanderbilt descendants with great personal insight but empathy by one of the last Vanderbilt descendants. If you love family sagas or reading about Old New York or Hollywood society, or just have a curiosity about the lives of a renowned American family, this is one you won't want to miss. show less

Anderson Cooper’s Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty offers fascinating, intimate insights into the gilded age of American society, as well as the personal and public lives of the Vanderbilt family. Anderson, a celebrated journalist and renowned author, takes us on a journey through history, weaving together a narrative filled with New York City's rich historical backdrop and the stories of the extraordinary wealth and opulence that defined the Vanderbilts' existence.

The show more book excels when Anderson delves into the history of New York and the family’s iconic legacy. The anecdotes about the family's rise to power, as well as their eventual decline, are compelling and well-researched. Anderson’s personal reflections, especially those tied to his own family's history, are insightful, and there are moments of raw vulnerability when he discusses the highs and lows of growing up in a life of privilege.

However, the book also occasionally feels somewhat disconnected. Anderson repeatedly compares his own life to that of the reader, highlighting experiences like riding in limousines with Michael Jackson to Studio 54 at age 14, or living in a penthouse, which might come across as a bit out of touch for those of us whose lives have never known such wealth. While his sincerity is unquestionable, there’s a feeling that his narrative, particularly his emphasis on personal stories, inadvertently distances him from the very readers he seeks to connect with. His reminders of growing up in the lap of luxury and having endless opportunities may seem, to some, more of a self-reflection than a relatable touchpoint.

Additionally, as someone who lives just outside of Asheville, I found it somewhat disappointing that the Biltmore estate—the grand family home in North Carolina—was never mentioned. It would’ve been nice to see a bit more emphasis on the broader geographical impact of the Vanderbilt legacy, especially considering its iconic significance.

All in all, Vanderbilt is a well-written memoir with a blend of history and personal insight. While the book offers glimpses into the lives of those who lived through the gilded age, there’s an occasional disconnect between the author’s world and the reader’s reality. I enjoyed the history and the peek into Anderson’s personal life, but it didn’t quite meet all my expectations. Worth the read for fans of history and memoirs, but it may leave you longing for more connection to the story's subject rather than the author’s personal experiences. show less

In Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty, Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe track the history of this famous family from Reconstruction to the Gilded Age, from the Roaring Twenties through the Atomic Age, finally culminating in Cooper’s own mother, Gloria Laura Vanderbilt. Cooper and Howe write, “The Vanderbilt story somehow manages to be both unique and also, deeply, universally American. It is a saga of wealth and success and individualism, but as it turns out, those show more aren’t necessarily the universal goods our culture likes to believe they are.” It is, in their terms, “The story of the greatest American fortune ever squandered.” They begin at the end, with Cornelius Vanderbilt’s death and the eviction of his great-great-great-granddaughter Gladys from the family’s Rhode Island home, the Breakers, in 2018. Cooper and Howe then move through history from the first van der Bilt in New Amsterdam to Cornelius’ early success in cornering the ferry market in New York Harbor and his railroad empire. Where Cornelius built a fortune and his eldest surviving son William Henry expanded it, subsequent generations slowly let it slip away. William’s son, named for himself, married Alva Erskine Smith, who succeed in breaking into New York society and supplanting the Astors, though her need for control led to her domineering her daughter Consuelo, arranging Consuelo’s marriage into the British aristocracy, even as her own marriage collapsed. For her part, Alva eventually married Oliver Belmont and became a champion of women’s rights. Willie’s brother Corneil fathered the children that eventually led both to Gladys and to Anderson Cooper himself. Vanderbilt is part Cooper’s reckoning with his family’s messy history, part a story as old as America itself. The Vanderbilts were seen as “new money” by the Astors, even though the van der Bilt family preceded the Astor family in the Americas. A country without a hereditary peerage, America’s wealthy first command power before refining themselves into a mimicry of European aristocracy, but that power and privilege brings with it all the pains one expects while these families slowly implode under the weight of their expectations. Cooper concludes with thoughts of his own son. He writes, “He is not a scion or an heir. He is, and will be, his own person. He will make his own way. Forge his own path. And perhaps, one day, he will read this book and understand.” The Vanderbilt legacy is a tempting one, but one that was built on ruthless capitalism and squandered just the same. show less

In this unusual dual memoir, Anderson Cooper and his mother Gloria Vanderbilt share a series of emails they wrote back and forth to one another over the course of a year. The "project" began after Vanderbilt suffered a bout of illness in her 90s and Cooper thought it was high time that he learned all he wanted to know about his mother, especially things about her early life.

This book was recommended to me by a co-worker, but I honestly wasn't that hyped to jump on the bandwagon. But I was show more looking for a next audiobook to read, and I saw this while browsing and decided it would be good to finally follow up on that recommendation. I was blown away by how interested I was in this book. I knew little about Vanderbilt's celebrated life beyond that she was born into an enormously wealthy family and that she designed jeans. The story of her tumultuous upbringing, including the infamous child custody case in which her mother and her aunt fought over her, were new to me and heartbreaking. Her teen-aged and adult years flitting around from marriage to marriage and hobnobbing at one celebrity outing or another were interesting to hear about, although also unsettling in their own way. Further misfortune plagued her when her husband Wyatt Cooper died at a young age and her son Carter Cooper committed suicide. But throughout it all, she remains ever hopeful about the future, despite being plagued by insecurities, fears, and doubts.

Cooper for his part mostly asks questions of his mother; his reporter's tenacity digs deeper into certain topics to find out more or get to the root of a story. He also provides some context for the reader regarding some of his mother's comments, filling in blanks about her family history with a "just the facts" type approach. But he also discusses his own thoughts and feelings about growing up as Vanderbilt's son, regrets about his brother's suicide, and grief over his father's death when he himself was only aged 10.

Listening to the audiobook for this book was a particular treat. Both authors read their parts aloud, so that a clear and distinct voice separates each section. Cooper's voice is not exactly monotone but he reads in that sort of bland, affect-less news anchor's voice. An entire book in this fashion might have been too much, but being as he alternates with his mother, it works out okay. On the other hand, Vanderbilt pours so much emotion into her reading! Even when speaking about events that happened 80 years ago, her voice trembles at sad points and leaps for joy when discussing moments of elation. It was such a moving reading that you can't help but be riveted. show less