A soaring and gorgeous American story that gripped me from the very first page...
Denise Kiernan depicts life at Biltmore with a historian’s keen insight and a poet’s gift for language…
The story of George and Edith Vanderbilt’s remarkable
lives will stay with me for a long time to come.
— Karen Abbott, New York Times bestselling author of Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy
“This is as much a story about the creation of Biltmore House as it is a window into what it was like to be an American at the turn of the 20th century. Kiernan makes Edith and George Vanderbilt, among the wealthiest Americans at the time, feel like living, breathing human beings navigating life's obstacles in this magnificent book. And she tells the story of how one fiercely devoted woman was able to save the home her husband loved.”
— Kate Andersen Brower, New York Times bestselling author of First Women: The Grace & Power of America's Modern First Ladies and The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House
“The rich have secrets. In her well-researched and captivating book, Denise Kiernan tells the fascinating story of how a phenomenally wealthy Vanderbilt scion transformed a rural North Carolina town by building the ultimate rich man's folly and reveals the eccentricities, heartaches, and even money problems of these Social Register denizens and their friends and employees.”
— Meryl Gordon, New York Times bestselling author of Bunny Mellon: The Life of an American Style Legend