Discover Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life Of Huguette Clark And The Spending Of A Great American Fortune Depicted By Bill Dedman Presented As Hardbound

I learned that Huguette Clark, the focus of Empty Mansions:
The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune owned on vacant estate in Connecticut, I knew I had to read this investigative work.
Being in a nonfiction book group gave me the perfect excuse to indulge,

My review is going to be a bit convoluted, That is how I felt when I finished Empty Mansions:
The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune.
All I could think of, and I have plenty of company in this, is what At the age of Huguette, ill and emaciated was taken from her apartment to the hospital.
Suffering from cancer and poor nutrition she amazingly made a full recovery and went on to live to the age of, just shy of herth birthday.
But she never returned home, Home became the hospital room,

Huguette Clark ownedempty mansions, one in Connecticut my home state and one in Santa Barbara in which she never lived.
It was the one in Connecticut that sent journalist Bill Dedman on the quest to find answers about this mysterious woman.
Dedman was looking for a house in Connecticut, not having much luck when he decided, as a lark, to just view the most expensive homes available in what he describes as tony, New Caanan.
He quickly learns that themillion dollar estate owned by Clark is empty and more strangely, has never been lived in.
In addition to Le Beau Chateau in New Cannan, she owns Bellosquardo in California three apartments on Millionaire Row in NYC.
She inhabited one apartment until the earlys when she was in hers but spent her remaining years in that plain hospital room.
Did I mention she was wealthy and could have lived anywhere of her choice

Bill Dedman tells what he learned in an investigation of Huguette Clarks life, not from personal interviews but from thousands of documents.
First hand material is provided by the coauthor, Paul Clark Newell, Jr, a cousin of Ms. Clarks who did have phone conversations with her,

I cannot wrap myself around the numbers representing the money talked about in this book, I cant imagine the wealth, the art, the jewelry, the doll collection or the detailed dollhouses that Huguette had built or purchased.
I cant imagine the money she spent or the money she gave away, including millions to her private duty nurse Hadassah Peri.
I cant imagine living in a fairly barren hospital room when you own not one, but three opulent homes and could have lived in any of them with round the clock servants and medical assistance.
My head was actually spinning by the time I finished reading this book,

As much is missing in her story as what is told, I dont think I can blame Dedman, a Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist for this omission, He reported and wrote what he could verify without ever having contact with the reclusive Clark, Is a much a story of Huguettes copper baron father, W, A. Clark as it is Huguette Clarks, Makes sense as Huguettes fortune was inherited from W, A.

When I asked my book group what one word they would use to describe Huguette they did not say reclusive, weird, or crazy as might be expected but tragic, vulnerable and the medical term agoraphobic.
She was all of these and more,

If you follow my reviews youll know that this is the kind of piece that sends me researching topics mentioned.
Some places I visited on the web,

Felix Loriouxs art

The Gilded Age

The Color of Money, Bill Dedmans Pulitzer Prize Winning articles

Bill Dedmans website for the book where you can see pictures of the empty mansions as well as some possessions of the late Huguette Clark.


Settlement of Huguette Clarks will

Huguette Clarks Obituary in the New York Times, May,

Huguette Marcelle Clark burial record at Woodlawn Cemetery, The Bronx.


Fascinating story even though many questions about Huguette Clark are never answered,
I'm truly astonished by the wealth in this book! I have never even heard of W, A. Clark or his daughter Huguette, that's how reclusive she had become over the years, But this was a fascinating look into the world of the ultrarich during a time period that I wish I could have seen but can only ever imagine.
Recommended. originally published September

Mysterious

Recluse Heiress Was her Fortune Squandered

This tagline was all I needed to jump into the book Empty Mansions by Bell Dedman and Paul Clark Newell, Jr.
It chronicles the life of Huguette Clark, the daughter of W, A. Clark, the copper industrialist, and his young second wife, Anna,

Anna and her sister Andree led a life of splendor in mansions, New York apartments, and traveling abroad.
Huguette had a lifelong attraction to dolls and doll houses, She was a voracious art collector, and owned an invaluable Stradivarius violin,

It seems that a series of unfortunate deaths and events led her into living in a hospital for the rest of her life, away from the eyes of anyone.
She lost her father at a very young age, and her beloved sister, Andree, died at the age offrom spinal meningitis.
Her family developed a phobia of germs, and the death of her mother and aunt only pushed her farther into hiding.


At age, she moved into the Doctors Hospital, and refused to leave, She was very healthy, and was cared for by a private duty nurse, Hadasshah, She and her family were gifted many millions of dollars for providing care for Huguette, Many other friends, relatives, and acquaintances got benefit from her generosity,

Huguette lived until she was almostyears old, Of course, her relatives were keen to contest any will she had signed, and a long trail of arbitration began.


Join in the opulent luxury, the eccentricity, and the curiosities of life as a recluse heiress,

Was she duped by her friends and family

Huguette had a favorite French fable The Cricket, and the last line in English is:

“How much am I going to love my deep retreat
To live happily, live hidden.
”