We Are All a Little Peculiar
Let me answer the big question first. Yes, there is a lot of new information about Huguette Clark in Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of an American Fortune, by journalist Dedman and Huguette's cousin Paul Newell.
I thought I already knew the whole story about the woman with three of the most expensive homes in America who didn't visit them for decades, instead choosing to live in a small hospital room, even though she was healthy. But Huguette leaps out of these pages like no other recluse since Edie Beale. She ought to do for wearing six layers of Scottish cashmere sweaters over a hospital gown what Little Edie did for statement scarves. The difference is that Huguette died with $400 million, while Edie's Grey Gardens went to the cats.
Most surprising to me was to learn about Huguette's talent and vocation as a painter and I, for one, am very envious of the collector who picked up her portrait of a geisha for $104 on eBay in 2010. One small detail that I loved was that in the home Huguette bought in New Canaan (and never slept in once) she built an addition (a painting studio above her bedroom), with the balusters of the staircase leading up to it carved to look like paintbrushes. Even her much derided passion for dolls and dollhouses was part of a lifelong art project and one that, even in her final years, she devoted incredible time and connoisseurship to, corresponding with artists around the world and petitioning the Emperor of Japan to use a special protected wood.
As someone who lives near Newport, Rhode Island, where the Gilded Age still sits astride the present, I was fascinated to read how Senator Clark amassed his fortune and how he chose to spend it. His daughter Huguette, born in 1906, came close to perishing on The Titanic and survived 9/11, which gives you a sense of the depth of her life story.
Everything that seemed ridiculous and sad about this woman in the news reports about her "discovery" and alleged neglect seems, after reading this book, understandable and even laudable. She had love of every kind in her life, gave away millions at a whim, and preserved her apartments and homes for ghosts, yet still died with her capital intact making numerous savvy business decisions and art investments completely on her own. Each of those decisions yielded immense profits.
Somewhere, Huguette is having the last laugh with one of her dolls.
Note: I received an advance reader's copy of this book from the publisher.
I thought I already knew the whole story about the woman with three of the most expensive homes in America who didn't visit them for decades, instead choosing to live in a small hospital room, even though she was healthy. But Huguette leaps out of these pages like no other recluse since Edie Beale. She ought to do for wearing six layers of Scottish cashmere sweaters over a hospital gown what Little Edie did for statement scarves. The difference is that Huguette died with $400 million, while Edie's Grey Gardens went to the cats.
Most surprising to me was to learn about Huguette's talent and vocation as a painter and I, for one, am very envious of the collector who picked up her portrait of a geisha for $104 on eBay in 2010. One small detail that I loved was that in the home Huguette bought in New Canaan (and never slept in once) she built an addition (a painting studio above her bedroom), with the balusters of the staircase leading up to it carved to look like paintbrushes. Even her much derided passion for dolls and dollhouses was part of a lifelong art project and one that, even in her final years, she devoted incredible time and connoisseurship to, corresponding with artists around the world and petitioning the Emperor of Japan to use a special protected wood.
As someone who lives near Newport, Rhode Island, where the Gilded Age still sits astride the present, I was fascinated to read how Senator Clark amassed his fortune and how he chose to spend it. His daughter Huguette, born in 1906, came close to perishing on The Titanic and survived 9/11, which gives you a sense of the depth of her life story.
Everything that seemed ridiculous and sad about this woman in the news reports about her "discovery" and alleged neglect seems, after reading this book, understandable and even laudable. She had love of every kind in her life, gave away millions at a whim, and preserved her apartments and homes for ghosts, yet still died with her capital intact making numerous savvy business decisions and art investments completely on her own. Each of those decisions yielded immense profits.
Somewhere, Huguette is having the last laugh with one of her dolls.
Note: I received an advance reader's copy of this book from the publisher.
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