A Fine Study of a Reclusive Heiress
This is a superbly researched biography of a reclusive woman who inherited one of the country's great fortunes. The author fleshes out the life and character of Huguette Clark, as well as her family and her many friends and retainers, and creates of vivid portrait of a woman dealing with too many bad memories. I found it deeply rewarding.
It is somewhat flawed by poor editing, copyediting and proofing. There are passages in need of a sharp cut. But my primary objection is to the sketchy and slapdash portrayal of copper king William Andrews Clark, Huguette's father, who is dismissed as a "robber baron" when in fact he is much more complex than that, and had the business acumen to amass the second-largest fortune in the country at the time. There are odd assertions, such as that the sudden demand for copper late in the 19th century could be ascribed to the spread of telephones (instead of the electrification of cities).
Even so, this is an impressive work, in spite of numerous flaws, and is a good social history of the times.
It is somewhat flawed by poor editing, copyediting and proofing. There are passages in need of a sharp cut. But my primary objection is to the sketchy and slapdash portrayal of copper king William Andrews Clark, Huguette's father, who is dismissed as a "robber baron" when in fact he is much more complex than that, and had the business acumen to amass the second-largest fortune in the country at the time. There are odd assertions, such as that the sudden demand for copper late in the 19th century could be ascribed to the spread of telephones (instead of the electrification of cities).
Even so, this is an impressive work, in spite of numerous flaws, and is a good social history of the times.
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