The Last Mrs. Astor: A New York Story
Frances Kiernan
Apr 2024 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Susan Ericksen
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Audiobook
13 hr 21 min
Unabridged
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About this audiobook
"Kiernan's sharp-eyed biography brings back a woman who, far into her 90s, relished the dance of life." -O, The Oprah Magazine This biography, based on firsthand knowledge and interviews with Mrs. Astor's friends and the heads of New York's great cultural institutions, gives us back the woman so loved and admired. At the age of fifty-one, Brooke Astor wedded the notoriously ill-tempered Vincent Astor, who died in 1959. In a highly publicized courtroom battle, she fought off an attempt to break Vincent's will, which left $67 million to the Vincent Astor Foundation. As the foundation's president, Mrs. Astor would use this legacy to benefit New York City. She would personally visit every grant applicant and charm anyone she met. At her hundredth birthday, princes and presidents honored her, but in 2006 a grandson petitioned the courts to have his father removed as Brooke's guardian. Once again, an Astor court battle became the stuff of headlines.
About the author
A former editor at the New Yorker, Frances Kiernan is the author of Seeing Mary Plain: A Life of Mary McCarthy. She lives in New York City.
Susan Ericksen is a three-time Audie Award-winning narrator who has recorded over 500 books. The winner of multiple awards, including twenty-plus AudioFile Earphones Awards for both fiction and nonfiction, Susan is a classically trained actress who excels at multiple narrative styles and accents.
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