Anderson Cooper sets the record straight
Interest in iconic American millionaires and billionaires never seems to wane, whether they are currently wealthy or were people from the past. Cornelius Vanderbilt and his descendants have captured the limelight for years. In doing some preliminary research, I learned that Cornelius and his wife (also his first cousin) had thirteen children. Cornelius had little use for his ten daughters. When he died, most of his huge fortune was left to his oldest son William Henry and William Henry’s four sons.
While not a philanthropic person, Cornelius’ wife convinced him to donate 1 million dollars to a small college in middle Tennessee. That school became Vanderbilt University. Cornelius did not live extremely extravagantly, but others in the family delighted in building mansions, particularly in New York City. Of course we all know about the Biltmore House in Asheville, North Carolina, which was built by George Vanderbilt, Cornelius’ grandson. One of the Vanderbilt family owns a former plantation in Georgetown County, Sourth Carolina, off Hwy. 17 between Georgetown and Pawley’s Island.
Now Anderson Cooper, well known broadcast journalist and political commentator, has coauthored a book with Katherine Howe entitled Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty . Anderson Cooper is the son of Gloria Vanderbilt, one the most colorful members of the Vanderbilt family. Cooper’s father died when he was a child, and he remembers worrying about his flamboyant mother running out of money. Certainly, by the time Cooper was a child, the fortune had been squandered away! Cooper, consequently, learned to make his own money early in his teens and was very frugal.
“The Washington Post” reviewer Christopher Buckley raves about the book. He reports that it is beautifully written and extraordinarily interesting. I have not read it yet but plan to. A lasting memory I have is that of being on a church choir trip through North Carolina and going to the Biltmore house. The trip took place in the early 1960’s. Our bus drove up a circular gravel driveway, and we all got out. We simply went in the front door and started walking through the house. I don’t remember tickets or a guide, although I can’t imagine that there wasn’t both. We couldn’t go upstairs because we heard that some members of the family still lived there. According to sources on the Internet, all of the family members moved out in 1960. Needless to say, I was in awe of the opulent mansion and its many rooms. One of the features that I remember vividly was a protrait of a baresleeved woman that hung over a fireplace. She had one of her arms over the back of the chair she was sitting in, and she had not shaved under her arm. At 12 or 13 years of age, I was beyond embarrassed for her and surprised the artist had actually painted her as she was!
