Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of An American Dynasty by Anderson Cooper & Katherine Howe

When Jeff's dad Fred passed away last year, he left Jeff many expensive (and apparently very comfortable) pairs of shoes from his collection, as they were the same size. I re-organized Jeff's closet to accommodate all of the new shoes. Now, every time I see the shoes, they remind me what a positive force Fred was. His children and grandchildren were so lucky to have gotten to know him so well. But imagine if you had family members whom you didn't know well, or had never even met. This is the territory of Andersons Cooper's new non-fiction book "Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of An American Dynasty." His mother was the entrepreneur Gloria Vanderbilt, and his father was Wyatt Cooper a businessman from Mississippi. Anderson, an Emmy winning journalist and author, was raised as more of a Cooper than a Vanderbilt. He did not attend lavish parties in seashore mansions, nor did he inherit great generational wealth. On the contrary, he hardly knew the Vanderbilt side of his family at all. When his father died young following heart surgery, Anderson spent most of his childhood worrying about money, and how his mother was going to support the family. This created a childhood filled with anxiety, instability and confusion. Shortly after having his son Wyatt via a surrogate in 2020, Cooper became curious about his mother's side of the family. He started researching some of his notorious relatives such as shipping and railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, known as The Commodore. William Henry Vanderbilt helped the family's fortune grow while Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt was on the Lusitania when it sank. Cooper's is a well-written book focusing on the perils and pitfalls of great wealth, and the more colorful stories from the Vanderbilt family. To buy this book on Amazon click here.