Heiresses: The Lives of the Million Dollar Babies

by Laura Thompson

Overview

New York Times bestselling author Laura Thompson returns with Heiresses, a fascinating look at the lives of heiresses throughout history and the often tragic truth beneath the gilded surface.

Heiresses: surely they are among the luckiest women on earth. Are they not to be envied, with their private jets and Chanel wardrobes and endless funds? Yet all too often those gilded lives have been beset with trauma and despair. Before the 20th century a wife’s inheritance was the property of her husband, making her vulnerable to kidnap, forced marriages, even confinement in an asylum. And in modern times, heiresses fell victim to fortune-hunters who squandered their millions.

Heiresses tells the stories of these million dollar babies: Mary Davies, who inherited London’s most valuable real estate, and was bartered from the age of twelve; Consuelo Vanderbilt, the original American “Dollar Heiress”, forced into a loveless marriage; Barbara Hutton, the Woolworth heiress who married seven times and died almost penniless; and Patty Hearst, heiress to a newspaper fortune who was arrested for terrorism. However, there are also stories of independence and achievement: Angela Burdett-Coutts, who became one of the greatest philanthropists of Victorian England; Nancy Cunard, who lived off her mother's fortune and became a pioneer of the civil rights movement; and Daisy Fellowes, elegant linchpin of interwar high society and noted fashion editor.

Heiresses is about the lives of the rich, who—as F. Scott Fitzgerald said—are ‘different’. But it is also a bigger story about how all women fought their way to equality, and sometimes even found autonomy and fulfillment.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250316349
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/04/2023
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	279,987
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.00(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

LAURA THOMPSON won the Somerset Maugham award for her first book, The Dogs, and is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Six: The Lives of the Mitford Sisters. Other books include the critically-acclaimed Life in a Cold Climate, a biography of Nancy Mitford, and Agatha Christie: A Mysterious Life, which was nominated for an Edgar award in 2019.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part I: Unprotected
Part II: American Dreams
Part III: New Worlds
Part IV: Unprotected, Revisited

Epilogue
Endnotes
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Picture Credits
Index

Editorial Reviews

"Trapped in a silk-draped Venn diagram with the socialite and hostess, the heiress has been an unfair object of ridicule. After years of getting dragged through the tabloids and trotted out on reality shows like one of her beloved show ponies, she is both restored to dignity by Thompson’s concerned embrace and pushed away with an air kiss.” –New York Times Book Review

“[A] romp through the lives of the filthy rich.” –Wall Street Journal

“Skillfully evoking disparate social milieus and generational divides, Thompson packs the narrative full of juicy gossip without resorting to caricature. Readers will be enthralled.” –Publishers Weekly

“Authoritative, eye-opening, and gloriously gossipy.”—Booklist

“Engaging...A book that offers insight as well as entertainment—a peek into the human condition from an unexpected angle.” –Kirkus Reviews

“Heiresses is a haunting reflection on the gilded cage and its stifled female occupants, from Consuelo Vanderbilt to Barbara Hutton. Thompson shows in mordant detail how money really can’t buy you love.” –Daisy Goodwin, bestselling author of The American Heiress

"Heiresses is a book perfectly calibrated for our times. Thompson manages to shine a light into what it meant historically for women to have money and why it gave them some power but little happiness in a book that feels remarkably modern...witty, insightful, deliciously gossip laden and slightly scandalous." —Anne Sebba, bestselling author of Les Parisiennes

“With her characteristic wit and verve, Laura Thompson takes us through the follies, intrigues and dramas of the lives of a gallery of history’s heiresses from the 17th to the 20th centuries...rich with perceptive detail and will keep the reader entertained to the very last page.” —Helen Rappaport, bestselling author of The Romanov Sisters

“An engaging study of the effect wealth has on women.” —Anne de Courcy, author of The Husband Hunters and Chanel’s Riviera

From the Publisher

12/20/2021

Biographer Thompson (Six Girls) unearths secrets and scandals in this entertaining group portrait of women, mainly British and American and from the 19th and 20th centuries, who inherited vast wealth. Claiming that “it really is different for girls,” Thompson notes that until the late 19th century in England, a wife’s identity was “legally subsumed into that of her husband,” and he was entitled to her property and income. Later, when a woman’s money was “legally and incontestably” her own, many heiresses were still intensely vulnerable and led “godawful lives,” while others saw their wealth “as a responsibility worth having.” Thompson recounts the stories of Mary Davies, who lost control of her London estate after her husband’s death in 1700; Winnaretta Singer, daughter of sewing machine manufacturer Isaac Singer, who “inhabit the iconoclastic milieu of the avant garde” in late 19th-century Paris; and baroness Angela Burdett-Coutts, who partnered with Charles Dickens to rehabilitate impoverished schools and neighborhoods in Victorian England. Other profile subjects include kidnapped newspaper heiress Patty Hearst, and Winnaretta Singer’s niece Daisy Fellowes, who “lived as a pure and unrepentant hedonist.” Skillfully evoking disparate social milieus and generational divides, Thompson packs the narrative full of juicy gossip without resorting to caricature. Readers will be enthralled. Agent: Georgina Capel, Georgina Capel Assoc. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

06/01/2022

Biographer Thompson (The Six: The Lives of the Mitford Sisters) sketches the lives of British and American women who were shaped by inherited money. She sets the scene with an overview of heiresses in literature, particularly in Jane Austen's novels, then jumps back to the tragic story of one of England's earliest heiresses, Mary Davies, whose inheritance made her a commodity to be sold to the highest bidder. This is typical of the lives of 18th-and early 19th-century heiresses: their value is in their ability to raise their husband's status. The Gilded Age stories become more familiar yet equally tragic. There are some rays of light, such as Winnaretta Singer, heiress to the Singer sewing machine fortune, who built a life as a patron of the arts (and an out lesbian) in early 20th-century Paris. The lives of 20th-century heiresses (Emerald Cunard, Barbara Hutton, Patty Hearst, et al.) are chronicled in the last half. Thompson narrates the audiobook in a crisp British accent that's a good fit for the content; her tone and pace vary to heighten tension or share a good bit of gossip. VERDICT Suggested to those who enjoyed Anderson Cooper's Vanderbilt or Bill Dedman's Empty Mansions.—Nanette Donohue

Library Journal - Audio

Author Laura Thompson gives an engaging and well-packed narration of this expansive history of British and American heiresses from the seventeenth century to the present day. Thompson is a gifted storyteller who places appropriate emphasis on words or phrases to accentuate their importance. Some heiresses are familiar—Consuelo Vanderbilt and Barbara Hutton, for example—while others are less well known. Thompson details the women's everyday lives, noting the threats to their safety. In the seventeenth and eighteen centuries heiresses were often kidnapped and forced to marry against their will. The volume also incorporates stories of heiresses who promoted good works, including activist Nancy Cunard and philanthropist Angela Burdett-Coutts. Thompson provides intriguing social commentary by weaving in mentions of novels with wealthy female characters. M.J. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

FEBRUARY 2022 - AudioFile

2021-11-23
An engaging book about heiresses, women who have always been in classes of their own.

Thompson, who has penned biographies of Agatha Christie and the Mitford sisters, knows how to construct fascinating narratives out of dry research. Working from historical records, newspaper articles, and personal correspondence, the author creates a series of sketches that highlight recurring themes but also offer great variety. In Georgian England, heiresses were family assets to be traded, with their own views worth very little. This was also the case in the U.S. in the 19th century, although it had more to do with the building of business empires. It was only at the start of the 20th century that heiresses were able to exert control over their lives. Thompson has a good time with tales of American heiresses going to Europe to marry men with impressive titles but small bank accounts. Leading the way was Jennie Jerome, who married Lord Randolph Churchill and gave birth to Winston. Several heiresses, like Peggy Guggenheim, became memorable patrons of the arts. Others gave themselves over to eccentricity, spending ridiculous sums on parties, social climbing, pets, or other hobbies. Alice Silverthorne, a Chicago socialite who was married to a timber tycoon, raised a lion club called Samson. Some heiresses reveled in their unearned wealth, and some were plagued by guilt over it. Quite a few drank themselves to death. Nancy Cunard, “a precursor of the Mitford sisters by a generation,” found another sort of addiction, becoming a hardcore socialist. Nearly all of the heiresses in the book had disastrous marriages or relationships. Barbara Woolworth Hutton made a tabloid career out of picking unsuitable men, marrying seven times. A gilded cage creates a streak of self-destruction, notes Thompson. Nevertheless, she reveals her subjects as real people with measures of tragedy, resilience, and vigor.

A book that offers insight as well as entertainment—a peek into the human condition from an unexpected angle.

Kirkus Reviews