This page could get quite long, but until I outgrow it this page, here is where I’ll collect my resources. Titles of books are hyperlinked to Worldcat.org – a site that can help you locate a copy of the book at a library close to you.
Books About the Vanderbilts
- Archer, Verley. Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, Sophia Johnson Vanderbilt, and Their Descendants. Nashville: Vanderbilt University, 1972.
- Auchincloss, Louis. The Vanderbilt Era Profiles of a Gilded Age. New York: Scribner, 1989.
- Andrews, Wayne. The Vanderbilt Legend; The Story of the Vanderbilt Family, 1794-1940. New York: Harcourt, ace and Co, 1941. [Available through Ancestry.com]
- Bayles, Richard M. History of Richmond County (Staten Island), New York From Its Discovery to the Present Time. New York: L.E. Preston, 1887. [available via Microsoft Live Books]
- Bridger, Beverly, and Beverly Bridger. Great Camp Sagamore: The Vanderbilts’ Adirondack Retreat. Charleston, SC: History Press, 2012.
- Conkin, Paul Keith, Henry Lee Swint, and Patricia S. Miletich. Gone with the Ivy A Biography of Vanderbilt University. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1985.
- Croffut, W. A. The Vanderbilts and the Story of Their Fortune. London: Belford, Clarke, 1886. [Available full-text on Google Books | Full-text at the Internet Archive].
- Goldsmith, Barbara. Little Gloria … Happy at Last. New York: Knopf, 1980.
- Hamm, Margherita Arlina. Famous Families of New York; Historical and Biographical Sketches of Families Which in Successive Generations Have Been Identified with the Development of the Nation. New York, London: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1902. [available @ Ancestry.com]
- Hoyt, Edwin Palmer. The Vanderbilts and Their Fortunes. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1962.
- King, Robert B., and Charles O. McLean. The Vanderbilt Homes. New York: Rizzoli, 1989.
- Kroplick, Howard. Vanderbilt Cup Races of Long Island. Arcadia Pub, 2008.
- MacDowell, Dorothy Kelly. Commodore Vanderbilt and His Family A Biographical Account of the Descendants of Cornelius and Sophia Johnson Vanderbilt. Hendersonville, NC (1700 5th Ave., Hendersonville 28739): D.K. MacDowell, 1989.
- Patterson, Jerry E. The Vanderbilts. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1989.
- Rector, Margaret Hayden. Alva, That Vanderbilt-Belmont Woman: Her Story As She Might Have Told It. [Wickford, R.I.]: Dutch Island Press, 1992
- Stiles, T. J. The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009.
- Rodengen, Jeffrey L. The Legend of Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney. Fort Lauderdale, Fla: Write Stuff Enterprises, 2000.
- Stasz, Clarice. The Vanderbilt Women Dynasty of Wealth, Glamour, and Tragedy. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991.
- Stiles, T. J. The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009.
- Stuart, Amanda Mackenzie. Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt : the Story of a Daughter and a Mother in the Gilded Age. New York: Haper Collins Publishers, 2006.
Books Written by Vanderbilts (and descendants)
- Balsan, Consuelo Vanderbilt. The Glitter and the Gold. New York: Harper, 1952.
- Biddle, Flora Miller. The Whitney Women and the Museum They Made: A Family Memoir. New York: Arcade, 1999.
- Burden, Shirley. The Vanderbilts in My Life: A Personal Memoir. New Haven, Conn: Ticknor & Fields, 1981.
- Burden, Wendy. Dead End Gene Pool: A Memoir. New York: Gotham Books, 2010Conner, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. Those Early Years. [New York]: Turtle Point Press, 1999.
- Field, Frederick Vanderbilt. From Right to Left: An Autobiography. Westport, Conn: L. Hill, 1983.
- Field, William O., and C. S. Brown. With a Camera in My Hands: A Life History. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 2004.
- Goodman, Wendy, and Gloria Vanderbilt. The World of Gloria Vanderbilt. New York: Abrams, 2010
- Vanderbilt, Arthur T. Fortune’s Children The Fall of the House of Vanderbilt. New York: Morrow, 1989.
- Vanderbilt, Cornelius. The Living Past of America; Pictorial Treasury of Our Historic Houses and Villages That Have Been Preserved and Restored. New York: Crown Publishers, 1955.
- Vanderbilt, Gloria. Black Knight, White Knight. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1987.
- Vanderbilt, Gloria. A Mother’s Story. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1996.
Websites
- Tales of the Commodore: Cornelius Vanderbilt at 200. Reprinted from Vanderbilt Magazine, v. 77, no. 3. Available online at http://www.library.vanderbilt.edu/speccol/vrr/tales.shtml.
My grandmother’s second husband was Howard (Harry) Kempster. Kempster was a manservant to Cornelius II and later, as personal valet, to Alfred G. Vanderbilt of NYC and Newport, RI.in the early 1900’s. He figured promently in the divorce of Alfred and Elsie French in 1908.
I can not provide detail here, but Kempster was charged in 1914, by A.G. V. to contract, oversee and pay for a “private residence” at 508 Broadway, Newport, RI.
The reason for this construstion was to provide Alfred with a personal location to “entertain” certain persons that would not be welcomed at his summer residence, “The Breakers”.
Should you like greater detail, contact me at the Email above or (978) 706-1196, or 290 Berlin St., Clinton, MA 01510.
Does this residence still exist?