I'm reading a just-published book, Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune by Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell, Jr.
Huguette Clark was the daughter of W.C. Clark, who made his fortune from the copper mines of Montana and Arizona, the copper that carried electricity to the world. He was one of the wealthiest men of the early 20th Century, which makes it very unusual that there is so little known of him and his family. Huguette inherited one-fifth of his estate, an estate estimated to be worth several billion dollars today. After 1930 she became a recluse, spending the last 20 years of her life in a hospital even though she could have returned home.
The story of how Bill Dedman came to research Huguette is interesting in itself. The other author of this book, Paul Newell, was a relative of Huguette and became interested in her after the death of his father. He continued the work his father had been doing on his family history and this is how he learned of her. He wrote to her attorney in 1994 to introduce himself and ask if she would cooperate in his family research. Thereafter, he spoke with her via the phone over a number of years, but never met her in person.
Huguette owned several huge estates; one in Connecticut was 14,266 feet on 52 wooded acres with a river and waterfall. It remained unoccupied from the time she purchased it in 1951. She had a second grander home in California, which was always kept immaculate for her even though she had not been there for over 50 years.
Sorry to ramble on but one of my guilty pleasures is reading about the wealthy families of the early 1900’s. This book certainly has piqued my interest.
and any purchase you make from Amazon will contribute to SeniorLearn's website.
