The Astor Orphan: A Memoir

Authors: Aldrich, Alexandra
Publisher: Ecco
BISAC/Subject: BIO026000, BIO013000, BIO022000
ISBN: 9780062207968, Related ISBNs: 0062207962, 9780062207951, 9780062207968
Classification: Non-Fiction
Number of pages: 272,
Audience: General/trade
Synopsis:

The Astor Orphan is an unflinching debut memoir by a direct descendant of John Jacob Astor, Alexandra Aldrich.

She brilliantly tells the story of her eccentric, fractured family; her 1980s childhood of bohemian neglect in the squalid attic of Rokeby, the family’s Hudson Valley Mansion; and her brave escape from the clan. Aldrich reaches back to the Gilded Age when the Astor legacy began to come undone, leaving the Aldrich branch of the family penniless and squabbling over what was left.

Illustrated with black-and-white photographs that bring this faded world into focus, The Astor Orphan is written with the grit of The Glass Castle and set amid the aristocratic decay of Grey Gardens.

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