On November 4, 2021, the Newport Historical Society hosted a virtual book talk with Anderson Cooper, discussing his new book 'Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty'.
In a conversation with Newport Historical Society Executive Director Ruth Taylor, Cooper discusses his family's legacy, and the impact it has had on shaping his own identity. Joined by his cousin Gladys Szapary, the two Vanderbilt descendants explore their roles as 'family archivists', and the enormity of the task of preserving the Vanderbilt family's letters, photographs, and clothing.
As both award-winning journalist and great, great, great grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, who rose from obscurity and died the richest man in America in 1877, Anderson Cooper is uniquely qualified to tell this extraordinary family history. VANDERBILT: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty, written with novelist and historian Katherine Howe, chronicles the lives of some of the most remarkable members of this famous and fractured family who re-defined conspicuous consumption.
