A richly illustrated romp with America's Gilded Age leisure class--and
those angling to join it
Mark Twain called it the Gilded Age. Between 1870 and 1900, the United
States' population doubled, accompanied by an unparalleled industrial
expansion, and an explosion of wealth unlike any the world had ever
seen. America was the foremost nation of the world, and New York City
was its beating heart. There, the richest and most influential--Thomas
Edison, J. P. Morgan, Edith Wharton, the Vanderbilts, Andrew Carnegie,
and more--became icons, whose comings and goings were breathlessly
reported in the papers of Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst.
It was a time of abundance, but also bitter rivalries, in work and play.
The Old Money titans found themselves besieged by a vanguard of New
Money interlopers eager to gain entrée into their world of formal balls,
debutante parties, opera boxes, sailing regattas, and summer gatherings
at Newport. Into this morass of money and desire stepped Caroline Astor.
Mrs. Astor, an Old Money heiress of the first order, became convinced
that she was uniquely qualified to uphold the manners and mores of
Gilded Age America. Wherever she went, Mrs. Astor made her judgments,
dictating proper behavior and demeanor, men's and women's codes of
dress, acceptable patterns of speech and movements of the body, and what
and when to eat and drink. The ladies and gentlemen of high society took
note. "What would Mrs. Astor do?" became the question every social
climber sought to answer. And an invitation to her annual ball was a
golden ticket into the ranks of New York's upper crust. This work serves
as a guide to manners as well as an insight to Mrs. Astor's personal
diary and address book, showing everything from the perfect table
setting to the array of outfits the elite wore at the time. Channeling
the queen of the Gilded Age herself, Cecelia Tichi paints a portrait of
New York's social elite, from the schools to which they sent their
children, to their lavish mansions and even their reactions to the
political and personal scandals of the day.
Ceceilia Tichi invites us on a beautifully illustrated tour of the
Gilded Age, transporting readers to New York at its most fashionable. A
colorful tapestry of fun facts and true tales, What Would Mrs. Astor Do?
presents a vivid portrait of this remarkable time of social
metamorphosis, starring Caroline Astor, the ultimate gatekeeper.
