Best Selling Books by Gloria Vanderbilt

The author leverages her intimate access to Gloria Vanderbilt to reveal the intriguing life of the heiress, artist and designer, in a book that includes images of Vanderbilt and her glorious homes taken by such noted photographers as Annie Leibovitz, Richard Avedon and more.

An elegant, witty, frank, touching, and deeply personal account of the loves both great and fleeting in the life of one of America's most celebrated and fabled women. Born to great wealth yet kept a virtual prisoner by the custody battle that raged between her proper aunt and her self-absorbed, beautiful mother, Gloria Vanderbilt grew up in a special world. Stunningly beautiful herself, yet insecure and with a touch of wildness, she set out at a very early age to find romance. And find it she did. There were love affairs with Howard Hughes, Bill Paley, and Frank Sinatra, to name a few, and one-night stands, which she writes about with delicacy and humor, including one with the young Marlon Brando. There were marriages to men as diverse as Pat De Cicco, who abused her; the legendary conductor Leopold Stokowski, who kept his innermost secrets from her; film director Sidney Lumet; and finally writer Wyatt Cooper, the love of her life. Now, in an irresistible memoir that is at once ruthlessly forthright, supremely stylish, full of fascinating details, and deeply touching, Gloria Vanderbilt writes at last about the subject on which she has hitherto been silent: the men in her life, why she loved them, and what each affair or marriage meant to her. This is the candid and captivating account of a life that has kept gossip writers speculating for years, as well as Gloria's own intimate description of growing up, living, marrying, and loving in the glare of the limelight and becoming, despite a family as famous and wealthy as America has ever produced, not only her own person but an artist, a designer, a businesswoman, and a writer of rare distinction.

Though Anderson Cooper has always considered himself close to his mother, his intensely busy career as a journalist for CNN and CBS affords him little time to spend with her. After she suffers a brief but serious illness at the age of ninety-one, they resolve to change their relationship by beginning a year-long conversation unlike any they had ever had before. The result is a correspondence of surprising honesty and depth in which they discuss their lives, the things that matter to them, and what they still want to learn about each other. Both a son’s love letter to his mother and an unconventional mom’s life lessons for her grown son, The Rainbow Comes and Goes offers a rare window into their close relationship and fascinating life stories, including their tragedies and triumphs. In these often humorous and moving exchanges, they share their most private thoughts and the hard-earned truths they’ve learned along the way. In their words their distinctive personalities shine through—Anderson’s journalistic outlook on the world is a sharp contrast to his mother’s idealism and unwavering optimism. An appealing memoir with inspirational advice, The Rainbow Comes and Goes is a beautiful and affectionate celebration of the universal bond between a parent and a child, and a thoughtful reflection on life, reminding us of the precious insight that remains to be shared, no matter our age.

In 1921 there burst upon the New York social scene the famous Morgan twins, Thelma and Gloria, whose names in the decade that followed came to spell glamour and excitement in that magic world of the “international set.” Two continents thrilled to Thelma Furness’s romances with Richard Bennett, Lord Furness, the Prince of Wales, Aly Khan, and Edmund Lowe. The whole world followed with bated breath the searing custody trial over young Gloria that pitted mother against daughter and shook the Vanderbilts and society. While much has been written from the outside about all of this, the two principals have never before disclosed the real truth behind the rumors and the headlines. And exciting as are their personal adventures and escapades, their story is also a portrait of an era. In every age there have been certain women who through a combination of beauty and personality have attracted the love and admiration of rich or famous men, and who seem to be the embodiments of the feminine charm of the period. The Edwardian era had its Lily Langtry, the Napoleonic its Josephine, the eighteenth century its Du Barry and its Lady Hamilton—and so on back to antiquity. In our time, among those women who have come close to fitting this role are Lady Furness and Gloria Vanderbilt. From childhood each had the elusive qualities that characterize the femme fatale. Both knew the love of many men, both suffered deeply, and now both have happily risen above the vicissitudes of their checkered careers and face the future with gallantry, humor, and without rancor or bitterness over the past. In this spirit, and with all sincerity, they have set down the story of their lives. In Double Exposure, we are given a matchless picture of life among the great—and the near-great—in the now-vanished world between the two wars. Above all, we come to know the minds and hearts and philosophy of life and love of two fascinating women, and something of the nature of fascination itself.

2020 Reprint of 1959 Edition. Profusely Illustrated with Photographs. Full facsimile of the original edition and not reproduced with Optical Recognition software. "The lives of Thelma and Gloria Morgan, the twin daughters of Harry Hays Morgan, an American diplomat, and Chilean-born Louise Valdivieso, read like a curious synthesis of The Turn of The Screw and Confidential. Deeply attached to one another through their twinship, - the sisters, Thelma who later became Lady Furness and Gloria, who married Reggie Vanderbilt and mothered Gloria Vanderbilt II -- write of their lives simultaneously, switching the narrative from woman to woman with fascinating ease. There is much here which will attract the socially curious -- tales of the Prince of Wales, Aly Kahn, the titan playboys of the twentieth century as seen by these women who were more than formally involved with them. There are shades here, too, of Stella Dallas- the shocking trial for the custody of Gloria Vanderbilt II in which Louise Morgan, clutching a crucifix, testified to outrageous acts of licentiousness committed by her bewildered daughter. And there is much finally of epic stature-the Medea-like grandeur with which the ancient dowagers of New York society mediated upon the lives of their families. Written with good taste, but sparing no detail no matter how unorthodox, this autobiography of two women is a biography of an age, an age of fantastic extravagance and rigid form, an age in which the various episodes unfolded here seem probable for all their bizarre and melodramatic overtones. Superbly entertaining."--Kirkus.

The intensely erotic diary of a beautiful young heiress, Starr Faithfull, whose battered body washes up on a New York beach, recreates the illicit affair between a child and her cousin, a prominent Boston politician, in a story based on a real-life case. 50,000 first printing. Tour.

The celebrity artist and designer recreates the glamour and terror of her childhood when she became a legend as the "poor little rich girl" during a notorious custody trial and vividly depicting the adults who loved and battled over her