Saturday Samplers to Discuss "Empty Mansions" at Bernardsville Library

Bernardsville Library’s book group, Saturday Samplers, will meet on Saturday, September 12 at 3:30 pm to discuss “Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune” (2013) by Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell, Jr. [The authors will not be present.]

In 2009, when Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Bill Dedman noticed a grand home for sale, unoccupied for nearly sixty years, he stumbled through a surprising portal into American history. “Empty Mansions” is a rich mystery of wealth and loss, connecting the Gilded Age opulence of the nineteenth century with a twenty-first-century battle over a $300 million inheritance. At its heart is a reclusive heiress named Huguette Clark, a woman so secretive that, at the time of her death at age 104, no new photograph of her had been seen in decades. Many questions arose: Though she owned palatial homes in California, New York, and Connecticut, why had she lived for twenty years in a simple hospital room, despite being in excellent health? Why were her valuables being sold off? Was she in control of her fortune, or controlled by those managing her money?

Mr. Dedman collaborated with Huguette Clark’s cousin, Paul Clark Newell, Jr., one of the few relatives to have frequent conversations with her. They tell a fairy tale in reverse: the bright, talented daughter, born into a family of extreme wealth and privilege, who secrets herself away from the outside world. The book was a No. 1 New York Times bestseller and a best nonfiction book of the year at Goodreads, Amazon.com, and Barnes & Noble. It was one of the New York Times critic Janet Maslin’s ten favorite books of 2013.

Led by Program/PR Assistant Evelyn Fischel, Saturday Samplers is a book discussion group dedicated to sampling various kinds of literature, including short stories, nonfiction, new and old novels, and even teen fiction. Its goal is to search out interesting, noteworthy, and sometimes overlooked books. Readers can find information about the group and about the books and authors on the reading list at http://saturdaysamplers.blogspot.com. No sign-up is needed to join the discussion. Call the library at 766-0118 for more information.