This is actually a rather nice book but it is about Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney and not "the Commodore." While still certainly not the book I was expecting it pleased my better half none the less. It's got lots of photos and illustrations.

A well researched and documented tome about a man who chose to succeed on his own terms, The Legend of Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney is an engaging book about an extraordinary man. For anyone who would like to learn about his heritage, his schooling and experiences that formed the foundation of his adventurous life, my wife and I highly recommend this book. You won't be sorry that you purchased it.

This is an interesting book for those who desire an inside look at what life was like for America's robber barons and their immediate families during the Gilded Age. Cornelius Vanderbilt writes a valentine here to his mother, Grace Wilson Vanderbilt.

Cornelius's father was all but disowned by his parents for marrying the purportedly notorious Grace, herself from a rich and prominent family. Nonetheless, he made as much money as any other member of his estranged family, despite being cast out on his own, and he raised his children as the closest thing to royalty that this country ever will know.

Accordingly, Cornelius and his siblings were given childhoods filled with yachts and mansions in Newport and on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, along with a lavishly bejeweled mother who entertained magnificently. The author himself was largely disowned by his father when he chose a career as a newspaper reporter. Still, his own professional experience probably makes him a more objective diarist than a conventional loving son might be. The details that he provides are fascinating, and these certainly would be unknown to an unrelated researcher.

This is an interesting and worthwhile book for those intrigued by this unique period in American history.

The presentation of colorful biographical background material and anecdote really makes a very dry subject come alive. One of the most interesting entities whose early life is sketched here is of NYC itself. If this book has any faults it is that is a little to close to its material, too dense, myopic and rambling. This can make teasing the thread of meaning out of it a bit painful at times. Anyway, it's a shmae this is out of print. It's really a great book, and of much wider interest than it's title would seem to impley.

i used this book for a report i did for school and it really helped me!