PENGUIN BOOKS

WHEN THE ASTORS OWNED NEW YORK

JUSTIN KAPLAN won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for his biography Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain. His Walt Whtiman: A Life also won the National Book Award. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

 

“Mr. Kaplan, a dazzling stylist, is perfectly suited to his subject: what Henry James lovingly called ‘hotel civilization’ . . . [A] splendid book about a bygone age that has not quite gone away.”

—The New York Sun

“A subject that proves more revealing of the nature of American democracy than many hefty social and political histories.”

—The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Justin Kaplan’s short but diverting tale of the career of the Astor family is told with gleeful humor and frequent sarcasm. He defines his subject as a commentary on the progression of taste and social attitude—and does it very well.”

—St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“A fascinating social history as well as a fun gossipy read. Kaplan has an eye for both the dishy details and the deeper meaning beneath them. This vision makes When the Astors Owned New York the best kind of history: entertaining.”

— BookPage