By David Grafton

While I enjoyed this one very much, I include it a little reluctantly as it is very difficult to obtain. It was shared with me by the wonderful Mary Z. and tells the story of the Cushing sisters of NYC, Boston and other east coast locales. They are the original but infinitely classier Kardashian-types. They were solid middle-class girls whose mother’s sole focus in life was to send them shooting up the ladder of NYC elite society and boy did she succeed…Astor, Whitney, Roosevelt among others! Their lives that followed were filled with astounding wealth, paparazzi, and society columns, and they were famous simply for being rich, certainly not for any significant personal accomplishments. That said, the lives of the ultra-wealthy, society types are always interesting to observe. While they showed infinitely more class, style, and manners than the modern equivalents, they still lacked the ability to form quality, lasting marriages, had many sad and dysfunctional relationships with their children and much sadness amidst all the money and luxury. Their names adorn hospitals and other prominent buildings all around east coast cities. It is an interesting historic tale of highest-end NYC life in the early 20th century but also a precursor to the modern voyeuristic obsession with the ultra-wealthy. Your best bet finding it will probably be your local library.