Denise Kiernan is the author of The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal bestseller The Last Castle. Her previous book, The Girls of Atomic City, is a New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and NPR bestseller. Kiernan has been published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Village Voice, Ms., Reader's Digest, Discover, and many more publications. She has also worked in television, serving as head writer for ABC's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire during its Emmy award-winning first season and producing for media outlets such as ESPN and MSNBC. She has been a featured guest on NPR's "Weekend Edition," PBS NewsHour, MSNBC's Morning Joe, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
"This is a timely and timeless American story of wealth and the
responsibility and opportunity it carries. In Kiernan's hands, this
mashup of Downton Abbey-like extravagance set amid the "rugged
mountain simplicity" of Appalachia reads like a Southern fairy tale
-- Brothers Grimm meets Gone with the Wind. A passionately
researched family saga of death and divorce, suicide and sickness,
fortunes gained and lost, spanning two world wars and set at the
crux of the Gilded Age yielding to the modern era, The Last Castle
is ultimately a story of fortitude and survival. A stunning and
important achievement."--Neal Thompson, author of A Curious Man:
The Strange and Brilliant Life of Robert "Believe It Or Not!"
Ripley
"Denise Kiernan's book offers an entertaining and meticulously
researched glimpse into faded grandeur.... The Last Castle will
appeal to audiences who delighted in Downton Abbey and who look
forward to its creator Julian Fellowes's new series--aptly titled
The Gilded Age."-- "The Weekly Standard"
"Evocative, meticulously researched. . . Kiernan brings a deft eye
for detail and observation to a very different kind of story. . . .
Her re-creation of Biltmore's origins hits like a flute of fine
champagne while lending social context to the mansion. . . . 'The
Last Castle' is Edith Wharton's 'The Age of Innocence sprung to
life. . . . Biltmore is an ideal vessel for an exploration of our
worship of affluence and social cachet, and more importantly, the
American myth of classlessness. 'The Last Castle' plumbs these
themes and history with subtle insight and �lan. " -- "Knoxville
News-Sentinel"
"The Last Castle is a soaring and gorgeous American story that
gripped me from the very first page. With a historian's keen
insight and a poet's gift for language, Denise Kiernan depicts life
at Biltmore with such skill, I felt like I was there through it
all: weddings, divorces, elaborate (and slightly bizarre) balls,
financial glory, financial ruin, murder, suicide, natural
disasters, betrayals, love, loss, despair, and triumph. The story
of George and Edith Vanderbilt's remarkable lives will stay with me
for a long time to come." --Karen Abbott, New York Times
bestselling author of Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy
"If you inherited billions, how would you spend it? Don't bother
building America's largest and most lavish home. It's already been
done in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, where more than
a million visitors a year stroll the grounds of Biltmore Estate.
Yet only in the pages of Denise Kiernan's The Last Castle will they
come to know George Vanderbilt, the bookish heir who began Biltmore
in his 20s, and his determined widow, Edith, who kept it alive as a
working estate and a time capsule of the Gilded Age. In the pages
of The Last Castle, Kiernan serves up a true tale of American
excess, generosity, and perseverance."--Bill Dedman, New York Times
bestselling author of Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of
Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune
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