A richly illustrated romp with America's Gilded Age leisure
class-and those angling to join it Mark Twain called it the Gilded
Age. Between 1870 and 1900, the United States' population doubled,
accompanied by an unparalleled industrial expansion, and an
explosion of wealth unlike any the world had ever seen. America was
the foremost nation of the world, and New York City was its beating
heart. There, the richest and most influential-Thomas Edison, J. P.
Morgan, Edith Wharton, the Vanderbilts, Andrew Carnegie, and
more-became icons, whose comings and goings were breathlessly
reported in the papers of Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph
Hearst. It was a time of abundance, but also bitter rivalries, in
work and play. The Old Money titans found themselves besieged by a
vanguard of New Money interlopers eager to gain entree into their
world of formal balls, debutante parties, opera boxes, sailing
regattas, and summer gatherings at Newport. Into this morass of
money and desire stepped Caroline Astor. Mrs. Astor, an Old Money
heiress of the first order, became convinced that she was uniquely
qualified to uphold the manners and mores of Gilded Age America.
Wherever she went, Mrs. Astor made her judgments, dictating proper
behavior and demeanor, men's and women's codes of dress, acceptable
patterns of speech and movements of the body, and what and when to
eat and drink. The ladies and gentlemen of high society took note.
"What would Mrs. Astor do?" became the question every social
climber sought to answer. And an invitation to her annual ball was
a golden ticket into the ranks of New York's upper crust. This work
serves as a guide to manners as well as an insight to Mrs. Astor's
personal diary and address book, showing everything from the
perfect table setting to the array of outfits the elite wore at the
time. Channeling the queen of the Gilded Age herself, Cecelia Tichi
paints a portrait of New York's social elite, from the schools to
which they sent their children, to their lavish mansions and even
their reactions to the political and personal scandals of the day.
Ceceilia Tichi invites us on a beautifully illustrated tour of the
Gilded Age, transporting readers to New York at its most
fashionable. A colorful tapestry of fun facts and true tales, What
Would Mrs. Astor Do? presents a vivid portrait of this remarkable
time of social metamorphosis, starring Caroline Astor, the ultimate
gatekeeper.
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