Millionaires, Mansions, and Motor Yachts: An Era of Opulence

FROM THE PUBLISHER

A re-creation of a time of fantastic wealth through never-before-seen photographs.

Through a lively text and 250 stunning duotone images (most never previously published), Millionaires, Mansions, and Motor Yachts re-creates an era of opulence and extravagance that today seems incredible. Dominating this volume are the mansions and yachts of Alfred and Jessie du Pont. Equally larger-than-life personalities include Thomas Lawson, his expansive estate, Dreamwold, and yachts such as Dreamer; empire builder John Spreckels's 227-foot Venetia; Emily Cadwalader, who commissioned a vessel destined for world renown as a U.S. presidential yacht, before checkmating this achievement by ordering the largest private yacht ever built, the 407-foot Savarona; Eugene Tompkins, the "Napoleon of Theater Managers"; George Fabyan; Harry Darlington; and William Rands. Enfolded in this volume's fascinating pages are not only the wealthy individuals who shaped this era but also curmudgeonly writer/yachtsman Thomas Fleming Day, photographer Nathaniel Stebbins, and the designers and builders who created the splendid yachts that here return to life. 250 duotone photographs.

Author Biography: Ross MacTaggart is a writer, researcher, architectural designer, and urban observer. He lives in Strong City, Kansas.

SYNOPSIS

Drawing on sometimes scarce archival information on the rich and/ or famous of the early 20th century and including previously unpublished images, MacTaggart chronicles their extravagant lifestyles and technological innovations such as the steam engines that powered their yachts. Some of the figures are well-known: e.g., Alfred Du Pont. Less well-known is Emily Cadwalader, who commissioned a presidential yacht. The author notes ships' builders and design features. MacTaggart's The Golden Century: Classic Motor Yachts, 1830-1930 (Norton, 2001) is not among the references. Oversize: 10 x11.5". Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

"When a woman is standing on a cliff about to jump into the wine-dark sea, her life does tend to flash before her." So muses Sappho, seventh-century B.C. Greek poet channeling a 1970s vibe in this eighth novel by the author of Fear of Flying. The female version of a Greek hero, Jong's Sappho travels from exile to exile, sleeps with men, women and children, picks up other Greek luminaries and becomes the most famous singer in the land. Jong's imagination is in overdrive, but her perspective sheds little new light on familiar places and peoples-the Centaurs, the Amazons, the Sirens, the Oracle of Delphi. The overly precise historic details feel tacked on, just as the use of Sappho's verse and quotes from Homer give the text a quality of bricolage rather than authenticity. Jong rewrites ancient Greece through a veil of American liberalism and open sexuality. Thus a slave girl pontificates on the rights of man-"Liberty is at the root of all we want.... Choice is the luxury of the free"-and Sappho speaks pop-psych babble-"Why did I feel I had to test him?... I loved Alcaeus, but I didn't know how to love myself." In a series of interludes in which Zeus and Aphrodite watch the earthlings disport themselves, even the goddess of love sounds a bit like Betty Friedan: "I will not silence the only woman's voice that reverberates through time." At least Sappho's frequent, explicit sexual encounters keep the reader turning the pages, though even these methodical titillations belong neither to the seventh nor the 21st century, but to that late-20th-century decade when free love promised direct passage to the Elysian Fields. (May) Forecast: Sappho's Leap will sell primarily (if not solely) to Jong loyalists, but this year's 30th anniversary of the publication of Fear of Flying may get the writer a little extra media exposure. 4-city author tour. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

It would take a writer like the proto-feminist Jong to bring to life a Greek woman who wrote remarkable poetry 2600 years ago, and she does so with aplomb. Jong's Sappho starts out as a defiant, utterly self-absorbed teenager whose determination to pursue her muse and the passions of her heart carries her from affairs with the wrong man (he loves boys) to an arranged marriage with the wrong man (he's a fat old drunkard, but she wriggles out of her wifely duties) to her spreading fame as a poet and finally to life on her golden isle, where in her wisdom she declares, "Men could break your bones, but girls could break your heart." Along the way, she has little chats with the gods. The result is a vivid and entertaining portrait, but it's so juicily overwritten that sometimes one can't help but cringe. "Andromeda in her vulgar finery/ Has put a torch to your heart!" declares Sappho, and her story is decked in such finery as well. The last few pages include poems Jong has written about Sappho, and these scant lines are ultimately more effective than the novel. Buy where Jong is popular. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 1/03.]-Barbara Hoffert, "Library Journal" Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews