The Phantom of Fifth Avenue

Author: Meryl Gordon
Genre: Biography
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing, 2014
Pages: 400
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: Born in 1906, Huguette Clark grew up in her family's 121-room Beaux Arts mansion in New York and was one of the leading celebrities of her day. Her father William Andrews Clark, was a copper magnate, the second richest man in American, and not above bribing his way into the Senate. 

Huguette attended the coronation of King George V. And at twenty-two with a personal fortune of $50 million to her name, she married a Princeton man and childhood friend William MacDonald Gower. Two-years later the couple divorced. After a series of failed romances, Huguette began to withdraw from society--first living with her mother in a kind of Grey Gardens isolation then as a modern-day Miss Havisham, spending her days in a vast apartment overlooking Central Park, eating crackers and watching The Flintstones with only servants for company.

All her money and all her real estate could not protect her in her later life from being manipulated by shady hangers-on and hospitals that were only too happy to admit (and bill) a healthy woman. But what happened to Huguette that turned a vivacious, young socialite into a recluse? And what was her life like inside that gilded, copper cage?

Review: Empty Mansions was a fantastic read, and when I saw there was another book published about Huguette Clark I put it on my must-read list. It wasn't until I actually had the book in hand that I realized that the same author wrote Mrs. Astor Regrets, another very good read.

Empty Mansions and The Phantom of Fifth Avenue took different approaches to telling the Huguette Clark story and I can't say that one was better than the other. By reading both, I feel as though I got a more comprehensive look at the life and times of the Clark family.

The Phantom of Fifth Avenue was a fast, satisfying read, and I loved it.