The Architect of Desire: Beauty and Danger in the Stanford White Family

Amazon.com

In 1906, Suzannah Lessard's great-grandfather, the prominent architect, socialite, and hedonist Stanford White, was sensationally murdered by the husband of a showgirl White had seduced when she was 16. The acquittal of the killer on the grounds of insanity added to the scandalous gossip. In this beautifully written memoir, Lessard, a writer for the New Yorker, recalls growing up on the White family estate on Long Island, where the murder was a taboo subject. She evokes a sense of repressed and dark passion that infected the harmonious landscaping and architecture White had created. She writes of "coldness that may feel like warmth, or violence that presents as lust for life." In this extraordinarily literary nonfiction mystery, Lessard slowly reveals that her family history held more secrets than the murder, and reaches a startling and controversial climax.

Book Description

The story of Stanford White--his scandalous affair with the 16-year-old actress Evelyn Nesbit, his murder in 1906 by her husband, the millionaire Harry K. Thaw, and the hailstorm of publicity that surrounded "the trial of the century"--has proven irresistable to generations of novelists, historians, and biographers. The premier neoclassical architect of his day, White's legacy to the world were such masterpieces as New York's original Madison Square Garden, the Washington Square Arch, and the Players, Metropolitan, and Colony clubs. He was also responsible for the palaces of such clients as the Whitneys, Vanderbilts, and Pulitzers, the robber barons of the Gilded Age whose power and dominance shaped the nation in its heady ascent at the turn of the century.

As the century rolled on, however, the story of Stanford White and Evelyn Nesbit came to be viewed as glamorous and romantic, the darker narrative of White's out-of-control sexual compulsion obscured by time. Indeed, White's wife Bessie and his son Larry remained adamantly silent about the matter for the duration of their lives, a silence that reverberated through the next four generations of their extended family.

Suzannah Lessard is the eldest of Stanford White's great grandchildren. It was only in her 30's that she began to sense the parallels between the silence about her great-grandfather's life and the silence about her own perilous experience as a little girl in her own home. Thus she became drawn to the remarkable history of her family in order to uncover its hidden truths, and in so doing to liberate herself from its enclosure at last. The result is a multi-layered memoir of astonishing elegance and power, one that, like a great building, is illumined room by room, chapter by chapter, until the whole is clearly seen.

Customer Reviews:

Well written and poignant........2005-12-18

Suzannah Lessard is to be complemented on this reflective and perceptive account. The family skeletons are unquestionably out of the closet, as she narrates the heartrending story of Evelyn Nesbitt, Harry K Thaw and her own ancestor's intertwined lives.

If you have read "Ragtime", this is the non-fiction truth behind the tale.

The murder of the brilliant architect - the "White" in McKim, Mead and White, whose clients included the Teddy Roosevelt White House -shocked New York's 400. This book deals not only with the events as they unfolded but also their repercussions in the author's family. Well written and poignant.

Compelling story of a mixed legacy.......2003-08-24

What would it be like to be descended from one of America's most celebrated architects? For that matter, what would it be like to be descended from a man whose lurid, predatory sexual practices were once front-page news?

Members of the Stanford White family have had to deal with those issues for almost 100 years now, since White was gunned down at Madison Square Garden in 1906. For the most part, the White family did not discuss their illustrious pater familias, but Stanford White is ever-present, in all respects, in their collective lives. How the family did (or did not) deal with this mixed legacy would manifest itself over the next four generations.

Suzannah Lessard, a great-granddaughter of Stanford White, addresses this legacy squarely. She does not attempt to suger-coat White's personality, which combines breath-taking artistic genius with a self-indulgent predatory streak that ultimately led to his destruction. Through the book, she weaves multiple tales about her family, which includes stories of mental illness, sexual abuse, and emotional repression. She does this with remarkable candor.

This is a Social Register family. They are related to the Astors, the Winthrops, the Chanlers, the Roosevelts, the Rockefellers, etc. They own a magnificent property, designed by Stanford White, on Long Island. On the surface, it would appear that this family has the world as its oyster. Suzannah Lessard shows that no amount of social prominence and privelage can protect a family from the problems that can face us all.

Fascinating story by a lyrical writer.......2001-10-17

Powerful, lyrical writing builds the story of Stanford White one layer at a time. The writer, his granddaughter, is uniquely qualified to tell the tale of genius gone awry. You'll remember this story long after you finish it -- a sure sign that you've experienced not just a book, but true art.

American History, Angst, Sex, Scandal.......2000-06-02

This book defies a brief explanation. I sensed deep passion in the author as I read her words, a passion for her family's weaknesses and strengths, a passion for knowing herself, a passion for the power of architecture, and a passion for her great-grandfather, the infuriatingly complex architect, Stanford White.

Stanford was generous and careless, creative and self-destructive, maniacally disciplined and utterly irresponsible. While he selflessly gave his heart and soul to his massive stone buildings, he thoughtlessly shattered the hearts and lives of the people around him. Even while he was racked by ill health, he drove himself in his work life AND his recreational life as if he were immortal. He either believed he could never die, or knew he surely must and so didn't care.

The sexual portrait of Stanford can be rather harrowing: The countless love nests he set up around New York; his systematic debauchery of young women (many of whom fell in love with him); the attorneys he hired to hush things up; the endless supply of cronies he found to join him in his nocturnal plundering--his appetites--and his ability to feed his appetites--knew no limits. As for Evelyn Nesbit, the celebrated beauty who arguably played a role in Stanford's murder, I'll just say she wasn't the first girl to ride in his red velvet swing.

Finally, two notes. This author presents architecture, and its impact on the human psyche, in a beautiful, moving way; she breathes life into the bricks of Stanford's buildings. And her depiction of the Gilded Age is superb. It's the stuff of a great trashy Summer novel. Except it's real. And probably still goes on today.

I should also warn future readers that there's a fair amount of incest in this book.

A book worth every penny and every minute!.......1999-05-16

I initially read this book on a library loan as a small part of research for a project I was doing. Now I'm back at Amazon to purchase it. It's one I want to read again in leisure time, to savor, not only for the wealth of history it provides, and the painfully honest look into family self-deceptions, but for the absolutely beautiful writing it offers. The courage she shows in telling this story, and the honest treatment of her family (which I expected her to protect and make excuses for) and painstaking fairness to other characters, sometimes at the expense of her own history, is breath taking. Many of Ms. Lessard's descriptive passages are almost musical in quality, without ever falling to sappiness, and they bleed a depth of insight that one sometimes grasps only at a second glance. Her metaphorical passages are the most beautiful - I will never forget many of them. A joy and a privilege to read. Again.

Average customer rating:

THE CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS TRULY IN FOCUS
VIVID, DETAILED, VERY READABLE
I loved it

Stanford White's New York
David Lowe
Manufacturer: Watson-Guptill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

Customer Reviews:

THE CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS TRULY IN FOCUS.......2003-05-25

Now in focus: A photo-packed history of a city that once was. Part architectural retrospective, part biography, part cultural and social history, this gem is both a brilliant evocation of the noted architect's life and times, as well as a portfolio of unforgettable images of his priceless legacy to the Big Apple, such sa Madison Square Garden and the Washington Square Arch. Author David Garrard Lowe marries stunning photographs with lively prose that brings to life the glittering, and often sensational, world of New York's
"beau mode" --- both city and country ---- in the late 19th and 20thc centuries. Start spreading the news, I'm leaving today ... to buy this book.

VIVID, DETAILED, VERY READABLE.......2001-07-01

This is an excellent portrayal of Stanford White, his childhood, his education, and the brick-by-brick rise of his stellar architectural career. The narrative contains none of the rancor of Suzannah Lessard's portrayal of White, instead focusing on the myriad buildings he designed and his masterful blending of diverse architectural styles. The technical descriptions are balanced by colorful accounts of White's clients, White's personal life, and the maelstrom surrounding White's tragic death. This isn't just an architectural book, it's very readable American history. Dozens of photographs accompany the text.

I loved it.......1999-04-20

The book business is really weird. Hundreds of people who know nothing -- the authors of those Chicken Soup and diet books come to mind -- write books that leap out of the bookstores. And scholars who spend years learning about fascinating subjects end up being the 1,456,657th best seller on Amazon.com. I was browsing in my library when I came across this retrospective of Stanford White's work and life in New York. It's a magnificent book, lovingly and intelligently written; the kind of book you can read once a year and continue to enjoy. Anybody who loves history, particularly the history of NYCity should try to get this book. The pictures are terrific. The authors should be proud of themselves.

The great Harry Thaw case, or, A woman's sacrifice

Average customer rating:

The great Harry Thaw case, or, A woman's sacrifice
Benjamin H Atwell
Manufacturer: Laird & Lee
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Women | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

The murder of Stanford White (The notable trials library)

Average customer rating:

The murder of Stanford White (The notable trials library)
Gerald Langford
Manufacturer: Notable Trials Library]
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

ASIN: B0006QF0C6

Stanford White and New York in the Gilded Age

Average customer rating:

Stanford White and New York in the Gilded Age
David Lowe
Manufacturer: New York School of Interior Design
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0006QY9DC

Average customer rating:

Stanford White's New York
David Garrard LOWE
Manufacturer: see notes for publisher info
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000P1706G

The trial of Harry Thaw (Famous trials series)

Average customer rating:

The trial of Harry Thaw (Famous trials series)
Frederick Arthur Mackenzie
Manufacturer: Gaunt
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Customer Reviews:

Get This Book!.......2004-02-27

Of the three Randy Glasbergen books on cartooning ('Toons, How to be a Successful Cartoonist, and Getting started Drawing and Selling Cartoons) this book seems to offer the most information on how to draw and how to start thinking creatively. It is filled with information and a difinite asset to any budding cartoonist's library. Highly recommended.

Starting Off or Time for A Cartoon Tune-Up?.......2003-01-20

Randy Glasbergen's "'Toons" is a basic book for a young novice interested in learning how to draw cartoons, or for a more advanced person who wants to brush up on his skills. Randy teaches the reader, among other things, how to draw funny faces, how to draw bodies and show them in action, how to draw comic animals, and how to do cartoon lettering. What makes this book especially valuable is that much more than half of it consists of illustrations, including Randy's published cartoons, so the prospective cartoonist can study and practice whatever Randy is explaining.

There are six pages alone showing how to draw cartoon hands. As Randy says, "Hands deserve special attention. Hands are a very expressive body part, second only to the face. We use our hands to point, poke, pinch, pull, pick, and punch. Because hands say so much about us and our emotions, it's important to draw them effectively. Here's how:..." And he goes on to show 43 examples.

Moreover, Randy's heads, bodies, hands, animals, and cartoon props are boiled down to basic shapes, such as circles, ovals, squares, and triangles, making it easy for just about anyone to learn to draw them.

I highly recommend this fun-filled book for anyone who seriously wants a firm foundation in how to create cartoons, or even for the sort of soul who finds himself casually but persistently sketching on a restaurant place mat, or doodling while chatting on the phone. Who knows, there might be a latent cartoonist hiding inside you right now.

THIS BOOK IS COOL!.......1999-04-21

THIS BOOK WAS SO GOOD THAT IF I COULD GIVE IT MORE STARS I WOULD! I would recomend this book to anyone not quite ready for a big company but someone who wants to carton for fun!!!!!!!!

Customer Reviews:

Bello Tuscany!.......2000-11-28

This book is a must have for anyone with the slightest interest in Italy's majestic country side. This book covers Tuscany and it's unparellel beauty in some of the most magnificant photography ever seen. An excellent gift to anyone!

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Introduction to EE concepts.......2006-01-21

Tietenberg is a big player in evironmental economics, and clearly lays out the fundamentals of environmental and natural resources economics accessible to those without significant economics training.

Out of Date.......2004-04-28

The book is hopelessly out of date. Although it carries a 2003 publication date, it still refers to the USSR and Czechoslovakia in the present tense. It consistently refers to studies done in the 1980s as recent and less than 25% of the examples, charts. etc. use data from 1990 or later. For example, only 5 out of 37 references in the chapter on Economic Justice are more recent than 1990, and the most recent is 1994. This is typical of just about every chapter. One gets the feeling that the publisher never reviewed this revided edition.

Good for Graduate School.......2001-06-06

I used this book for graduate school. Its a textbook and little more. But, it is a well written textbook.

good.......1999-03-15

goo

Book Description

Examines the many travel pleasures and shopping treasures found in Istanbul, Bursa, Ankara, Cappadocia, Antalya, Mamaris, Bodrum, Kusadasi, Cesme, Izmir, and Canakkale. Includes shopping strategies and bargaining tips as well as advice on avoiding problems, selecting quality products, and shipping purchases home with ease. It also identifies the best shops, restaurants, accommodations, sightseeing, and entertainment.

Average customer rating:

The best on globalization

Globalisation: Making Sense of an Integrating World

Manufacturer: Profile Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
International | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

International Public Relations: A Comparative Analysis (Lea's Communication Series)

Economics: Making Sense of the Modern Economy, Second Edition

Guide to the European Union, Ninth Edition (Economist Series)

Guide to Economic Indicators: Making Sense of Economics - Sixth Edition

The Economist Style Guide: 9th Edition

ASIN: 1861973489

Book Description

Expert analysis of the way globalization is changing the world we live in and will continue to do so.

Globalization is one of the most powerful forces at work today, fundamentally affecting the way businesses are run and the way we lead our lives, and causing thousands to take to the streets at world summits to protest against its effects. This book is a collection of surveys and articles on globalization that have appeared in The Economist. They cover a wide range of issues: migration; trade; culture; the influence of multinationals; the role of organizations such as IMF, the World Bank, and the WTO; the spread of equity culture; taxation; inequality; the environment; and how technology is raising standards in the world's poorest countries.

Together, through careful analysis of the facts, the articles discuss the case for globalization. For anyone who wants an understanding of the conceptual and practical issues involved in this contentious subject, there is no broader or more illuminating guide.

Customer Reviews:

The best on globalization.......2003-07-01

This book, which is a compilation of articles from The Economist, is one of the most insightful texts on the mechanics of globalization.

The book is written in the refreshing style of The Economist: concise, factually precise, and opinionated. First, it makes the liberal case for globalization, tracing the benefits of international exchange and competition to the classical economists; and it supports that case with logic and numbers.

Then, one by one, it discusses equity markets, tax policies, global businesses, inequality, aid, the environment, technology and international finance. In the process, this book puts together an impressive collection of facts: it asks the question "what are people saying about globalization" and then evaluates perceptions and prescriptions against data from think-tanks and academics.

This balance between theory and fact makes the book appealing. Globalization could not have a more articulate advocate than The Economist, and this book includes the best articles that have appeared in the magazine; if one had to read only one book on globalization, this should be it.

Book Description

In this novel book the author points out that neither the dog nor the child will undertake the responsibility to train itself; therefore, it is up to you to determine the behaviour you wish to see, then communicate your desires to your pet (child). This book will teach you to communicate in Canine. Ancedotes in the book are often unusual and sometimes outrageous, but they work. Instructions are in an easy to follow format and you and your child and dogs will profit from it.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent parenting insights for dogs and children.......1999-01-10

The book surveys the developmental stages of a dog's life, focusing on the training/parenting needs of each stage and paralleling these stages with those of our own children.

The comparisons are interesting both for application to man's best friend and children. The key concept developed is what is leadership and what are the responsibilities of the pack leader (Alpha--male/female).

The text is very application-oriented and provides many examples, both positive and negative, of behaviors and responses.

Finally, the leadership skills discussed in the text may very well have applications beyond just dogs and children, perhaps business management as well.

Fun reading with many applications and yet doesn't fail to maintain the focus on developing a better relationship with your canine friend.

Customer Reviews:

A Fine Narrative!.......2003-10-02

This is a terrific book that discusses the life of a Confederate army surgeon. Thomas Wood wrote his "recollections" nearly twenty-one years after the war ended. Wood wrote of his adventures in the third North Carolina Regiment. He saw Chancellorsville,Gettysburg,and many others. He gives interesting biographic sketches on different members of the regiment. Wood's letters home are included in the book to make it very interesting. The medical situation was very inadequate. There was very little knowledge of sanitary laws. Wood did not truly have any medical degree,nor was he recommended by a medical school,he began to practice medicine after developing an interest in it after recovering in an army hospital.
I enjoyed this book because Wood writes well. His detail of the battles are interesting.
Though it may interest the historian,I think that a book like this should be enjoyed by anyone who loves a good book.
One other book on medical history is Kate: the Journal of a Confederate Nurse by Kate Cumming.

Wartime experiences as a Confederate Army surgeon.......2001-03-11

Doctor To The Front: The Recollections Of Confederate Surgeon Thomas Fanning Wood 1861-1865 is the latest addition to the University of Tennessee Press Voices of the Civil War Series and an outstanding contribution to Civil War studies. Military doctors labored through the smoke of battle where impossible conditions and fear of infection compelled them to resort to amputation -- an operation most often performed without painkillers. Thomas Wood's account of his wartime experiences as a Confederate Army surgeon and his recollections of those events provide the reader with a vividly narrated "window in time" to those harrowing days. Very highly recommended for personal, professional, and academic Civil War reading lists and reference collections, Doctor To The Front combines historically significant information with human interest accounts to reveal still another horrific facet of the civil war.

Average customer rating:
The enserfment of the Russian peasantry
R. E. F Smith
Manufacturer: Cambridge U.P
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0006D69WE

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