Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune

In 2009, Pulitzer Prize–winning writer Bill Dedman stumbled across an unexpected window into American history when he discovered a stately property for sale that had been vacant for almost sixty years. In Empty Mansions, the lavishness of the Gilded Age in the nineteenth century is linked to a fight over a $300 million bequest in the twenty-first century, creating a complex mystery of riches and loss. The central character of the story is Huguette Clark, a reclusive heiress who was so private that, at the time of her death at the age of 104, no fresh photos of her had been released. Even though she was in perfect health and had lavish residences in Connecticut, New York, and California, why had she spent the last twenty years in a plain hospital room? Why were her assets being liquidated? Did those in charge of her finances control her riches, or was she in charge of them?

Paul Clark Newell, Jr., Huguette Clark's cousin and one of the only family members who speak with her often, has worked with Dedman. In Dedman and Newell's retelling of a fairy tale, the brilliant and gifted daughter, born into an affluent and privileged household, keeps herself hidden from the outer world.

Huguette was the daughter of controversial senator, railroad builder, and creator of Las Vegas W. A. Clark, a self-made copper entrepreneur who was almost as wealthy as Rockefeller in his day. She was raised in the most expansive home in New York City, an amazing 121-room mansion fit for a family of four. She had a large collection of antique dolls, a world-famous Stradivarius violin, and paintings by Renoir and Degas. But rather than being content with trinkets, she used her fortune to purchase presents for both friends and complete strangers, to pursue her artistic career in secret, and to protect the privacy that she held in the highest regard.

From a log cabin in Pennsylvania to mining camps during the Montana gold rush, from backroom politics in Washington to a distress call from an opulent Fifth Avenue apartment, the Clark family narrative encompasses over three centuries of American history. Nine decades ago, Huguette, who was deeply affected by the 9/11 terror attacks, had a ticket for a first-class berth on the Titanic's second trip.

The novel Empty Mansions paints a nuanced picture of the enigmatic Huguette and her close friends. We get to know her ostentatious father, her quiet mother, her star-crossed sister, her French lover, her nurse who was showered with presents totaling over $30 million, and the family members vying for Huguette's copper wealth. With over seventy images, Empty Mansions tells the captivating tale of an extraordinary eccentric who was a last gem of the Gilded Age and lived her life according to her own terms.