The Astor Orphan: A Memoir - Softcover

Aldrich, Alexandra

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0062223399 ISBN 13: 9780062223395

Publisher: Harper Large Print, 2013

Synopsis

The Astor Orphan is an unflinching debut memoir by a direct descendant of John Jacob Astor, Alexandra Aldrich.

She brilliantly tells the story of her eccentric, fractured family; her 1980s childhood of bohemian neglect in the squalid attic of Rokeby, the family’s Hudson Valley Mansion; and her brave escape from the clan. Aldrich reaches back to the Gilded Age when the Astor legacy began to come undone, leaving the Aldrich branch of the family penniless and squabbling over what was left.

Illustrated with black-and-white photographs that bring this faded world into focus, The Astor Orphan is written with the grit of The Glass Castle and set amid the aristocratic decay of Grey Gardens.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Alexandra Aldrich grew up in the servants' quarters of Rokeby, the forty-three-room Astor mansion built by her ancestors, foraging for her next meal, battling for dominance with her wealthier first cousins, and striving to get her pathologically distracted parents to take care of her.

Amid the chaos and squalor of the household, Alexandra tried to impose order on her anarchic world. But a parent's betrayal ignited a series of familial feuds that shook her hard-won stability and set her on a path toward escaping her troubled branch of the Astor legacy.

The Astor Orphan is an unflinching memoir with the grit of The Glass Castle and the faded glory of Grey Gardens.

About the Author:

Alexandra Aldrich lived at Rokeby, the house at the heart of this story, until she left to attend boarding school at the age of fourteen. She later moved to Poland, where she studied violin and history, and then back to the United States, where she taught high school English and converted to Orthodox Judaism.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Large Print
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0062223399
• ISBN 13: 9780062223395
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288