Patchwork Child-Early Memories

ASTOR, Brooke

Published by Random House, 1993

Office copy-Vincent Astor Foundation ASTOR, Brooke [264] pp. Random House 1993 9 1/4" x 8 1/4" Brooke Astor's memoir of her childhood years in Hawaii, Panama, Peking, Santo Domingo, and turn-of-the-century Washington, D.C. Roberta Brooke Astor (née Russell; March 30, 1902 August 13, 2007) was an American philanthropist, socialite, and writer who was the chairwoman of the Vincent Astor Foundation, which had been established by her third husband, Vincent Astor, son of John Jacob Astor IV and great-great grandson of America's first multi-millionaire, John Jacob Astor. Brooke Astor was the author of two novels and two volumes of personal memoirs. Early life Brooke Astor was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the only child of John Henry Russell Jr., the 16th Commandant of the Marine Corps, and his wife, Mabel Cecile Hornby Howard. Her paternal grandfather John Henry Russell Sr. was a rear admiral in the U.S. Navy. She was named for her maternal grandmother (Roberta) and was known as Bobby to close friends and family. Due to her father's career, she spent much of her childhood abroad, living in China, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and other places. She briefly attended The Madeira School in 1919, but graduated from the Holton-Arms School.[citation needed] As a child, she kept diaries, letters and drawings from her travels, which were published in an illustrated edition of her memoir "Patchwork Child: Early Memories" in 1993.[1] Marriages John Dryden Kuser She married her first husband, John Dryden Kuser (1897 1964), shortly after her 17th birthday, on April 26, 1919, in Washington, D.C. "I certainly wouldn't advise getting married that young to anyone," she said later in life. "At the age of sixteen, you're not jelled yet. The first thing you look at, you fall in love with."[2] John was the son of the financier and conservationist Anthony Rudolph Kuser and Susie Fairfield Drydan. Susie's father was U.S. Senator John Fairfield Dryden. John Kuser later became a New Jersey Republican councilman, assemblyman, and state senator.[3] They also lived in Bernardsville, New Jersey.[4] Brooke described her tumultuous first marriage as the "Worst years of my life", which was punctuated by her husband's alleged physical abuse, alcoholism, and adultery.[2] According to Frances Kiernan's 2007 biography of Brooke Astor, when Brooke was six months pregnant with the couple's only child, her husband broke her jaw during a marital fight.[5] "I learned about terrible manners from the family of my first husband," she told The New York Times. "They didn't know how to treat people."[2] A year after the marriage, according to a published account of the divorce proceedings, John "began to embarrass her in social activities" and "told her that he no longer loved her and that their marriage was a failure."[6] Brooke and John had one son, Anthony Dryden "Tony" Kuser, May 30, 1924. She filed for divorce February 15, 1930, in Reno, Nevada. It was finalized later that year.[6] John married his second wife, Vieva Marie Fisher Banks (formerly Mrs. James Lenox Banks, Jr.) September 6, 1930, in Virginia City, Nevada. They had one daughter, Suzanne Dryden Kuser, and divorced in October 1935. A week later, Sen. Kuser married Louise Mattei Farry (formerly Mrs. Joseph Farry). In 1958, he married, as his fourth wife, Grace Egglesfield Gibbons (widow of John J. Gibbons). An amateur ornithologist and president of the New Jersey Audubon Society, Sen. Kuser introduced the bill that made the eastern goldfinch the state bird of New Jersey. He also was, at various times, an insurance and real estate broker in New Jersey (1937 1942) and Nevada (1942 1955), a vice president of Lenox, Inc., the pottery and china company, a columnist for the Nevada State Journal (1943 1947), and a director of the Fox Film Corporation.[citation needed] Charles Henry Marshall Her second husband, whom she married in 1932, was Charles Henry "Buddy" Marshall (1891 1952), the only son of Charles Henry. Seller Inventory # 20222

Bibliographic Details

Title: Patchwork Child-Early Memories
Publisher: Random House
Publication Date: 1993
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
Signed: Signed by Author(s)