When the Astors Owned New York by Justin Kaplan

Loosely described as German (or “Dutch”) Renaissance in style, the Waldorf-Astoria was topped with an eye-catching array of turrets, chimneys, and red-tiled gables, all producing an effect that was both quaint and homely. Its splendor legitimized the open existence of an American leisure class… The Waldorf-Astoria declared that New York was now a world capital with a place in history like Athens, Rome, and London. He describes the Waldorf-Astoria, completed and opened in 1897, as almost a Disneyland for the elite: Pleasure dome and social force, theatre and theme park, the Astors’ great hotel, the most expensive of its kind, was a place of artistic, mechanical, and sybaritic wonders. Of the number of praiseworthy parts of this book, perhaps it is Kaplan’s discussion of the gilded opulence of the period that is the most exciting. Since it might be an odd practice to review a book that has been on the shelves for several years, it seems more appropriate simply to extol the virtues of Kaplan’s 2007 work, When the Astors Owned New York. His Whitman work is structured in such a way that the reader is barely aware that he is not reading a straight narrative.”

NPG historian David Ward said of Kaplan, “Justin Kaplan is a clear and limpid writer specializing in biography, who is able to express the complexities of human life in a way that disguises the equally complex pattern of his thoughts. Clemens and Mark Twain and Walt Whitman: A Life, which won the National Book award. His works include the Pulitzer Prize winning Mr. Justin Kaplan is the type of writer of whom one wonders, “What will he do next?” His projects are intriguing and his biographical narratives are something of a playground for the National Portrait Gallery collection it is no surprise that he has a lot of fans among the NPG staffers.

When the Astors Owned New York by Justin Kaplan