Good Greetings to All,
What a strange title – but it describes a famous love between John Jacob Astor and Madelaine Talmadge Force. Upon reading the book entitled: The Second Mrs. Astor by Shana Abe, it is by far a very enlightening picture of their very brief married life together.
John Jacob Astor was very well-known in the Gilded Age. Inventor, writer, banker, business entrepreneur, a hero of the Spanish-American War….only to lose his life in the famous ocean ship disaster, the Titanic. He lived a very full life but had sorrow as well. His divorce from Ava was a scandal, as seen among the grand “Four Hundred”. Then he falls in love with a lovely girl, Madelaine (Maddy) Force, 29 years his junior. And she (Maddy) thought only of how good a man he was, not his age. The book is a wonderful book for a book club. It describes the unbearable pressman hunting down Madelaine for any type of interview or comments about their lives together. Maddy was looked upon as a “gold-digger”. So happy are they when they embark upon a honeymoon to Egypt and then return home with the delight of a new baby, only to be held by Madelaine, not John. With the disaster of the Titanic, Madelaine was suddenly transformed into a tragic heroine.
Through all of their shunning and licentious talk, they never left each other’s side. This book is a very good book on the history of the Astor Family. Two other companion books, which I recommend, are by Anderson Cooper – one on Vanderbilt and the other about the Astor Family. For myself, I feel the Gilded Age was a very dynamic period for the building of the way in which we live now. It was comprehensive.
All the best…..more to come!
Patti
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