<div>A gripping novel of dark family secrets, bigotry, lust, and lies set in the world of the phenomenally wealthy The Liebling family is among the wealthiest in New York, but in the eyes of &ldquo;old money&rdquo; gentile aristocrats like the patrician Van Degans, they will always be lower-class Jewish nouveau riche&mdash;especially since it&rsquo;s common knowledge that patriarch Jules Liebling built the powerful Ingraham Corporation from the profits he made selling liquor during Prohibition while in cahoots with dangerous mobsters. Jules is long dead and his widow, Hannah, runs the business with a tyrannical hand. Hannah is reluctant to turn over the reins to the heir apparent, her capable son Noah, despite the fact that she is now well into her eighties. But when Noah&rsquo;s wife, Carol, meets Georgette Van Degan for lunch at Le Cirque, gossip circulates around Manhattan about a thaw between the families and, quite possibly, a partnership. As rumors fly, family skeletons on both sides are exposed, leading to jealousy, betrayal, and even violence. Author Stephen Birmingham explores the dark side of wealth, family, and privilege in The Wrong Kind of Money, brilliantly displaying his phenomenal storytelling skill along with his intimate knowledge of the lives of America&rsquo;s aristocrats.</div>

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The Wrong Kind of Money

<div>The New York Times&ndash;bestselling history of the Jewish immigrants from Russia and Poland who altered the American landscape from New York to Hollywood. The wave of Eastern European Jewish immigrants who swept into New York in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by way of Ellis Island were not welcomed by the Jews who had arrived decades before. These refugees from czarist Russia and the Polish shtetls who came to America to escape pogroms and persecution were considered barbaric, uneducated, and too steeped in the traditions of the &ldquo;old country&rdquo; to be accepted by the more refined and already well-established German-Jewish community. But the new arrivals were tough, passionate, and determined, and in no time they were moving up from the ghetto tenements of New York&rsquo;s Lower East Side to make their marks and their fortunes across the country in a variety of fields, from media and popular music to fashion, motion pictures, and even organized crime. Among the unforgettable personages author Stephen Birmingham profiles are radio pioneer David Sarnoff, makeup mogul Helena Rubinstein, Hollywood tycoons Samuel Goldwyn and Harry Cohn, Broadway composer Irving Berlin, and mobster Meyer Lansky. From the author of &ldquo;Our Crowd&rdquo;, comes this treasure trove of fascinating tales and unforgettable &ldquo;rags-to-riches&rdquo; success stories that celebrates the indomitable spirit of a unique community.</div>

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"The Rest of Us"

<div>A poignant and unforgettable rags-to-riches family saga following three generations of a remarkable clan from downtown ghetto to Park Avenue opulence Marrying Jack Auerbach was Essie Litsky&rsquo;s salvation, enabling her to break free of her strict Russian-Jewish immigrant parents and escape New York&rsquo;s poor, dirty, overcrowded Lower East Side. Together with her husband, Essie amassed a fortune that dwarfed their wildest dreams: She was living in a grand mansion on Park Avenue, collecting priceless art, even conferring with a US president. But money could never buy the affection of family or compensate for the true love Essie let slip away. And now, as she nears the end of her life, she must contend with blackmail and heartless legal assaults coming at her from all sides, the result of the ugly, persisting greed of her own children and grandchildren. But Essie is not dead yet, and those who underestimate the remarkable old woman are in for a shocking and powerful surprise. In this New York Times bestseller, Stephen Birmingham, acclaimed chronicler of the lives of the super-rich and author of &ldquo;Our Crowd&rdquo;, introduces three generations of a singular family as it moves from poverty to privilege over the course of a cataclysmic century, led by one of the most endearing and unforgettable heroines in modern American fiction.</div>

The Auerbach Will

<div>The suspicious death of a New York retail tycoon reveals dangerous cracks in a family&rsquo;s foundation in this page-turning novel of wealth, jealousy, betrayal, and murder One of New York&rsquo;s most elegant and exclusive retail establishments, Tarkington&rsquo;s has been the preferred shopping experience of Manhattan&rsquo;s elite for decades. But the unexpected death of founder Silas Tarkington has raised serious doubts about the future of the enterprise, and his daughter, Miranda, must weigh the pros and cons of continuing her father&rsquo;s legacy. Then, at the reading of Silas&rsquo;s will, disturbing questions arise about the tycoon&rsquo;s past and suggestions of a dark, secret life threaten to tear the family apart. For Miranda; her elegant socialite mother, Consuelo; her estranged son, Blazer; and Diana, the fieriest and most recent in the late entrepreneur&rsquo;s long line of mistresses, the truth could destroy much more than the family business&mdash;especially as it becomes more and more likely that Silas&rsquo;s death was no accident. Author Stephen Birmingham has spent his career documenting the lives of the wealthy and powerful in his bestsellers &ldquo;Our Crowd&rdquo; and &ldquo;The Rest of Us&rdquo;. Putting his unique inside knowledge of the privileged world of the upper crust to excellent use, he has devised a thrilling story of money, power, deception, and treachery that will keep the reader eagerly turning its pages. </div>

Carriage Trade

<div>From the New York Times&ndash;bestselling author of &ldquo;Our Crowd&rdquo;: A novel of a powerful family, a cosmetics empire, and the dark secrets that could destroy both. Mireille &ldquo;Mimi&rdquo; Myerson took her grandfather&rsquo;s struggling cosmetics company and turned it into an empire. But suddenly, as she prepares to launch a new perfume line, Mimi is faced with hidden threats at every turn. Her efforts to further expand the enormously successful Miray Corporation could be sabotaged from within by her own treacherous family, for there is a dangerous rot beneath the surface of the wealthy and aristocratic &ldquo;Magnificent Myersons&rdquo;: a dark tradition of lies, sexual perversity, and criminal activity that could undermine everything Mimi hopes to accomplish. With the discovery of her husband&rsquo;s affair and the return of real estate magnate Michael Horowitz, her first and most enduring love, Mimi must determine whom she can trust&mdash;especially in light of the shocking revelations that are about to emerge regarding the birth of the Miray Corporation. In both his bestselling nonfiction (&ldquo;Our Crowd&rdquo;, The Right People) and fiction (Carriage Trade, The Auerbach Will) author Stephen Birmingham has demonstrated an unparalleled understanding of the ways of America&rsquo;s extremely rich. This unique knowledge comes into glorious play in his blistering novel Shades of Fortune, a thrilling and unforgettable breakneck ride through the darkest passageways of wealth and success.</div>

Shades of Fortune

<div>A history of the Manhattan building and its famous tenants, from Lauren Bacall to John Lennon, by the New York Times&ndash;bestselling author of &ldquo;Our Crowd&rdquo;. When Singer sewing machine tycoon Edward Clark built a luxury apartment building on Manhattan&rsquo;s Upper West Side in the late 1800s, it was derisively dubbed &ldquo;the Dakota&rdquo; for being as far from the center of the downtown action as its namesake territory on the nation&rsquo;s western frontier. Despite its remote location, the quirky German Renaissance&ndash;style castle, with its intricate fa&ccedil;ade, peculiar interior design, and gargoyle guardians peering down on Central Park, was an immediate hit, particularly among the city&rsquo;s well-heeled intellectuals and artists. Over the next century it would become home to an eclectic cast of celebrity residents&mdash;including Boris Karloff, Lauren Bacall, Leonard Bernstein, singer Roberta Flack (the Dakota&rsquo;s first African-American resident), and John Lennon and Yoko Ono&mdash;who were charmed by its labyrinthine interior and secret passageways, its mysterious past, and its ghosts. Stephen Birmingham, author of the New York society classic &ldquo;Our Crowd&rdquo;, has written an engrossing history of the first hundred years of one of the most storied residential addresses in Manhattan and the legendary lives lived within its walls.</div>

Life at the Dakota

<div>An aging California vintner is determined to protect her empire from a hostile family takeover and the dark secrets that could destroy everything she loves At age seventy-four, Assaria &ldquo;Sari&rdquo; LeBaron is still a force to be reckoned with. For decades, she has run the Baronet Vineyards, one of California&rsquo;s largest and most successful wine producers, maintaining sole control even after a suspicious accident left her permanently crippled. And now, in her golden years, the formidable Sari refuses to relinquish power to her own children, a decision that has only served to increase tensions among her already emotionally damaged family members. But Sari&rsquo;s ambitious son, Eric, is no longer willing to play a subservient role, and has begun working behind the scenes to take over the business, forming alliances within and outside the family in his effort to dethrone the unyielding matriarch. The most difficult fight of Sari LeBaron&rsquo;s long and eventful life has begun; a heartbreaking struggle that will pit loved one against loved one and expose long-hidden secrets that could destroy both Sari&rsquo;s business and her family. The LeBaron Secret is another riveting excursion into a world of privilege that Stephen Birmingham knows intimately. It is a breathtaking tale of secrets and lies, shady double-dealings, family skeletons, and the inner turmoil of the fabulously wealthy as only the bestselling author of &ldquo;Our Crowd&rdquo; and The Auerbach Will could tell it.</div>

The LeBaron Secret

<div>The #1 New York Times bestseller that traces the rise of the Guggenheims, the Goldmans, and other families from immigrant poverty to social prominence. They immigrated to America from Germany in the nineteenth century with names like Loeb, Sachs, Seligman, Lehman, Guggenheim, and Goldman. From tenements on the Lower East Side to Park Avenue mansions, this handful of Jewish families turned small businesses into imposing enterprises and amassed spectacular fortunes. But despite possessing breathtaking wealth that rivaled the Astors and Rockefellers, they were barred by the gentile establishment from the lofty realm of &ldquo;the 400,&rdquo; a register of New York&rsquo;s most elite, because of their religion and humble backgrounds. In response, they created their own elite &ldquo;100,&rdquo; a privileged society as opulent and exclusive as the one that had refused them entry. &ldquo;Our Crowd&rdquo; is the fascinating story of this rarefied society. Based on letters, documents, diary entries, and intimate personal remembrances of family lore by members of these most illustrious clans, it is an engrossing portrait of upper-class Jewish life over two centuries; a riveting story of the bankers, brokers, financiers, philanthropists, and business tycoons who started with nothing and turned their family names into American institutions.</div>

"Our Crowd"

<div>The New World&rsquo;s earliest Jewish immigrants and their unique, little-known history: A New York Times bestseller from the author of Life at the Dakota. In 1654, twenty-three Jewish families arrived in New Amsterdam (now New York) aboard a French privateer. They were the Sephardim, members of a proud orthodox sect that had served as royal advisors and honored professionals under Moorish rule in Spain and Portugal but were then exiled from their homeland by intolerant monarchs. A small, closed, and intensely private community, the Sephardim soon established themselves as businessmen and financiers, earning great wealth. They became powerful forces in society, with some, like banker Haym Salomon, even providing financial support to George Washington&rsquo;s army during the American Revolution. Yet despite its major role in the birth and growth of America, this extraordinary group has remained virtually impenetrable and unknowable to outsiders. From author of &ldquo;Our Crowd&rdquo; Stephen Birmingham, The Grandees delves into the lives of the Sephardim and their historic accomplishments, illuminating the insulated world of these early Americans. Birmingham reveals how these families, with descendants including poet Emma Lazarus, Barnard College founder Annie Nathan Meyer, and Supreme Court Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo, influenced&mdash;and continue to influence&mdash;American society.</div>

The Grandees

<div>An enlightening and entertaining inside look at the lifestyles of America&rsquo;s extremely wealthy from the bestselling author of &ldquo;Our Crowd&rdquo; It&rsquo;s no secret that the rich are different from the rest of us. But the rich, as author Stephen Birmingham so insightfully points out, are also different from the very rich. There&rsquo;s Society, and then there&rsquo;s Real Society, and it takes multiple generations for families of the former to become entrenched in the latter. Real Society is not about the money&mdash;or rather, it&rsquo;s not only about the money&mdash;it is about history, breeding, tradition, and most of all, the name. The Right People is an engrossing and illuminating journey through the customs and habits of the phenomenally wealthy, from the San Francisco elite to the upper crust of New York&rsquo;s Westchester County. It is a marvelously anecdotal, intimately detailed overview of the lives of the American aristocracy: where they gather and dine; their games and sports, clubs and parties, friendships and feuds; their mating, marriage, and divorce rituals&mdash;a potpourri of priceless true stories featuring the Astors, Goulds, Vanderbilts, Vanderlips, Dukes, Biddles, and other lofty names from the pages of the Social Register.</div>

The Right People

<div>Extraordinary true stories of the Irish in America, their remarkable rise from urban poverty, and the powerful dynasties they engendered Author Stephen Birmingham, who chronicled the rise of Jewish immigrants to extraordinary wealth and success in &ldquo;Our Crowd&rdquo;, now turns his attention to the Irish. Real Lace tells the colorful and fascinating true stories of America&rsquo;s most renowned Irish-Catholic families. Scions of courageous, driven, and resilient men and women who escaped starvation during Ireland&rsquo;s terrible potato famine in the mid-nineteenth century, they battled their way out of the slums of Boston and New York, overcoming prejudice and poverty to achieve great wealth, fame, and political power. Here are the remarkable tales of the Kennedys and Cuddihys; the astonishing rise and tragic fall of the McDonnells of Wall Street; thrilling yarns of Floods, Mackays, O&rsquo;Briens, and other so-called Silver Kings of California; and unforgettable stories about brilliant, if not always scrupulous, Irish politicos who learned how to retain enduring power by perfecting the urban political machine. Birmingham&rsquo;s enthralling history celebrates the pluck, blarney, and unshakeable spirit of a remarkable group of achievers.</div>

Real Lace

<div>Three New York Times bestsellers chronicle the rise of America&rsquo;s most influential Jewish families as they transition from poor immigrants to household names. In his acclaimed trilogy, author Stephen Birmingham paints an engrossing portrait of Jewish American life from the colonial era through the twentieth century with fascinating narrative and meticulous research. The collection&rsquo;s best-known book, &ldquo;Our Crowd&rdquo; follows nineteenth-century German immigrants with recognizable names like Loeb, Sachs, Lehman, Guggenheim, and Goldman. Turning small family businesses into institutions of finance, banking, and philanthropy, they elevated themselves from Lower East Side tenements to Park Avenue mansions. Barred from New York&rsquo;s gentile elite because of their religion and humble backgrounds, they created their own exclusive group, as affluent and selective as the one that had refused them entry. The Grandees travels farther back in history to 1654, when twenty-three Sephardic Jews arrived in New York. Members of this small and insulated group&mdash;considered the first Jewish community in America&mdash;soon established themselves as wealthy businessmen and financiers. With descendants including poet Emma Lazarus, Barnard College founder Annie Nathan Meyer, and Supreme Court Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo, these families were&mdash;and still are&mdash;hugely influential in the nation&rsquo;s culture, politics, and economics. In &ldquo;The Rest of Us,&rdquo; Birmingham documents the third major wave of Jewish immigration: Eastern Europeans who swept through Ellis Island between 1880 and 1924. These refugees from czarist Russia and Polish shtetls were considered barbaric, uneducated, and too steeped in the traditions of the &ldquo;old country&rdquo; to be accepted by the well-established German American Jews. But the new arrivals were tough, passionate, and determined. Their incredible rags to riches stories include those of the lives of Hollywood tycoon Samuel Goldwyn, Broadway composer Irving Berlin, makeup mogul Helena Rubenstein, and mobster Meyer Lansky. This unforgettable collection comprises a comprehensive account of the Jewish American upper class, their opulent world, and their lasting mark on American society. </div>

The Jews in America Trilogy

<div>A quartet of novels from the New York Times&ndash;bestselling author of &ldquo;Our Crowd&rdquo; and master chronicler of Manhattan&rsquo;s rich, famous, and deceitful. These four gripping novels prove that &ldquo;when it comes to the folkways of the rich, the powerful, and the privileged, Stephen Birmingham knows what he&rsquo;s talking about&rdquo; (Los Angeles Times). Carriage Trade: One of New York&rsquo;s most elegant and exclusive retail establishments, Tarkington&rsquo;s has been the preferred shopping experience of Manhattan&rsquo;s elite for decades. But the unexpected death of founder Silas Tarkington raises serious doubts about the future of the enterprise. At the reading of his will, disturbing questions arise about the tycoon&rsquo;s past, and suggestions of a dark, secret life threaten to tear the family apart. The truth could destroy much more than the family business&mdash;especially as it becomes more and more likely that Silas&rsquo;s death was no accident. &ldquo;[A] page turner . . . [that] offers a little bit of the best of everything&rdquo; (The New York Times). The Wrong Kind of Money: The Liebling family is among the wealthiest in New York, but in the eyes of &ldquo;old money&rdquo; gentile aristocrats like the patrician Van Degans, they will always be lower-class Jewish nouveau riche. Jules Liebling got his start selling liquor during Prohibition while in cahoots with dangerous mobsters, and his widow, Hannah, now runs the family business with a tyrannical hand. But when her daughter-in-law meets Georgette Van Degan for lunch at Le Cirque, gossip circulates about a thaw between the families and, quite possibly, a partnership. As rumors fly in this &ldquo;fast and wonderful&rdquo; novel that has &ldquo;something for everyone,&rdquo; family skeletons on both sides are exposed, leading to jealousy, betrayal, and even violence (Cincinnati Enquirer). The Auerbach Will: The daughter of poor immigrant Russian-Jewish parents on the Lower East Side, Essie Litsky married Jack Auerbach, and together, they rose from poverty and amassed a fortune that dwarfed their wildest dreams. But money could never buy the affection of family or compensate for the true love Essie let slip away. And now, as she nears the end of her life, she must contend with blackmail and heartless legal assaults coming at her from all sides&mdash;the result of the ugly, persistent greed of her own children and grandchildren. But Essie is not dead yet, and those who underestimate the remarkable old woman are in for a shocking and powerful surprise. This New York Times bestseller is full of &ldquo;delicious secrets&rdquo; drawn from the &ldquo;gossipy, Uptown/Downtown milieu Birmingham knows so well&rdquo; (Kirkus Reviews). Shades of Fortune: Mireille &ldquo;Mimi&rdquo; Myerson took her grandfather&rsquo;s struggling cosmetics company and turned it into an empire. But suddenly, as she prepares to launch a new perfume line, she is faced with hidden threats at every turn. Her efforts to further expand the company could be sabotaged from within by her own treacherous family. With the discovery of her husband&rsquo;s affair and the return of real estate magnate Michael Horowitz, her first and most enduring love, Mimi must determine whom she can trust&mdash;especially in light of the shocking revelations that are about to emerge regarding the birth of the Miray Corporation.</div>

The Novels of Stephen Birmingham

<div>A memoir by the New York Times&ndash;bestselling author and longtime chronicler of America&rsquo;s wealthy elite. Born in Connecticut in 1929 and educated at Williams College, Stephen Birmingham went on to create a literary niche with his numerous nonfiction works about New York&rsquo;s&mdash;and the nation&rsquo;s&mdash;upper class, particularly focusing on Jewish, African American, and Irish communities, as well as old-money WASPs. He also drew on his &ldquo;intimate knowledge of the private lives of the rich and famous&rdquo; to write bestselling works of fiction such as The Auerbach Will (The New York Times Book Review). In this book, Birmingham&rsquo;s attention is turned to his own life, both personal and professional, allowing us to learn about the man who created such compelling portraits of glittering parties, exclusive addresses, and, in some cases, rags-to-riches sagas that epitomize the American dream&mdash;and the American struggle. In the end, his story is as fascinating as those of the aristocrats he documented. &ldquo;When it comes to the folkways of the rich, the powerful, and the privileged, Stephen Birmingham knows what he&rsquo;s talking about.&rdquo; &mdash;Los Angeles Times</div>

A Writer Writes

<div>Cultural shifts of the late twentieth century reveal dark secrets at an elite prep school, in this posthumously discovered novel by the author of &ldquo;Our Crowd.&rdquo; Located in bucolic Connecticut, the Crittenden School has long held a venerable reputation as one of New England&rsquo;s premier preparatory schools. However, times are changing, and that change is coming to Crittenden. In the midst of social upheaval, the headmaster&rsquo;s wife, Clarissa Spotswood, is thrust into faculty and student intrigues&mdash;a role for which she is woefully unprepared. Clarissa has spent the past thirty years quietly standing by her husband, Headmaster Hobart Spotswood, projecting the image of the model society wife. But this meticulous fa&ccedil;ade is shattered when Clarissa uncovers horrific events within the school&rsquo;s insular community. And interspersed with the drama is Clarissa&rsquo;s own journal entries revealing a secret history of her own. Previously unpublished, The Headmaster&rsquo;s Wife was written by the late Stephen Birmingham, author of notable works such as Real Lace and Life at the Dakota. Discovered after Birmingham&rsquo;s death, the manuscript was transcribed and edited by his son, Carey Birmingham.</div>

The Headmaster's Wife

<div>In this short story collection, the acclaimed author of Our Crowd offers fourteen darkly funny and poignant tales of the human heart. Stephen Birmingham is renowned for his penetrating examinations of America&rsquo;s upper classes. Here, he proves himself an equally deft hand at fiction, bringing the same knowing wit and piercing insight to the short stories in this collection. In &ldquo;She Ate Grass?,&rdquo; a boy navigates coming of age while buying whiskey for his mother&rsquo;s cocktail party. In &ldquo;Race Day,&rdquo; a shy woman endures her husband&rsquo;s ambition to join the board of an exclusive yacht club. In these and other stories, Birmingham peels back the layers of middle-class life in the late twentieth century.</div>

Heart Troubles

<div>The #1 New York Times&ndash;bestselling author of Our Crowd shares an intimate social history of America&rsquo;s elite Black society in the 1970s. From New York to Chicago, Atlanta, and Washington, DC, Stephen Birmingham met with members of Black America&rsquo;s upper crust&mdash;those old families of money and lineage who send their children to boarding schools and make business alliances over charity dinners. Invited into their homes, he became acquainted with their private world: their traditions and customs, their networks and conflicts, and, of course, their many stories. In Certain People, Birmingham presents a panoramic social history of upper-class Black society, one full of anecdotes and telling observations. From the Palmer Memorial Institute of North Carolina, where the best families sent their children, to the halls of the Johnson Publishing Company, creator of Ebony and Jet magazines, Birmingham provides an intimate glimpse of this exclusive crowd.</div>

Certain People

<div>A family man risks everything to pursue his artistic dreams, in this novel of marriage, betrayal, and suburban malaise by the author of The Auerbach Will. California art director Charlie Lord has all the makings of a surefire winner. But despite his good looks, wit, and sophistication, his track record shows a series of blazing starts followed by fast, ego-crushing finishes. His marriage to Nancy, complete with three almost grown-up children and an elegant house in an exclusive suburb, gave him all the trappings of happiness. Still, none of these things can satisfy Charlie&rsquo;s dreams of success on a grand scale. Now he&rsquo;s off and running once again&mdash;taking his family across the country to New York, where he hopes to further his career as an artist. But Charlie soon finds himself submerged in a sea of troubles . . . and a fevered love affair that threatens to destroy his life.</div>

Fast Start, Fast Finish

<div>From the #1 New York Times&ndash;bestselling author of Our Crowd comes this suspenseful novel of a suburban marriage&mdash;and the betrayal that threatens to tear it apart. Barbara Greer is the blue-chip product of an old money Connecticut family. But she leaves the world of New England society behind when she marries Carson, a solidly middle-class salesman from the Pennsylvania town her family has always owned. Her new suburban life in Locustville is peaceful, quaint, and terribly dull. Barbara has suddenly become another bored housewife longing for a little intrigue. But on a trip back home, she finds more than she bargained for . . . In his acclaimed social histories, Stephen Birmingham offered a revealing view into the rarefied world of America&rsquo;s upper classes. Now he brings his eye for human drama and telling detail to this intimate portrait of a woman caught between two worlds.</div>

Barbara Greer

<div>An &ldquo;entertaining and perceptive&rdquo; history of America&rsquo;s most exclusive families, from the Brahmins of New England to the Grandees of California (The Washington Post). America has always been a constitutionally classless society, yet an American aristocracy emerged anyway&mdash;a private club whose members run in the same circles and observe the same unwritten rules. Here, renowned social historian Stephen Birmingham reveals the inner workings of this aristocracy. He identifies which families in which cities have always mattered, and how they&rsquo;ve defined America. America&rsquo;s Secret Aristocracy offers an inside look at the estates, marriages, and financial empires of America&rsquo;s most powerful families&mdash;from the Randolphs of Virginia and the Roosevelts of New York to the Carillos and Ortegas of California. With countless anecdotes about our nation&rsquo;s elite, including interviews with their modern-day descendants, Birmingham presents colorful portraits that capture the true definition, essence, and customs of America&rsquo;s aristocracy.</div>

America's Secret Aristocracy

<div>&ldquo;[A] downright intriguing history . . . chronicling of the creation of the Californian Dream.&rdquo; &mdash;Los Angeles Times Since the Gold Rush, California has represented a land of opportunity for a special breed of American. Heading west in pursuit of sunshine, riches, and elusive dreams, the early mavericks of California set out to make their fortunes&mdash;and often succeeded beyond their wildest imaginations. Prospectors became oil tycoons, squatters became cattle barons, and farmers&rsquo; wives became grandees of a new rough-hewn society. In California Rich, Stephen Birmingham explores this fascinating social history, showing how the ruling class of California was born and how it evolved a lifestyle that continues to fascinate the world. Its colorful array of characters include: the despotic media mogul William Randolph Hearst; governor and railroad baron Leland Stanford; and real estate magnate James Irvine, who attended business meetings with an entire pack of hunting dogs. In exploring how these self-made millionaires acquired their money&mdash;and what they did with it&mdash;Birmingham sheds light on the customs and quirks of California wealth, and how the state came to symbolize the easy, opulent life that still entices seekers of fame and fortune today.</div>

California Rich

<div>The #1 New York Times&ndash;bestselling author of Our Crowd offers an anecdote-filled tour of the most exclusive suburbs of 1970s America. In this charming and insightful inquiry, Stephen Birmingham investigates the nesting habits, enjoyments, and frustrations of American suburban life in the seventies. He explores the social organism that is the American suburb&mdash;from Scottsdale, Arizona, to New York&rsquo;s Westchester County, along with the tawny suburbs surrounding the mighty industrial cities that fringe the Great Lakes. Birmingham spoke with householders great and small, gleaning their private views of the suburban experience. Almost all of them arrived in the suburbs with a dream. The reality they found was often less than they envisioned. Along with swimming pools and manicured lawns come soaring property taxes, status contests, and old-world prejudices colliding with new neighbors. &ldquo;Gossipy, chatty [Stephen Birmingham] thrusts his line into the waters of suburban social life, catching a lot of trivia about country clubs and trends.&rdquo; &mdash;The Christian Science Monitor</div>

The Golden Dream

<div>The acclaimed social historian provides an in-depth look at eight society women who shaped upper class culture from the Gilded Age to WWII. Astor. Rockefeller. McCormick. Belmont. Family names that still adorn buildings, streets, and charity foundations. While their men blazed across America with their oil, industry, and railways, the matriarchs founded art museums, opera houses, and symphonies that functioned almost as private clubs. Linked by money, marriage, privilege, and power, these women formed a grand American matriarchy&mdash;and they ruled American society with a style and impact that make today&rsquo;s socialites seem pale reflections of their forbears. Stephen Birmingham takes us into the drawing rooms of these powerful women, providing keen insights into an American society that no longer exists. Caroline Astor, who, when asked for her fare boarding a streetcar, responded, &ldquo;No thank you, I have my own favorite charities.&rdquo; Edith &ldquo;Effie&rdquo; Stern deciding that no existing school would do for her child, so she had a new one built. And the legendary Isabella Stewart Gardner replying to a contemporary who was overly taken with their Mayflower ancestors: &ldquo;Of course, immigration laws are much more strict nowadays.&rdquo; These women had looks, manner, and style, but more than that, they had presence&mdash;a sense that when one of them entered a room, something momentous was about to occur; Birmingham opens a window to the highest levels of American society with these profiles of American &ldquo;royalty.&rdquo;</div>

The Grandes Dames

<div>The acclaimed social historian and author of Our Crowd presents a colorful portrait of the Pulitzer Prize&ndash;winning writer. John Marquand, the great literary satirist and chronicler of New England elites, could have been a character in one of his own beloved novels. Here, Stephen Birmingham presents a lively narrative of Marquand&rsquo;s life, drawing on personal interviews with friends and family. Raised in Newburyport, Massachusetts, Marquand was both an insider and outcast of the old money set. After attending Harvard and serving overseas in World War I, he began writing stories that captured the lives, manners, and morals of wealthy families confined by their own privilege. Marquand himself joined the ranks of these exclusive families by marrying into them&mdash;twice. In The Late John Marquand, Birmingham provides an intimate portrait of the man behind such works as H. M. Pulham, Esquire, and The Late George Apley, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1938.</div>

The Late John Marquand

<div>The acclaimed chronicler of America&rsquo;s upper classes reveals their preferred enclaves and secret hideaways across the country. Where are the &ldquo;Right Places,&rdquo; those exclusive locations where the privileged live and play? You may be in for a surprise. For as Stephen Birmingham shows, in the same witty, penetrating style that characterizes his other studies of the elite, the right places could be just about anywhere, from exclusive chalets in Sun Valley, Idaho, to the traditionally swank estates of Fairfield County, Connecticut, to the nascent avant-garde art scene in Kansas City, Missouri. Birmingham goes to great lengths to unveil these privileged locales: the secret hideaway of Maria Callas after Aristotle Onassis deserted her for Jacqueline Kennedy; Elizabeth Taylor&rsquo;s habits at home, including her favorite recipe for chili; and more. With colorful anecdotes and intimate details, Birmingham gives us a glimpse into the private worlds of the very rich.</div>

The Right Places

<div>A powerful family&rsquo;s media empire is rocked by betrayal and greed in this fast-paced novel from the #1 New York Times&ndash;bestselling author. Alexandra Rothman was a smalltown girl from the Midwest&mdash;until she married into New York City&rsquo;s most powerful publishing dynasty. Now she&rsquo;s the editor-in-chief of the fashion magazine Mode. And nothing will stop her from transforming the crown jewel of the Rothman empire into a global tastemaker. Nothing except her father-in-law&rsquo;s ruthless ambition&mdash;and a terrible secret from Alexandra&rsquo;s past!</div>

The Rothman Scandal

<div>Back at his family&rsquo;s New England estate, a man finds a second chance at love&mdash;and a devastating truth&mdash;in this novel by the author of Young Mr. Keefe. At thirty-one years of age, Hugh Carey has ended both his marriage and his advertising partnership. With his life at loose ends, he&rsquo;s returned to the family home in Connecticut&mdash;that imposing castle built by his grandfather&mdash;to take stock and start over. His mother is only too happy to offer her counsel, as she does for Hugh&rsquo;s sister Patsy. But her reputation as the most effective woman since Lady MacBeth is well earned. Also delighted to have Hugh back is Edrita Everett Smith. She&rsquo;s the girl next door&mdash;and the one who got away. As Hugh and Edrita reconnect, it seems that little has changed, and their old romance is ready to blossom again. But in this quiet, well-heeled suburb, nothing is as simple as it seems. As buried jealousies come to light and new schemes are hatched, Hugh will learn what it truly takes to forge his own path.</div>

The Towers of Love

<div>Four generations of women grapple with the gilded cage of their family dynasty in this #1 New York Times&ndash;bestselling author&rsquo;s &ldquo;big, bustling novel&rdquo; (The New York Times). Meredith Harper made millions in rum before Prohibition ruined the market. When he died, he left behind an estate of such vast wealth that his descendants were set for life&mdash;but what sort of life would it be? In Those Harper Women, Stephen Birmingham presents a fictional group portrait of women who pass down both fortunes and misfortunes, who want for nothing save happiness. Across generations, the Harper women seek joy, self-fulfillment, or mere escape from the trappings of their privilege. But through trips to Europe and the Caribbean, through marriage and divorce, the women find themselves returning time and again to the looming shadow of Meredith and his money.</div>

Those Harper Women

<div>An ambitious young man seeks his fortune in 1950s California in this New York Times&ndash;bestselling author&rsquo;s classic novel of love and disillusionment. As the heir apparent to his family&rsquo;s mercantile empire, Jimmy Keefe is guaranteed a bright future. But the recent college graduate is determined to liberate himself from his old money New England home. He leaves Connecticut behind for the dream of California. However, when his hasty marriage suddenly falls apart, Jimmy finds himself alone in Sacramento. Yet there are those who seem to have everything Jimmy desires. His friends from back East, Claire and Blazer Gates, now host lavish parties in their opulent, glass-walled San Francisco penthouse. But the closer Jimmy gets to Claire and Blazer&rsquo;s shimmering life on a hill, the more he becomes embroiled in their sordid&mdash;and increasingly scandalous&mdash;affairs.</div>

Stephen Birmingham
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Books By Stephen Birmingham (29 Books)