The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation's Largest Home

Denise Kiernan tells the true story of Biltmore, the largest residence ever built in the United States. Orphaned young, Edith Stuyvesant Dresser came from one of New York's prominent families and grew up in Newport and Paris. Her marriage to George Vanderbilt was a major event in Gilded Age society. Before their wedding, Vanderbilt had devoted himself to building a European-style estate on 125,000 acres of North Carolina wilderness. He engaged landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted to design the grounds and architect Richard Morris Hunt to construct a 175,000-square-foot chateau. The property was filled with art and antiques, and a village was built beyond the gates. As mistress of an estate nearly three times the size of Washington, DC, Edith became responsible for the home, village, and surrounding rural area. When economic and social changes threatened the family, home, and community, Edith worked to preserve Biltmore and secure its future. The narrative spans World Wars, the Jazz Age, the Depression, and multiple generations of the Vanderbilt family, including appearances by historical figures such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas Wolfe, Teddy Roosevelt, John Singer Sargent, James Whistler, Henry James, and Edith Wharton. The book chronicles how America's largest house faced challenges and ultimately endured.