Archie and Amelie: Love and Madness in the Gilded Age
A great-great-grandson and heir of John Jacob Astor, John Armstrong "Archie" Chanler was born with the proverbial platinum spoon in his mouth but was no stranger to misfortune. His mother died in 1875 when he was just 13, and his father's demise two years later made Archie the de facto head of the family of 10 orphans. An eccentric who, Lucey concludes, probably suffered from bipolar disorder, Archie married the mesmerizing Amélie Rives, goddaughter of Gen. Robert E. Lee and a Virginia novelist whose scandalous heroines made her a literary sensation. Amélie was a master manipulator and morphine addict who refused her besotted husband sex and affection while spending his inheritance to refurbish her family plantation. The couple's divorce after seven years was fodder for the media as were Archie's commitment to a mental institution by siblings alarmed by his free-spending ways, his escape four years later and his lawsuits to prove his sanity and reclaim his fortune. Writer and photo editor Lucey ably chronicles the pomp and excesses of the Gilded Age, but her book bogs down in exhaustively researched details about a parade of glittering Astors and their retinue. 16 pages of b&w photos not seen byPW.(June 27)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.