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Also by Alexandra Aldrich:

The Astor Orphan, April 2013
Hardcover / e-Book

THE ASTOR ORPHAN
By: Alexandra Aldrich

Ecco
April 2013
On Sale: April 16, 2013
272 pages
ISBN: 0062207938
EAN: 9780062207937
Kindle: B0089LOEW2
Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction Memoir

Alexandra Aldrich, direct descendant of Old New York aristocracies the Astors and the Livingstons, grew up in the ancestral mansion in the Hudson River Valley. But any notions of Gilded Age wealth and splendor are quickly dispelled in her candid memoir,THE ASTOR ORPHAN — for Aldrich's Grey Gardens–esque childhood was marked by a life of genteel poverty at Rokeby, the crumbling 43–room edifice she and the eccentric family called home. Bohemian pursuits and what she calls the "undisciplined, orphaned spirit" which governed the house took precedence over gainful employment, even as the ancestral property deteriorated around them.

Alexandra's father, uncle, and aunt were the three heirs to Rokeby, built in 1815 on 450 prime acres along the Hudson River. Furnished with antiques, heirlooms, and art, the mansion continues to evoke its glorious past, but its upkeep has strapped each succeeding generation. "To keep the house as it was then," Aldrich writes, "we sacrifice any resources that might have been invested in current generations. In return, the house gives each of us—the impoverished descendants—an identity. And we live off the remains of our ancestral grandeur."

As a shy, intelligent ten–year–old, young Alexandra craved nothing more than a "normal" life in a three–bedroom ranch house with cable TV and reliable central heating. Instead, she lived with her father and mother in what were formerly the servant's quarters on Rokeby's third floor without heat or regular meals.. Her father, who attended Harvard, had foregone a traditional career path to become the overseer of the estate. He spent his days tinkering with farm machinery while her mother, originally from Poland, pursued her artistic aspirations. In a nearby part of the house, Alexandra's two younger cousins lived with their more conventional, decidedly better–off parents. The two family branches wavered between tension and affectionate solidarity.

Alexandra's grandmother lived in a converted garage on the estate, and despite a troubling battle with alcoholism, provided the only consistent financial and emotional support for Alexandra, paying for her violin lessons and ferrying her to church in an aging lemon–yellow Plymouth. Alexandra was privy to her grandmother's chronic despair over her eldest son's failure to provide for his family, and the friction between them often escalated into full–blown war. When Alexandra's father dared to flagrantly entertain his French mistress on the property, the family's already frayed bonds weakened. As she grew older, Alexandra yearned to escape the drama and the despair, but Rokeby continued to exert its hold on her psyche.

While chronicling Aldrich's own strained childhood and need to make order out of chaos,THE ASTOR ORPHAN also reaches back to the glory days of her ancestors. It is a story populated by wealth and influence. The Astors, the Roosevelts (both Theodore and Franklin), "Battle Hymn" poet Julia Ward Howe, statesmen Hamilton Fish and Samuel Ward, architect Stanford White—all play a role in the celebrated history of Rokeby.