Women Who Launch by Marlene Wagman-Geller

Great Second Acts: In Praise of Older Women Becca Anderson, author of Badass Women Give the Best Advice Also by Marlene Wagman-Geller I could not get enough of reading about heiress Barbara Hutton’s outrageous lifestyle, Jackie O as a stepmom, Patty Hearst’s many adventures, Peggy Guggehein’s collection of art (and men) and Almira Carnarvon, the real-life counterpart to Lady Cora of Downton Abbey. It is wild and witty, gossipy, and glamourous. Marlene Wagman-Geller’s Women of Means does not disappoint. The best women’s history books are deeply researched and, therefore, filled with personal details that provide an intimate portrait. And, no, Patrizia, I would rather gleefully ride the bicycle!' Wagman-Geller’s stories made me gasp and lodged my chin firmly on my chest as she chronicled the lives of women without a financial care in the world, whose appetites led so often to disaster. 'Does money facilitate happiness, fulfillment, the good life? How much time do we all spend wishing we had more of it? These questions and more bubble up from Marlene Wagman-Geller’s crisp, exacting prose in her powerful compilation of stories about the richest women in history. Written in her usual witty prose, these enthralling but petrifying mini-biographies show that when a woman is too wealthy, it can be a curse rather than a blessing. If you’ve ever wished you had all the money in the world, read Women of Means by Marlene Wagman-Geller.

She was interred in the family’s private island of Skorpios, beside her brother and father, whose term of affection for his daughter was “chryso mou” “my gold.” Read more She passed away at age thirty-seven in Argentina: her heart which had been abused and broken, finally gave out. Her life was woven with the thread of Greek tragedy: she lost her entire family in the span of two years and her four husbands brought only heartache. Christina Onassis: The oxymoron ‘poor little rich girl’ existed prior to heiress Christina Onassis, but she was its ill-starred embodiment. The public has always been riveted by these larger than life ladies: as eye witnesses to live theater, for schadenfreude, for foray into irony.Ĭriteria for inclusion entails birth or nuptials as the recipient of ‘the lucky sperm club’ the recipients of a many-splendored bank account. However, oftentimes the weaving sisters saved their most heart-wrenching tapestries for their destinies. Heiresses have always been viewed with eyes of envy: they were the ones for whom the cornucopia had been upended, showering them with unimaginable wealth and opportunity.

Women Who Launch by Marlene Wagman-Geller