The Astors: Virginia Cowles

The Astors' immense fortune came from furs, ships and real estate. When 20 year old John Jacob Astor arrived in Baltimore from Germany in 1783, his ambition was to live comfortably from the sale of musical instruments. At his death in 1848 he was the richest man in America. He had spent his early years tramping Indian trails trading for furs and his last fourteen years quadrupling his fortune on Manhattan real estate and rentals. The family line produced politicians, social hermits, society leaders, radicals...This book covers five generations of this fascinating family and contains many family photographs and paintings.