Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of suicide.

In the brief Introduction, Anderson Cooper explains why he decided to write this book. Though he felt distanced from his Vanderbilt roots, and studiously avoided that part of his family history, two things changed his perspective. First, his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, died in 2019, and then he had his first son, in 2020. The first event led to him sorting through boxes of family history as he cleared out his mother’s home; the second prompted him to wonder what he would tell his son about the Vanderbilt side of his family. Thus, Cooper decided to write a book about a few select members of the Vanderbilt family, focusing on them as individuals—with all the complexity that brings—rather than on the myths and sensationalism surrounding them.

The Prologue tells the story of the day in early spring 2018 when the last Vanderbilt family member in residence at The Breakers left for good. The Breakers is an opulent summer mansion in Newport, Rhode Island, built at the height of the Vanderbilts’ power. Gladys Szápáry was the great-granddaughter of Cornelius and Alice Vanderbilt, who had built The Breakers in 1895.