Download or read book Fortune's Children written by Arthur T. Vanderbilt, II and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2013-04-16 with total page 544 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Vanderbilt: the very name signifies wealth. The family patriarch, "the Commodore," built up a fortune that made him the world's richest man by 1877. Yet, less than fifty years after the Commodore's death, one of his direct descendants died penniless, and no Vanderbilt was counted among the world's richest people. Fortune's Children tells the dramatic story of all the amazingly colorful spenders who dissipated such a vast inheritance.