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Savage Grace. By Natalie Robins and Steven M. L. Aronson. Published by
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Savage Grace.
By Natalie Robins and Steven M. L. Aronson.
Published by William Morrow and Company Inc., New York in 1985.
ISBN. 0-688-04373-9.
From the front cover –
His great-grandfather invented plastics.
His parents entertained royalty.
He committed the unspeakable crime.
From the back cover –
Superficially, Savage Grace is a story of a spectacular decadence – of money, madness, and matricide. But it is also about a family unhappy in very much its own way, declining from genius to glamour to final dissolution.
The cast of brilliant characters include James Jones, William Styron, Patricia Neal, Alastair Read, Brendan Gilland, Fancine du Plessix Gray; they and others, including the principals, tell the story themselves. Seldom has there been so devastating an exposure of the consequences, for the most sophisticated people, of failure in the simplest duties of love. – William F. Buckley, Jr.
Jet – set expatriates in a murder case – how fast we turn the pages. Savage Grace has to be the best oral history to come out since Edie. – Norman Mailer.
Composed of interviews, letters, diaries and official documents, Savage Grace is the literary equivalent of a documentary film. It is in the same harsh light. It tells the true and harrowing story of an Upper East Side New York family whose cultivation of taste, pursuit of social distinction and fashionable expatriatism led its members to drugs, to apparent incest, to murder, and to suicide. In the history of Europeanised Americans begun by James and continued by Hemingway, it proposes the final awful chapter. – E. L. Doctorow.
From the blurb –
The Baekelands had everything: genius, wealth, power and beauty. At the turn of the century, Belgian – born Leo Hendrik Baekeland realised every new American immigrant’s dream, the million dollar invention; Bekelite made him the “Father of Plastics.”
His son, whom he patriotically named George Washington Baekland, could never quite live up to his tyrannical father’s achievement or expectations.
His grandson, Brooks Baekland, rebelled, becoming an explorer and renegade intellectual. And then, in november 1972, the tensions that had been fermenting over a span of four generations finally exploded when Leo Hendrik Baekeland’s gifted twenty six year old sgreat grandson, Tony, murdered his own mother – beautiful, jet setting Barbara Baekeland – in the penthouse apartment they shared.
This crime would lead to further acts of shocking violence.
This multilayered family saga is set against a dazzling international background; New York, London, Paris, and the world’s most fashionable resorts, where Tony Baekeland and his parents – all three locked in mortal combat – entertained such friends as Marcel DuChamp, Robert Graves, James Jones, Salvdor Dali, and William Styron, plus assorted Guinnesses, Vanderbilts, Astors, and titled europeans.
Savage Grace brilliantly illuminates the dark corners of the American Dream. Remarkably candid interviews with hundreds of people, letters and private diaries, as well as confidential hospital, State Department. And prison documents are all woven together to create a spell binding porttrait of fatal relations in a distinguished American family – a portrait that will forever throw into question the envied lives of the rich and beautiful.
Natalie Robins is the author of four books of poetry, and her work has appeared in many literary magazines.
A former book editor, she has also taught writing in schools and universities. She lives in New York City with her husband and two children.
Steven M. L. Aronson is the author of Hype (William Morrow, 1983.) . a former book editor and publisher, he writes frequently for such magazines as House &
Garden, Vogue, Interview, and Architectural Digest. He lives in New York City.
hardcover, clean excellent remaindered condition book.
Dust jacket all intact but rubbed lightly on the front and back covers abraded rubbed more on the spine. As stated, the book itself is in perfect condition
By Natalie Robins and Steven M. L. Aronson.
Published by William Morrow and Company Inc., New York in 1985.
ISBN. 0-688-04373-9.
From the front cover –
His great-grandfather invented plastics.
His parents entertained royalty.
He committed the unspeakable crime.
From the back cover –
Superficially, Savage Grace is a story of a spectacular decadence – of money, madness, and matricide. But it is also about a family unhappy in very much its own way, declining from genius to glamour to final dissolution.
The cast of brilliant characters include James Jones, William Styron, Patricia Neal, Alastair Read, Brendan Gilland, Fancine du Plessix Gray; they and others, including the principals, tell the story themselves. Seldom has there been so devastating an exposure of the consequences, for the most sophisticated people, of failure in the simplest duties of love. – William F. Buckley, Jr.
Jet – set expatriates in a murder case – how fast we turn the pages. Savage Grace has to be the best oral history to come out since Edie. – Norman Mailer.
Composed of interviews, letters, diaries and official documents, Savage Grace is the literary equivalent of a documentary film. It is in the same harsh light. It tells the true and harrowing story of an Upper East Side New York family whose cultivation of taste, pursuit of social distinction and fashionable expatriatism led its members to drugs, to apparent incest, to murder, and to suicide. In the history of Europeanised Americans begun by James and continued by Hemingway, it proposes the final awful chapter. – E. L. Doctorow.
From the blurb –
The Baekelands had everything: genius, wealth, power and beauty. At the turn of the century, Belgian – born Leo Hendrik Baekeland realised every new American immigrant’s dream, the million dollar invention; Bekelite made him the “Father of Plastics.”
His son, whom he patriotically named George Washington Baekland, could never quite live up to his tyrannical father’s achievement or expectations.
His grandson, Brooks Baekland, rebelled, becoming an explorer and renegade intellectual. And then, in november 1972, the tensions that had been fermenting over a span of four generations finally exploded when Leo Hendrik Baekeland’s gifted twenty six year old sgreat grandson, Tony, murdered his own mother – beautiful, jet setting Barbara Baekeland – in the penthouse apartment they shared.
This crime would lead to further acts of shocking violence.
This multilayered family saga is set against a dazzling international background; New York, London, Paris, and the world’s most fashionable resorts, where Tony Baekeland and his parents – all three locked in mortal combat – entertained such friends as Marcel DuChamp, Robert Graves, James Jones, Salvdor Dali, and William Styron, plus assorted Guinnesses, Vanderbilts, Astors, and titled europeans.
Savage Grace brilliantly illuminates the dark corners of the American Dream. Remarkably candid interviews with hundreds of people, letters and private diaries, as well as confidential hospital, State Department. And prison documents are all woven together to create a spell binding porttrait of fatal relations in a distinguished American family – a portrait that will forever throw into question the envied lives of the rich and beautiful.
Natalie Robins is the author of four books of poetry, and her work has appeared in many literary magazines.
A former book editor, she has also taught writing in schools and universities. She lives in New York City with her husband and two children.
Steven M. L. Aronson is the author of Hype (William Morrow, 1983.) . a former book editor and publisher, he writes frequently for such magazines as House &
Garden, Vogue, Interview, and Architectural Digest. He lives in New York City.
hardcover, clean excellent remaindered condition book.
Dust jacket all intact but rubbed lightly on the front and back covers abraded rubbed more on the spine. As stated, the book itself is in perfect condition
- Date Listed:12/02/2023
- Last Edited:12/02/2023
- Condition:Used
- Shipping:Shipping & Pickup
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