The Tiffany Fortune and Other Chronicles of a Connecticut Family Hardcover - 1996

Chestnut Hill, MA: Abeel & Leet, 1996. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. xii, 420 pages. Endpaper map. Genealogies. Illustrations. Index. Alfred Mitchell Bingham, a well-born, well-heeled radical who made a broken field run through 20th century intellectual history, coming of age as a rock-ribbed Republican in the 1920's, veering left in the 1930's as a leader of the quest for an American-style collectivism, then returning to the capitalist fold in the 1940's as a straight-ticket Democrat. He was an author and founder of the journal Common Sense and had written extensively about once burning social, political and economic issues. Bingham's father, Hiram Bingham III, was a successful explorer and politician who discovered the Inca ruins of Machu Picchu and was elected U.S. Senator from Connecticut. But his transformation from a struggling student to a man of wealth - dependent on his Tiffany mother-in-law - put pressures on him that he escaped by carrying on a clandestine affair with a congressman's wife. Eventually, he abandoned his wife and seven grown sons. What compelled Charles Tiffany to amass a great personal fortune as founder of Tiffany & Co., and what drove Hiram Bingham to disdain wealth and live a life of personal sacrifice in order to save souls as a missionary to Hawaii? How did Charles Tiffany's heirs use their great wealth and privilege - and with what results? And how did Bingham's obsession to improve the world manifest itself in four generations of his family? These questions are at the heart of this epic family biography that covers nearly two centuries. The story is told by Alfred Bingham, great-grandson of both millionaire Charles Tiffany and missionary Hiram Bingham. His life reflects the conflicting influences of his two forebears' legacy to him. As heir to the Tiffany fortune, he attended Groton, Yale, and was raised in palatial homes built by his family, surrounded by many servants and governesses. But Alfred Bingham developed a social conscience that moved him to found the radical political magazine Common Sense.