The price of the home was reported in modern press accounts to be $11 million, of which $7 million was spent on 500,000 cubic feet of marble. Upon its completion, Mr. Vanderbilt gave the house to his spouse as a thirty ninth birthday present. Mr. Vanderbilt was the grandson of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, who established the Household’s fortune in steamships and the New York Central Railroad. Alva Vanderbilt was a leading hostess in Newport society, and envisioned Marble House as her “temple to the humanities” in America.
The volume had been given to him the previous Christmas by Wilson, …