about the author
Wendy Burden
Author of Dead End Gene Pool: A Memoir
Wendy Burden is the great-great-great-great granddaughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt, which qualifies her to comment freely on the downward spiral of blue-blood families. She has worked as an illustrator, a zookeeper, and a taxidermist, and as an art director for a pornographic magazine from which she was fired for being too tasteful. She was also the owner and chef of a French bistro. Wendy is a confirmed New Yorker who, to her constant surprise, lives in Portland, Oregon.
Learn more about this speakerPress Links
"At Home With Wendy Burden: A Vanderbilt Descendant Laughs Off Dysfunction"
The New York Times
"Growing up rich in an unfortunate family"
The Boston Globe
"Fun In The Sun: Laugh-Out-Loud Summer Books "
NPR
"Dead End Gene Pool"
WNYC
"Wendy Burden: Q&A"
Entertainment Weekly
"Need to Read: Dead End Gene Pool"
Marie Claire
"Northwest Writers at Work: Wendy Burden grows up as the Vanderbilt fortune declines"
The Oregonian
"Growing Up Crazy Rich: Dead End Gene Pool by Wendy Burden"
Flavorwire
Featured Book
Dead End Gene Pool: A Memoir
"Charles Addams meets Carrie Bradshaw in this honest, sardonic, and touching memoir. Burden's tale makes for riveting and often hilarious reading."
—Jane Stanton Hitchcock, author of Social Crimes and Mortal Friends
Speaking Topics — Wendy Burden
- Dead End Gene Pool
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The Rise and Fall of the Blue Blood
A humorous exploration into dysfunctional American aristocracy from the eighteenth century to the present. Shamelessly using her own family, as well as others as examples, and illustrated with a slideshow of people, places, parties, and loot, Wendy will examine the extravagance and eccentricities of robber barons, patronesses, and dilettantes, and the demise of a way of life that is nearing extinction.
Please contact us for booking requirements and availability.