Bret Easton Ellis’s exploration of wealth, family dynamics, and the artistic life, first published in the April 1995 issue of Vogue, offers a poignant and often uncomfortable look at the corrosive influence of money. Originally presented as a personal essay, this expanded journalistic account delves deeper into the author’s reflections, providing a comprehensive analysis of the generational impact of wealth and the complex relationship between financial success and personal identity, particularly within the context of artistic creation.
A Legacy Defined by Fortune and Friction
The narrative begins with Ellis’s stark portrayal of his paternal lineage, a lineage where wealth was not merely a means to an end but the very bedrock of self-definition. His grandfather, a Nevada casino magnate, and his father, a shrewd real estate investor during the Reagan era, operated under the principle that financial accumulation excused a litany of personal failings. These included alcoholism, infidelity, domestic abuse, megalomania, and a profound emotional detachment. Ellis, reflecting on this upbringing at the age of thirty, contrasts his youthful perception of these traits as "massive and impressive" with his mature understanding of them as indicators of "weakness, more pathetic than gigantic." This generational inheritance of privilege and its attendant moral ambiguities forms the central tension of Ellis’s early life and career.
The stark divergence in values between Ellis and his father became an unbridgeable chasm. His father, a staunch pragmatist, viewed money as an immutable "fact," a tangible truth. Ellis, however, found this perspective increasingly abstract and ultimately horrifying, recognizing how wealth could warp not only individual lives but entire personalities. This ideological clash culminated in a significant rift when Ellis, intent on pursuing art school, rejected his father’s directive to attend business school at the University of Southern California (USC). His desire to escape the "increasingly ominous and sinister" atmosphere of Los Angeles led him to Bennington College in Vermont, a liberal arts institution far removed from his Californian roots.
The Generational Divide and a Father’s Disapproval
The financial implications of this decision were immediate and profound. Ellis’s father refused to fund his art education. It was his grandfather, embroiled in a complex and unresolved financial dispute with Ellis’s father at the time, who ultimately paid the "outrageously expensive tuition" at Bennington. Ellis posits, with a degree of certainty that transcends direct verification, that this financial support was strategically employed to provoke his father. The tuition payment, therefore, became a potent symbol of familial discord, effectively severing communication between father and son from the fall of 1982 onwards. This period marked a critical juncture, where Ellis, at eighteen, made a solemn vow to detach his life and identity from the pursuit of substantial wealth.
The Accidental Ascent: From Vow to Best-Seller
Ellis’s initial resolve was to subsist with "just enough" to live on, eschewing any aspirations of significant financial gain from his chosen vocations of writing and music. This vow was rooted in a genuine belief that neither path would yield substantial income. However, in the winter and early spring of 1983, a novel written for a writing tutorial at Bennington unexpectedly became the catalyst for a seismic shift in his life. Despite having authored three previous novels, the impetus for writing remained an intuitive and deeply pleasurable instinct, its origins eluding easy explanation. The intention was never publication.
The trajectory of this manuscript, however, deviated sharply from Ellis’s intentions. His writing teacher submitted the novel to Simon & Schuster, which accepted it for publication in the spring of 1985. The book’s subsequent success was meteoric: it became a best-seller, was adapted into a film, and translated into twenty languages. This sudden literary triumph coincided with an equally significant event: his father resumed speaking to him. The author notes a chilling metamorphosis in his father’s prior disapproval into a "glowing acceptance," an affirmation that paradoxically intensified Ellis’s "loathing for him even more."
The Artist and the Price of Early Success
The phenomenon of an artist achieving substantial financial success at a young age is one that elicits a complex spectrum of reactions from the public. Ellis observes a deeply ambivalent societal attitude towards money, particularly when acquired by those in creative fields. Such success is often met with suspicion, awe, jealousy, and a mixture of undeserved hatred and attraction. For young artists, this early financial windfall often carries a stigma, making forgiveness from peers or society a rare and often suspect occurrence.
For Ellis, then in his early twenties, this financial success as a writer fostered a perception that such earnings would be perpetual. This led to a period of uninhibited spending, fueled by the assumption of continued fat advances and best-seller status. He recounts instances of lavish spending, such as treating large groups to expensive dinners in Manhattan, purchasing an apartment without fully comprehending property taxes, and throwing spontaneous catered parties. His persona, at this time, bore a striking resemblance to the aspirational, albeit morally compromised, characters often depicted in cinematic portrayals of Wall Street excess, even citing an identification with Charlie Sheen’s character in Wall Street.
This period also saw the development of a debilitating fear of flying, prompting cross-country travel via Amtrak. Ellis acknowledges the absurdity of this phobia in the face of his earlier improbable success, suggesting that the concept of "odds" had lost its meaning. He also notes friends observing changes in him, though he contests this, attributing his altered behavior more to a reduction in his own prior propensity for dishonesty.
The Reckoning: Spending, Taxes, and a Father’s Final Legacy
The financial fallout from Ellis’s early success was significant, though perhaps not in the way one might initially assume. The substantial earnings from his first book were considerably diminished by taxes, which claimed approximately half the income, and by his agent’s commission, which accounted for another 10 percent. Despite these deductions, the author found himself living in New York City, a decision that concerned his accountant, who urged him to relocate to more tax-advantageous states like California, Nevada, or Connecticut.
The unsustainable spending habits soon caught up. Ellis realized he could no longer afford the extravagant lifestyle of treating large groups to dinner or hosting impromptu parties in his new apartment. The money, simply put, had been spent. Unlike his father, who seemed to thrive on a certain level of financial excess, Ellis experienced a sense of relief when this lifestyle became untenable. The pressure to maintain that facade of perpetual wealth dissolved, marking a subtle but significant shift in his relationship with money.
A Father’s Last Call and a Stark Financial Reality
A poignant anecdote from his mother reveals the lingering impact of Ellis’s spending habits on his father, even in the twilight of his life. Shortly before his death, his father, then separated from Ellis’s mother for six years, called her from his suite at the Carlyle Hotel in New York. He was distraught, having drunkenly insisted on paying a $5,000 dinner bill for himself and eight others at Petrossian. This call, filled with his father’s tears, underscores the deeply ingrained financial anxieties and preoccupations that characterized his life, a life seemingly driven by a constant need to prove his financial prowess.
Ellis’s father’s own financial affairs, as revealed in his will, presented a stark contrast to the image of a successful magnate. Despite earning in the "low eight figures" in the decade preceding his death, his estate was virtually nonexistent. The vast majority of his assets had been absorbed by back taxes, a consequence of his reliance on tax shelters that ultimately proved ineffective. His will bequeathed Ellis nothing but two watches, a testament to his father’s profound financial mismanagement and a chilling reflection of his inability to truly secure his wealth.
The Inadvertent Lesson: Carelessness and Revelation
This final act of his father’s financial carelessness, while not endearing, provided Ellis with a clearer, albeit somber, understanding of the man. He recognized a shared trait of financial imprudence, a realization that, while discouraging, also felt "revelatory." This inadvertent lesson, born from the ashes of his father’s financial ruin, offered a profound insight into the ephemeral nature of wealth and the critical importance of responsible financial stewardship. Ellis’s personal journey, as chronicled in this essay, transcends a mere recounting of his own financial experiences; it serves as a powerful exploration of how inherited wealth, personal choices, and the very definition of success can shape familial relationships and individual destinies across generations. The piece, originally published in Vogue and now re-examined, continues to resonate for its candid examination of these enduring themes.
