Grand successes and epic failures, engrossingly recounted.
Lavish, multifaceted portrait of the early-20th-century American business titan, emphasizing the man rather than the money.
British historian Cannadine (In Churchill’s Shadow, 2003, etc.) shows power, politics, art and money all working together in the life of Andrew Mellon (1855–1937). Born and bred into the world of finance and industry, Mellon was shy and obsessed with self-sufficiency. A lengthy opening section here on Mellon’s father, Thomas, explains his impact on his son’s character. At 19, Mellon began work at the family bank under his father’s watchful eye. Their formula for success—invest to increase value; leave get-rich-quick schemes to fools—was hardly revolutionary, but Cannadine’s exposition of the early years lays the groundwork for a fuller picture of Mellon. Somewhat repetitive stories of mergers and acquisitions (both financial and artistic) frame the story of Mellon’s personal struggles. Less than adept in relationships outside the office, at 43 he fell for and married an English girl of 19. The marriage ended in divorce 14 years later, the first of two major scandals the otherwise private Mellon endured. (The second involved accusations of tax fraud in the mid-1930s by a hostile New Deal government.) Though the financier preferred to exercise his power out of the spotlight, circumstances often moved him to the center of attention. When asked to become Secretary of the Treasury in 1921, Mellon would have liked to turn down the offer in order to concentrate on building closer ties with his estranged daughter, but he felt obligated to help rebuild a country recovering from war. Once in Washington, he saw an opportunity to leave a lasting legacy in the form of the National Gallery of Art. Although he didn’t live to see its completion, his dream was ultimately fulfilled. Cannadine’s insightful account reveals Mellon as a man who took personal risks that seemingly defied his upbringing.
Grand successes and epic failures, engrossingly recounted.Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2006
ISBN: 0-679-45032-7
Page Count: 560
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2006
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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