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Octavo, red cloth (hardcover), gilt letters, 374 pp. Fine in a Fine dust jacket. From dust jacket: Standing alongside J. P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, and John D. Rockefeller, Charles Tyson Yerkes (1837 - 1905) was one of the most colorful and controversial public figures in Gilded-Age America. Robber Baron is the first biography of the streetcar magnate who was the mastermind behind Chicago's Loop Elevated and the London Underground, bankroller of the world's largest refracting telescope, and real-life inspiration for Frank Cowperwood, the ruthless protagonist of Theodore Dreiser's Trilogy of Desire. After losing a fortune and being jailed for financial improprieties in Philadelphia, Yerkes schemed his way out of prison. With his boundless ambition and entrepreneurial genius intact, he relocated to Chicago and made millions from questionable financial transactions, while at the same time forging one of the world's finest mass transit networks. Despite various philanthropic efforts, Yerkes and his methods were fiercely opposed by the press and public, and he left Chicago a bitter man. Moving to London, he organized much of the Underground, battled J. P. Morgan, and romanced Emilie Grisby, the love of his life, before succumbing to kidney disease in 1905. John Franch has drawn upon every available source, including newspapers, memoirs, credit reports, court filings, bankruptcy records, and correspondence to tell the complete story of a man desperate to leave a lasting impression on his world...
Title: Robber Baron: The Life of Charles Tyson Yerkes.
Location Published: Urbana: University of Illinois Press, (2006).
Categories: American Biography
Seller ID: 9710gcs
