In "Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Speculation" (great book I'm reading now), it is reported that Vanderbilt swindled his own son and son-in-law in stock manipulations.
Also has this quote from V (in re: different episode): "Gentlemen, you have undertaken to cheat me. I will not sue you, for the law takes too long. I will ruin you." (author reports that he kept his promise) On Wed, Apr 29, 2009 at 10:15 AM, Louis Proyect <[email protected]> wrote: > (TJ Stiles is a great writer. I reviewed his bio of Jesse James here: > http://www.swans.com/library/art14/lproy47.html) > > NY Times, April 29, 2009 > Books of The Times > The Mogul Who Built Corporate America > By DWIGHT GARNER > > THE FIRST TYCOON > The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt > By T. J. Stiles > Illustrated. 719 pages. Alfred A. Knopf. $37.50. > > Cornelius Vanderbilt, the great steamship and then railroad magnate, the man > who built the original Grand Central Terminal, was not much of a > conversationalist. If a man boasted in his presence, he would say, “That > amounts to nothing.” If interrupted while speaking, he would stop talking > and not resume the subject. Vanderbilt (1794-1877) didn’t need words. His > actions spoke with a brute eloquence. > > In this whacking new biography of Vanderbilt, T. J. Stiles, previously the > author of a life of Jesse James, demonstrates a brute eloquence of his own. > This is a mighty — and mighty confident — work, one that moves with force > and conviction and imperious wit through Vanderbilt’s noisy life and times. > The book, “The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt,” is full > of sharp, unexpected turns. Among the biggest: Mr. Stiles has delivered a > revisionist history of American capitalism’s original sinner, the man who > inspired the term “robber baron.” He has real sympathy for the old devil. > > The phrase “epic life” is a biographical cliché. But it fits Vanderbilt in > every regard: force of personality; degrees of ruthlessness, guile and > accomplishment; even sheer life span. He was born less than two decades > after the end of the Revolutionary War, while Washington was still alive, > and he would live long enough not only to play a significant role in the > Civil War but also to do business with John D. Rockefeller. > > Vanderbilt essentially invented the modern corporation through his purchase > and consolidation of New York’s major railroads, and brought, Mr. Stiles > says, the American professional and managerial middle class into being. His > influence remains so great as to be almost intangible. > > As Mr. Stiles writes: “He may have left his most lasting mark in the > invisible world, by creating an unseen architecture which later generations > of Americans would take for granted.” > > How you feel about the “unseen architecture” of American economics and > corporate life says a lot about, or even defines, your politics. Mr. Stiles > sees both sides of Vanderbilt: > > “His admirers saw him as the ultimate meritocrat, the finest example of the > common man rising through hard work and ability. ... His critics called him > grasping and ruthless, an unelected king who never pretended to rule for his > people.” But Mr. Stiles plainly gets a charge out of Vanderbilt’s raw nerve. > > Cornelius Vanderbilt grew up on Staten Island, the son of a modest farming > family. He attended school for only a few months, developing what Mr. Stiles > calls “a lasting contempt for the conventions of written English.” He was > born in the right place at the right time. > > “Unlike most country folk,” Mr. Stiles writes, “the Vanderbilts lived within > sight of the place of the most densely concentrated possibilities in North > America: the city of New York.” > > As a young man, Vanderbilt began working on ferries and schooners and then, > with their increasing popularity in the 1820s and ’30s, steamboats. He made > a name for himself in business for his “elbows-out aggressiveness.” > > He made a name for himself, too, with his imposing appearance. A > contemporary described him as “a man of striking individuality, as straight > as an Indian, standing six feet in his stockings and weighing about 200 > pounds.” Frugal and abstemious, Vanderbilt had one vice: the constant > presence of a lighted or unlighted cigar. > > The most flat-out enjoyable sections of “The First Tycoon” are those that > deal with New York’s great steamship wars of the first half of the 19th > century. Vanderbilt began to build and operate his own fleet, picking up the > nickname the Commodore in the process. He engaged in price wars, cutting > fares until competitors went out of business or paid him to go away. He > slowly developed a chokehold on commerce. > > By the late 1840s, Mr. Stiles writes, “almost everyone who traveled between > New York and Boston took a Vanderbilt boat or a Vanderbilt train.” > > Vanderbilt loved to compete, and to smite his enemies. Mr. Stiles tells of > epic steamboat races, much reported in New York’s newspapers, that > Vanderbilt took part in and gambled on. His boats ran against other ships up > the Hudson nearly as far as West Point, then turned around and roared home. > Vanderbilt helped fuel the gold rush, getting his steamships around to San > Francisco. He tried to cut a more direct path to the West Coast, a canal > through Nicaragua, and there are scenes of stranded steamers here that are > straight out of the movie “Fitzcarraldo.” He provided steamships to the > Union during the Civil War, including one, fitted out with a special ram, > that stared down the Confederate ironclad warship, the Merrimac, keeping it > in check for much of the war. > > The book’s final sections unpack Vanderbilt’s greatest coup, buying and then > consolidating New York’s major railroad lines, using every trick in his > arsenal, including the manipulation of stock prices. His wealth became > enormous. > > “If he had been able to sell all his assets at full market value at the > moment of his death,” Mr. Stiles writes, “he would have taken one out of > every 20 dollars in circulation.” > > Mr. Stiles is clear-eyed about his subject’s nearly amoral rapacity. He > writes that Vanderbilt “exacerbated problems that would never be fully > solved: a huge disparity in wealth between rich and poor; the concentration > of great power in private hands; the fraud and self-serving deception that > thrives in an unregulated environment.” > > But again and again in “The First Tycoon,” he also defends Vanderbilt > against his most vocal detractors and, whenever possible, corrects the > historical record when it has portrayed him unfairly. Vanderbilt did not > actually say, to give just one example, a line that was used against him at > the time: “Law! What do I care about the law?” > > Mr. Stiles gets Vanderbilt the man onto paper. He is eloquent on > Vanderbilt’s love of horses and horse racing, his tangled relationships with > his 13 children and his dabbling in the occult. (About the séances > Vanderbilt attended, Mr. Stiles writes: “The possibility of mastering even > death itself must have been appealing.”) > > He is even better on Vanderbilt’s fraught relationship with New York > society, which at first shunned him as “illiterate and boorish.” > > There are moments in any biography of this size when your eyes are going to > glaze over; I certainly did not wish “The First Tycoon” were longer. But I > read eagerly and avidly. This is state-of-the-art biography, crisper and > more piquant than a 600-page book has any right to be. > > Cornelius Vanderbilt emerges clearly in these pages as a man who, as his > son-in-law put it, “was determined to have his own way, always, to a greater > extent than any man I ever saw.” > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
