Titan the life of john rockefeller ron chernow

[...]... to those of William O Inglis and Raymond B Fosdick (the author of the official biography of John D Rockefeller, Jr.) at the Rockefeller Archive Center These collections contain a vast number of contemporary interviews and other materials that were only partly used by their authors Like many moguls of the Gilded Age, Rockefeller was either glorified by partisan biographers, who could see no wrong, or... judgment of John and his brother William They were gliding along the river when they heard the desperate cries of a young boy who had fallen through the ice Pushing a pole to the flailing boy, John and William fished him from the water and saved his life When they returned home, Eliza hailed their courage, then promptly got down to business “We thought we should be left off without punishment,” said Rockefeller, ... sharp winter squalls pressed through cracks in the walls “How the wind used to roar among the hemlocks by the shore of the lake!” Rockefeller remembered dreamily in his late seventies.1 In the predawn dark, the children were often awakened by the sharp chopping of woodcutters or the squeal of sleds on hard-packed snow Eliza would stand at the foot of the stairs and call up to her eldest son, “Come,... window, many of John D.’s dearest memories of Moravia centered upon fishing with Bill, who was prone to do outrageous things in the boat During one lake outing, the middle brother, William, then a fat little boy unable to swim, made the mistake of grumbling about the heat “Then cool off,” said his father, who plucked up the flabbergasted boy by the waistband and pitched him headlong into the water When... ‘historian,’ but pity.”13 The titan had regained his dignity, and he made sure that his tightly fitted mask never slipped again in front of his authorized biographer The earliest known photographs of William Avery and Eliza Davison Rockefeller (Courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive Center) CHAPTER 1 The Flimflam Man In the early 1900s, as Rockefeller vied with Andrew Carnegie for the title of the world’s richest... trying to get at the back of the house and remembered that there was no man to protect us, she softly opened the window and began to sing some old Negro melody, just as if the family were up and about The robbers turned away from the house, crossed the road to the carriage house, stole a set of harness and went down the hill to their boat at the shore.18 From such early experiences, John D took away... space, the Rockefellers had to walk for much of the journey, with Lucy and the children (except William, who did not accompany them) taking turns sitting in the wagon whenever they grew weary As they finally reached their destination, Richford, New York, the last three and a half miles were especially arduous, and the oxen negotiated the stony, rutted path with difficulty At the end, they had to lash their... religion.”24 Of his family’s decision to leave Richford, Rockefeller offered an economic explanation that probably served as the standard cover story of his childhood: stingy soil The country there is beautiful,” Rockefeller would say, “but the settlers wasted their energy in trying to get the stumps out of the ground, and trying to make crops grow in the poor soil.”25 The true reason, of course, was... While Odell cultivated the garden in his spare time, Eliza assigned chores to the children Drawing a string across the garden one day, she told the two oldest boys, John, you take care of this side of the string, and, Will, this side is yours.” 8 In contrast to his father’s disdain for manual labor, John always a selfstyled son of the common people—gloried in the rigors of country life, which, he came... eating each other up.”6 During the three-year interview, Rockefeller never once alluded to his most stinging setback: the federal government’s 1911 dismemberment of Standard Oil into dozens of constituent companies Annulling the Supreme Court verdict by a trick of memory, Rockefeller talked of Standard Oil as if the old monolith still stood unscathed Of all the poses he assumed, perhaps the hardest . Business CHAPTER 5 - The Auction CHAPTER 6 - The Poetry of the Age CHAPTER 7 - Millionaires’ Row CHAPTER 8 - Conspirators CHAPTER 9 - The New Monarch CHAPTER 10 - Sphinx CHAPTER 11 - The Holy Family CHAPTER. milestone in the progress of the race. . . . Science today owes as much to the rich men of generosity and discernment as the art of the Renaissance owes to the patronage of Popes and Princes. Of these. Erudition CHAPTER 18 - Nemesis CHAPTER 19 - The Dauphin CHAPTER 20 - The Standard Oil Crowd CHAPTER 21 - The Enthusiast CHAPTER 22 - Avenging Angel CHAPTER 23 - Faith of Fools CHAPTER 24 - The Millionaires’