Billy Durant Creator of General Motors

Lawrence R Gustin

ISBN 10: 0802834353 / ISBN 13: 9780802834355

Published by William B Eerdmans Publishing Co, Grand Rapids, MI, 1973

About this Item

Billy Durant Creator of General Motors by Lawrence R Gustin. Published by William B Eerdmans Publishing Co, Grand Rapids, MI, 1973. 1st Edition. Hardbound, Paper DJ. Size 8vo. Condition: Nr Fine in Chipped DJ. 285 Pgs. ISBN 0802834353. LCCN 73-2291. The author tells Billy Durant's fascinating story from interviews with Mrs. Durant, two of her husband's personal secretaries, and others who had know and worked with the man who created General Motors. He also gained information Mrs. Durant provided including previously unpublished materials in the form of autobiographical notes, letters, and documents from Billy Durant's personal papers. Durant's career began in 1886 with the formation of the Flint Road Cart Company, a business begun on a shoestring and built by Durant into the country's larges carriage company by the end of the century. Then he turned to automobiles, rescuing Buick from almost certain failure and founding General Motors in 1908. Illustrated with black and white photographs. Description text copyright 2006 BooksForComfort. Item ID 10994. Bookseller Inventory # 10994

Bibliographic Details

Title: Billy Durant Creator of General Motors

Publisher: William B Eerdmans Publishing Co, Grand Rapids, MI

Publication Date: 1973

Binding: Hardback

Book Condition:Very Good

Dust Jacket Condition: Good

Edition: 1st edition.

Book Type: book

About this title

Synopsis:

Praise for the first edition:

"A fascinating book [and] a sympathetic look at the man who glued General Motors together and in the process made Flint one of the great industrial centers of America."
---Detroit Free Press

"It is refreshing to report that Billy Durant is one of the best researched books dealing with an automotive giant."
---Antique Automobile

"Billy Durant fills in a masterly way the only important void remaining concerning the work of the motorcar pioneers."
---Richard Crabb, author of Birth of a Giant: The Men and Incidents That Gave America the Motorcar

What explains Billy Durant's powerful influence on the auto industry during its early days? And why, given Durant's impact, has he been nearly forgotten for decades?

In search of answers to these questions, Lawrence Gustin interviewed Durant's widow, who provided a wealth of previously unpublished autobiographical notes, letters, and personal papers. Gustin also interviewed two of Durant's personal secretaries and others who had known and worked with the man who created General Motors. The result is the amazing account of the mastermind behind what would become, as the twentieth century progressed, the world's largest company.

About the Author:

Lawrence Gustin was a writer/editor for 23 years at The Flint (Mich.) Journal. In 1973 he wrote Billy Durant, which won the McKean Memorial Cup for historical research from the Antique Automobile Club of America. He produced The Flint Journal Centennial Picture History of Flint in three editions starting in 1976 and co-authored the award-winning The Buick: A Complete History in 1980. In 2006, he authored another award-winning book, the first biography of the founder of the Buick automobile, David Buick's Marvelous Motor Car. He and his wife Rose Mary live in Michigan's Oakland County and have two sons and five grandchildren.