Billy Durant

Gustin, Lawrence R.

ISBN 10: 0472033026 / ISBN 13: 9780472033027

Published by The University of Michigan Press, 2008

About this Item

How did Billy Durant come to exercise so broad an influence in the emerging auto industry? And why has he been virtually forgotten for decades? This title provides material in the form of autobiographical notes, letters, and Durant's personal papers. Num Pages: 304 pages, 88 b&w photographs, 4 line drawings. BIC Classification: BGB; KJH; KNDR. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 229 x 152 x 23. Weight in Grams: 458. . 2008. Updated, Expanded ed. Paperback. . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland.

Seller Inventory # V9780472033027

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Billy Durant
• Publisher: The University of Michigan Press
• Publication Date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0472033026
• ISBN 13: 9780472033027
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

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search of answers to these questions, Lawrence Gustin interviewed Durant's widow, who provided a wealth of previously unpublished autobiographical notes, letters, and personal papers.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 R. Gustin was a writer and editor for twenty-three years at the Flint (Mich.) Journal. In 1973 he wrote the first edition of Billy Durant, which won the McKean Memorial Cup for historical research from the Antique Automobile Club of America. In 2006, he authored David Buick's Marvelous Motor Car, the first biography of the founder of the Buick automobile. He lives in Michigan's Oakland County.