Norven (1 results)
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Seller: Penka Rare Books and Archives, ILAB, Berlin, GermanyPenka Rare Books and Archives, ILAB
Contact seller5-star sellerCondition: Used
US$ 702.61
US$ 39.79 shippingShips from Germany to U.S.A.Quantity: 1 available
Add to basketSt. Petersburg: XX Vek, 1902. Octavo (18.3 × 12.3 cm). Contemporary beige cloth; [4], 379 pp. Sixteen photographic portraits on separate leaves; numerous decorative head pieces and vignettes. Original wrappers perished; stamp of a non-existing lending library to title; else about very good. First and only edition of this sensati…onalist account of the life of American billionaires of the Gilded Age, supposedly written by a French journalist with exclusive access to the likes of Carnegie, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, and Morgan. The supposed author -- according to the preface a former contributor to the journal 'Revue de revues' -- is likely a spurious pseudonym, as we have been unable to trace any French original with this title. The goal of the book is to expose the sheer power and inherent corruptness of the American financial and industrial elites, as demonstrated through descriptions of their business practices, but also their daily lives and intrigues. Chapters are devoted to the "first four hundred" and their families; to the daily life and psychology of the wives and daughters of America's richest; to their eccentricities and other gossip; as well as to their children and the system of lineage. Translated and edited by Abel' E. Ianovskii. The author is particularly critical of the practice of holding companies, or trusts, and the translator has here appended his Russian translation of Andrew Carnegie's essay, "Popular Illusions about Trusts" ("Predubezhdeniia protiv trestov"). Carnegie himself is the subject of the short chapter, "The Steel King." Complete, with all sixteen portraits. Rare; as of April 2024, we can trace a single copy, at the Polish National Library, via KVK and OCLC.
