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Biography & Autobiography. Business. History. Nonfiction. HTML:When J. P. Morgan called a meeting of New York's financial leaders after the stock market crash of 1907, Hetty Green was the only woman in the room. The Guinness Book of World Records memorialized her as the World's Greatest Miser, and, indeed, this unlikely robber baron �?? who parlayed a comfortable inheritance into a fortune that was worth about 1.6 billion in today's dollars �?? was frugal to a fault. But in an age when women weren't even allowed to vote, never mind concern themselves with interest rates, she lived by her own rules. In Hetty, Charles Slack reexamines her life and legacy, giving us, at long last, a splendidly "nuanced portrait" (Newsweek) of one of the greatest �?? and most eccentric �?? financiers in American history. This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, an… (more)
User reviews
There are many stories about her greed and some are true. She actually did dress herself and her children as paupers to receive free medical attention. Sometimes she was recognized and made to pay the bill, which made her furious. She would haggle with merchants and waiters over charges as low as 15 cents at a time when she owned a railroad and some of the most valuable property on Michigan Ave. She refused to pay for a cab, instead walking miles every day to the bank. And she was suspected of forging her aunt's signature to a will that cut out most of the beneficiaries after the woman's death.
The surprises in this book are that Hetty actually did let go of some of her money, giving large anonymous donations to charities and speaking out for the working class. And the full story concerning her son's damaged leg is here.The claim that has been printed so many times- that she allowed the boy's leg to go without medical treatment until it had to be amputated rather than pay a doctor- is untrue. A very interesting read.