Main description:

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, and more.

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“[A] nuanced portrait.”

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“[A] page-turning portrait of an important and complicated woman.”

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“[An] instructive account…. Slack offers an exemplary retelling for a new generation.”

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“A fascinating book.”

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“A wonderfully detailed new biography.”

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“Fascinating.”

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“Slack concentrates on telling a good story and telling it well.... [An] entertaining biography.”