Joe Murphy on Dueling Robber Barons
Hi Everyone-
Well, the fall season is certainly rolling along; if you've dropped by our stores lately (and if for some reason you haven't, I trust that's an oversight you'll soon remedy), you've seen that I wasn't kidding when I referred to this season's titles as an embarrassment of riches. It's one of the most exciting seasons in publishing I've seen in my nearly seventeen years at Olsson's, and you really have to see all these great titles on the shelves to get a sense of the scope of it.
But to single out two books: the new biographies Andrew Carnegie by David Nasaw and Mellon by David Cannandine are not to be missed. The two Andrews were among the most powerful men of their day: Carnegie, the railroad and steel magnate who became a master of public relations and later became a great philanthropist, and Mellon, the less beloved but no less powerful character who became Secretary of the Treasury--until the Great Depression--and one of the world's foremost art collectors, eventually letting dealer Joseph Duveen flatter his ego into creating the National Gallery. These are two gigantic American stories, told by two of the best nonfiction writers working today. Nasaw wrote a wonderful William Randolph Hearst biography named The Chief, while Cannadine authored the definitive Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy.
Both biographies showcase these amazingly complex characters at their most brilliant, malicious, benevolent, and calculating. And both are, of course, featured as Buyer's Choices, at 20% off.
Drop by and pick them up soon! And keep an eye out for two major events: our annual Holiday Gift Guide--due right around Thanksgiving, and our new Crystal City store, due shortly after!
See you in the stores,
Joe Murphy
Head Book Buyer
Well, the fall season is certainly rolling along; if you've dropped by our stores lately (and if for some reason you haven't, I trust that's an oversight you'll soon remedy), you've seen that I wasn't kidding when I referred to this season's titles as an embarrassment of riches. It's one of the most exciting seasons in publishing I've seen in my nearly seventeen years at Olsson's, and you really have to see all these great titles on the shelves to get a sense of the scope of it.
But to single out two books: the new biographies Andrew Carnegie by David Nasaw and Mellon by David Cannandine are not to be missed. The two Andrews were among the most powerful men of their day: Carnegie, the railroad and steel magnate who became a master of public relations and later became a great philanthropist, and Mellon, the less beloved but no less powerful character who became Secretary of the Treasury--until the Great Depression--and one of the world's foremost art collectors, eventually letting dealer Joseph Duveen flatter his ego into creating the National Gallery. These are two gigantic American stories, told by two of the best nonfiction writers working today. Nasaw wrote a wonderful William Randolph Hearst biography named The Chief, while Cannadine authored the definitive Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy.
Both biographies showcase these amazingly complex characters at their most brilliant, malicious, benevolent, and calculating. And both are, of course, featured as Buyer's Choices, at 20% off.
Drop by and pick them up soon! And keep an eye out for two major events: our annual Holiday Gift Guide--due right around Thanksgiving, and our new Crystal City store, due shortly after!
See you in the stores,
Joe Murphy
Head Book Buyer
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