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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 338 EAN: 9781596057494 ISBN: 1596057491 Label: Cosimo Classics Manufacturer: Cosimo Classics Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 300 Publication Date: December 01, 2005 Publisher: Cosimo Classics Studio: Cosimo Classics Related Items:
Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display Editorial Review: Product Description: Some weeks later a dray drove up to the Astor store, then at 68 Pine Street, and delivered a number of very heavy little kegs which chinked faintly as they were rolled in through the door. "What on earth are those, Jacob?" Sarah demanded when she happened in during the afternoon. "Der fruits of our East India pass," he answered, his deep-set eyes twinkling merrily. "Money?" He nodded. "Ho-how much?" "Fifty-five t'ousan' dollar." "Jacob!" she gasped. And well she might. It was as rich a coup as he ever achieved. -from "Fur and Tea" New Yorkers can't escape the name Astor: it graces theaters, hotels, street names, and even an entire Queens neighborhood. This delightful biography of the "landlord of New York" explains how John Jacob Astor, who arrived in the city a poor immigrant in 1784, created such a fortune-in real estate, fur, and trade with China-not only for himself but for the city and nation around him that his influence could not be denied. Author Arthur D. Howden Smith was, in the early years of the 20th century, a tremendously popular author of pulp fiction on a par with E.E. "Doc" Smith and Edgar Rice Burroughs. And the same boisterous enthusiasm that made his adventure tales of pirates and Vikings so riproaring readable bursts forth from this classic biography as well. ALSO AVAILABLE FROM COSIMO CLASSICS: Howden Smith's Commodore Vanderbilt: An Epic of American Achievement. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - boring but informativeI am still plowing through this history of John Jacob Astor. I believe this was written in the '30's, and the language is very formal and hard to follow sometimes. Focuses a lot on Astor's trade practices and it gets really boring in the middle. The first chapter was the best and traced him from Germany to England and then to America. The author seems to have a slightly negative feeling towards his subject---calling him unimaginative and dull. I felt like I got the gist of his wealth in one ... Read More Rating:  - Story of the richest man of his dayA wonderful read which will teach you more than you ever learned in school about the post-Revolutionary War era. Since America is an economic story, NOT a political one, this book SHOULD be REQUIRED READING for all high schoolers to graduate. The west was settled via the lubricant of Astor's capital, his rapidly expanding fur-trading company. Given more power over America's military actions, Astor would have been able to guarantee America the entire west coast of North America-- ... Read More 
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