The First Tycoon – Review

This book, The First Tycoon by T.J. Stiles, was on an A. Knopf recommended reading list, and I borrowed it from my local public library.

I used to live in a city where Vanderbilt was the name of the major university and medical center. I lived there for more than two decades, but knew nothing about the family or the patriarch, Cornelius Vanderbilt, who had amassed a fortune in the 19th century.

I completed only one-third of this very hefty book, simply because I’m not fond of biographies. But the 230+ pages I read were enough to realize the excellent biography and historical writing skills of Stiles. He begins with the background of the parents of Cornelius, with interesting commentary on the attitudes of New World inhabitants and late 100 economics. When Cornelius is introduced I had a firm grasp of his word. The early-to-mid 19th Century are the years I have researched and used in my fiction books, so learning more detail appealed to me. Stiles presented the facts with a comprehensible style. I acquired an excellent sense of what it was like to live and conduct business in the New York/New Jersey port towns—big and small.

Although I didn’t complete the book, I suggest it is a 4-star (or higher) book to biography lovers.

Black History Month Author #5

Here are two people often overlooked in references to Black American authors. I find their lives quite fascinating.
Jessie Redmon Fauset (1882–1961), born in New Jersey, graduated Cornell University 1905 and was the first African-American woman Phi Beta Kappa. She is the author of four novels, and has more than 70 other published works, many first appearing in The Crisis (a journal at the heart of the Harlem Renaissance) for which she served as Literary Editor.
Learn more about this inspired American woman at African American Literature Book Club and Good Reads
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Alain LeRoy Locke (1885-1954) is considered the philosopher of the Harlem Renaissance. Born in Philadelphia, Locke graduated from Harvard University in 1907 and was the first black Rhodes Scholar. He studied at Oxford and the University of Berlin, then received a Ph.D. in philosophy from Harvard in 1918. He edited and wrote numerous articles, anthologies, and books about black life and culture. Locke taught at Howard University in Washington, D.C., for nearly 40 years.

Black History Month Author #4

Octavia Butler (1947 - 2006) has been an inspiration for me to try new things, to follow my own path. I'd always hoped to meet her. In 1995 she said, "I'm a 48-year-old writer who can remember being a 10-year-old writer and who expects someday to be an 80-year-old writer...." Unfortunately, that didn't come to be.

Her writing has always been considered "cutting edge". Along with winning Hugo and Nebula awards, she was given a McAurther Foundation "Genius Grant" in 1995—the first science fiction author to receive this. She was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in June, 2010. Learn more about her at Answers and see her titles here.

Black History Month Author #3

For clarification: the numbers on these posts do not indicate any type of ranking system. Most blogs don't respect posts with the same name, and would probably give numbers anyway. Proof forthwith that this, #3 contains info on two authors. Two authors from antiquity: Lokman and Aesop.
Lokman lived 3000 years ago (1100 B,C,); he was a slave, but his prestige is still highly regarded in Arab countries. One of the best reknown fabulists, many of his stories and proverbs endure today. One of my favorites:

A fly buzzing around full of its own importance finally lit on the horn of a bull and said, "Let me know if I am too heavy for you and I will take myself off."
To which the bull replied,"Who are you? I did not know you came, nor shall I know when you leave."

In volume one of J.A. Rogers World's Great Men of Color, Aesop is said to have lived in the fifth century B.C., and the scant physical descriptions very much match those of Lokman (a coal-black Ethiopian with wooly hair). Some of the fables attributed to Aesop were originally written by Lokman. More is known about Aesop, however, because of the modern era in which he lived, and the profound influence he had on many Western philosophers. Rogers says, "Socrates spent his last days putting his [Aesop's] fables into verse."

Black History Month Author #2

Zora Neale Hurston (1891 - 1960) is one of my favorite authors. The San Francisco Chronicle once e wrote about her, "One of the best prose writers of this century." I've read most of her works at least twice. One book I have is a 1948 collector’s edition of Seraph on the Suwanee. I lucked into that when the indy bookstore I frequented called me that they had the edition someone else had ordered and then didn’t want. I got it at cost.
I have her other titles, too, including a volume of short stories. The title of that is Spunk that could be a moniker for Hurston.
More than two dozen works have been written about her, most heralding her as one of the founding voices in the Harlem Renaissance. She is a graduate of Howard University and published her first story in 1921. At various times she was part of the Federal Writing Project, and was also a Guggenheim Fellow (1936-1938).

Much more can be told, but reading her work is the best way to know this great American author.

Black History Month Author #1

Frank Garvin Yerby
(1916-1991), was born in Augusta, GA. He wrote popular historical fiction, and his books are often categorized as Romance and Gothic. In 1944 Yerby won the O.Henry Award for "Health Card" -- a best first-published short story. In 1946 The Foxes of Harrow was published, and later picked up as a popular Hollywood movie.
The Black literary community criticized Yerby for not giving more attention to racial problems. He moved to Europe in the early 1950's and lived the rest of his life outside the U.S.
Yerby's career boasts thirty-one published titles, many of which have been reprinted in England and U.S, in large print and paperback; three titles were adapted for movies. He died in Madrid, Spain in 1991.