Corneel flung up that lion head of his, a mingling of amusement and
resentment mirrored in his frosty eyes. "Steamship, gal," he
corrected. "Steamboats don't go to sea. The Prometheus is the
sightliest craft in these waters. I didn't see her beat in England,
either. And I'll tell ye something else. She's the fust ocean
steamer ever built with one man's money." A flame of high egotism
ennobled his conqueror's face. "She's Cornelius Van Derbilt's, as
she puts to sea. No other man owns ary dollar of her. She's mine,
b'God, mine!" -from Chapter IV His name has not endured like those
of his contemporaries, but 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 rip-roaring readable bursts forth from his
nonfiction as well. Here, in this 1927 work, Howden Smith tells the
story of the life of American railroad and shipping magnate
Cornelius Vanderbilt, from his family's roots in Holland to the
last weeks before his death, when he clung to life with the pitbull
tenacity that has taken him from a humble Staten Island childhood
to wealth, fame, and power. Fun and feisty, this is a terrific work
of classic biography. Also available from Cosimo Classics: Howden
Smith's John Jacob Astor: Landlord of New York. ARTHUR DOUGLAS
HOWDEN SMITH (1887-1945) was an enormously prolific and diverse
writer, penning numerous short stories, biographies, and business
studies, but he is best remembered for his many pulp novels,
including Porto Bello Gold (a prequel to Treasure Island), The Dead
Go Overside, The Doom Trail, Swain's Saga, and others.
General
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