Though reviled for more than a century as Wall Street's greatest villain, Jay Gould was in fact its most original creative genius. Gould was the robber baron's robber baron, the most astute financial and business strategist of his time and also the most widely hated. In "Dark Genius of Wall Street," acclaimed biographer Edward J. Renehan, Jr., combines lively anecdotes with the rich social tapestry of the Gilded Age to paint the portrait of the most talented financial buccaneer of his generation-- and one of the inventors of modern business.

Henry James described John Burroughs as a "more humorous, more available, and more sociable Thoreau." Burroughs's close friend and mentor Walt Whitman called him an "Audubon of prose." Throughout his long writing career, the Catskills and Hudson Valley native infused his writing with images of nature as seen and experienced within his own home region. "Nature comes home to one most when he is at home," he wrote, "the stranger and traveler finds her a stranger and traveler also. One's own landscape comes in time to be a sort of outlying part of himself; he has sowed himself broadcast upon it, and it reflects his own moods and feelings; he is sensitive to the verge of the horizon: cut those trees, and he bleeds; mar those hills, and he suffers." With this poetic sensibility and emphasis on the local, Burroughs created a unique literature of nature - one aptly represented by the essays here-in.
"Please note that all profits from the sale of this book will be donated to support the educational and environmental programs of the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc."
CONTENTS
Introduction. A Sharp Lookout. The Falling Leaves. A Snow Storm. Wild Life in Winter. Winter Neighbors. April. A Young Marsh Hawk. Strawberries. Speckled Trout. Birch Browsings. Notes by the Way. The Heart of the Southern Catskills.

"Edward Renehan does a great job of shining a light into this dark episode of American history." - BILLY BRAGG
Blacklists. Political witch-hunts. Congressional inquisitions. Loyalty oaths. And one brave banjo-wielding patriot willing to risk prison and professional ruin rather than acquiesce ...
"Pete was] blacklisted during the McCarthy era and had a hard time, but he never stopped." - BOB DYLAN
"I am not going to answer any questions as to my association, my philosophical or religious beliefs or my political beliefs, or how I voted in any election, or any of these private affairs. I think these are very improper questions for any American to be asked ...." - PETE SEEGER, testifying before the House Select Committee on Un-American Activities, August 1955

Jack Kerouac's ON THE ROAD endures as a benchmark in postwar American Letters and an eternal rite of passage for youth. But how many of these young readers actually "get" Kerouac's theme of individual redemption? How many, instead of encountering themselves in the novel as Kerouac intended, encounter only the ghosts of others: the "Beats" of Kerouac's era and imagination? In this penetrating consideration, Ed Renehan reveals Kerouac's main inspirations (and process) in creating ON THE ROAD, and considers the impact the book had on both the author and his times. Most importantly, he examines why the novel Kerouac meant as a banshee cry against orthodoxy has too often been misconstrued as a promotional brochure for mock-rebellion: mere imitation of what others have done before, mere mimicking of the novel's "Beat" characters.

Using previously unreleased archives, Edward J. Renehan Jr. narrates the compelling life of Cornelius Vanderbilt: willful progenitor of modern American business. Vanderbilt made his initial fortune building ferry and cargo routes for sailing vessels. Then he moved into steamboats and railroads. With the New York Central, Vanderbilt established the nation's first major integrated rail system, linking New York with Boston, Montreal, Chicago, and St. Louis. At the same time, he played a key role in establishing New York as the financial center of the United States. When he died in 1877, Vanderbilt left a fortune that, in today's dollars, would dwarf that of even Bill Gates. Off Wall Street, Vanderbilt was a hard-drinking egotist and whoremonger devoid of manners or charity. He disinherited most of his numerous children and received an editorial rebuke from Mark Twain for his lack of public giving. "Commodore" sheds startling new light on many aspects of Vanderbilt's business and private life including, most notably, the revelation that advanced stage syphilis marred his last years. This is the definitive biography of a man whose influence on American life and commerce towers over all who followed him.