How Not to Get Rich: The Financial Misadventures of Mark Twain
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.96 (994 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0544836464 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 240 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2014-09-07 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
An uproarious account of Mark Twain’s endless attempts to strike it rich, all of which served only to empty his pockets Mark Twain’s lifetime spans America’s era of greatest economic growth. And his plan to market the mysteriously energizing coca leaves from the fizzled when no ships would sail to South America. Twain’s story of financial optimism and perseverance is a kind of cracked-mirror history of American business itself—in its grandest cockeyed manifestations, its most comical lows, and its determined refusal to ever give up. . Undaunted, Twain poured his money into the latest newfangled inventions of his time, all of which failed miserably. In Crawford’s hilarious telling, the familiar image of Twain takes on a new and surprising dimension. He ended up somehow owing money over his 70,000 acres of inherited land. And Twain was an active, even giddy, participant in all the great booms and busts of his time, launching himself into one harebrained get-rich scheme after another. But far from striking it rich, the man who coined the term “Gilded Age” failed with comical regularity to join the ranks of plutocrats who made this period in America notorious for its wealth and excess. Instead, Twain’s mining firm failed, despite striking real silver
Every couple of pages you sense the bottom about to fall out again, and you brace yourself for another spectacular blowup. Grant’s autobiography (I can just see Donald Trump in the Oval Office, shaking his head in enthusiasm), Alan Crawford’s account of Twain's business fiascos is a marvelous chronicle of economic imprudence and imbecility. Alan Pell Crawford captures the energy, humor, and wide-eyed hope of America’s first ‘angel investor’ with wit and verve, in a book that is worthy of Twain himself.” —Dan Lyons, author of the New York Times Bestseller Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start-Up Bubble “I had no idea that Twain led such an exciting economic life. This book, which is rich with personal finance lessons,