Each summer, I like to pretend I am a student again—with time to read, learn, and explore new stories. Here are books that I have enjoyed in the past few weeks.
Marseille 1940: The Flight of Literature by Uwe Wittstock
This is the harrowing tale of the desperate attempt of Jewish artists and writers to flee the Nazi onslaught. For many of these well-known people, from Marc Chagall to Max Ernst, Marseille was the last hope, a leaky window of Vichy France. It was a major port potentially offering passage to the US, or later to Cuba or Mexico. It was also close enough to Spain for the more physically fit to hike over the Pyrenees to safety. The hero of the book is young Varian Fry, 30 years old, heading the local Emergency Rescue Committee office, defying the bureaucrats, and enabling the flight to freedom for so many of the artists. As with Oskar Schindler, he was left with the guilt of being able to save so few lives.
The Fate of the Day: The War for America 1777–80 by Rick Atkinson
I have read four of Atkinson’s books now, including three on the American Army fighting in Africa, Sicily, and Italy, then his first part of the American Revolution trilogy, The British Are Coming: 1770–1776. I had no idea of the bickering on the British side among the generals Clinton, Burgoyne, and Cornwallis. The American side had similar backbiting, with George Washington undermined by General Horatio Gates, winner of the battle of Saratoga. The British adopted a Southern strategy to cut off the bottom half of the colonies, sweeping away patriots in Georgia, South Carolina, and then North Carolina. This led to the ultimate British defeat at Yorktown when General Cornwallis was not supported by General Clinton, who was ensconced in New York City.
Stan and Gus: Art, Ardor, and the Friendship that Built the Gilded Age by Henry Wiencek
This is the story of Stanford White, legendary architect, and Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the most important American sculptor. They cooperated on several projects, namely Madison Square Garden, which had a gigantic sculpture of the goddess Diana at its top and could hold thousands of spectators for horse shows or other spectacles. These two were lovers, hedonists, and paragons of the new American cultural scene, fueled by lavish expenditures by their Gilded Age customers. I frequent two of White’s greatest buildings, the Century Club and the Players Club.
Martin Van Buren: America’s First Politician by James Bradley
This New Yorker built the Democratic Party as a coalition of immigrants and farmers who opposed large government and believed in the common man. His mentor was Andrew Jackson, his predecessor as President, a rough-hewn former soldier who gained fame through his victory over the British in New Orleans in the War of 1812, and then in his subsequent wars against the Native Americans. Van Buren succeeded Jackson in 1837 and promptly had to manage America’s first big financial crisis, prompted in part by Jackson’s termination of the Bank of the United States. Van Buren was a consummate politician who built coalitions, scrounged for votes in Congress, and found unique ways to forge alliances.
The Sugar King: Leon Godchaux of New Orleans by Peter Wolf
I became interested in this man because our family house in Charlevoix, MI, had been owned by a descendant of this family, built in 1911 as a summer enclave to escape the heat of the South. Leon Godchaux arrived from France in the 1840s with the shirt on his back. He was able to get funding from relatives to set himself up as a peddler who walked between towns in Louisiana selling trinkets. He worked hard and made enough to open a small store in New Orleans, then focused on the men’s haberdashery sector, becoming the store of choice for the rising class. He put his earnings into gold in a New York City bank account just before the Civil War. Post-war, he was able to buy sugar plantations at pennies on the dollar and built the largest integrated sugar producer in the South. I intend to find the Godchaux house when I go to New Orleans for Amanda’s wedding.
Mark Twain by Ron Chernow
This is the story of America’s great author. Born Samuel Clemens in pre–Civil War Missouri, he adopted the name Mark Twain based on his experience on the Mississippi River as a steamboat pilot. Twain later moved west to join his brother during the post-war mining boom. He eventually settled in Hartford, CT, after marrying the daughter of a wealthy industrialist. His earliest works were his most important, from Tom Sawyer to Huckleberry Finn. He made notoriously poor investments that reduced his fortune to zero, prompting a career as a lecturer. I loved his self-promotional posters, which included lines such as, “Doors Open at 7 PM, Trouble Begins at 8 PM.” Insolvent, he moved to Europe and lived an itinerant existence as the quintessential American abroad.
Bonus: HBO’s Billy Joel Special
One other very worthwhile expenditure of time is the three-hour HBO special on Billy Joel. His family fled the Nazis in the 1930s in Germany; the ultimate irony is that the grandfather’s textile factory was seized and converted into a primary producer of uniforms for those in concentration camps. Joel had very little connection with his father, who moved back to Europe shortly after the birth of his kids; he only met up with his dad while on tour in Vienna in the late 1980s. Joel’s understanding of the average American comes from his Long Island upbringing; his edge from his NYC state of mind.
I am back to work with renewed vigor and focus on Monday.
Richard Edelman is CEO.
