Charles E. Smith Companies, Biography of Charles E. Smith.

Julius Rosenwald (1862-1932) rose from modest means as the son of a peddler to immense wealth at the helm of Sears, Roebuck. Yet his most defining legacy stands not upon his business acumen but on the pioneering changes he introduced to the practice of philanthropy. While few may recall Rosenwald's name--he refused to have it attached to the buildings, projects, or endowments he supported--his passionate support of Jewish and African American causes...

Ray & Joan is a quintessentially American tale of corporate intrigue and private passion: a struggling Mad Men-era salesman with a vision for a fast-food franchise that would become one of the world's most enduring brands, and a beautiful woman willing to risk her marriage and her reputation to promote controversial causes that touched her deeply. Ray Kroc was peddling franchises around the country for a fledgling hamburger stand in the 1950s-McDonald's,...

"A revealing biography of Florence Gould, fabulously wealthy socialite and patron of the arts, who hid a dark past as a Nazi collaborator in 1940s Paris. Born in turn-of-the-century San Francisco to French parents, Florence moved to Paris at the age of eleven. Believing that only money brought respectability and happiness, she became the third wife of Frank Jay Gould, son of the railway millionaire Jay Gould. She guided Frank's millions into hotels...

"'I am opposed to heart disease and cancer the way one is opposed to sin.' With that as her battle cry, health activist and philanthropist Mary Woodard Lasker had a singular goal: saving lives by increasing medical research. Together with her husband, advertising genius Albert, they created the Lasker Foundation, bestowing the Lasker Awards. Known as the "American Nobels," these became the most prestigious research awards in America. The Laskers'...

Born in 1864, Nellie Bly was a woman who did not allow herself to be defined by the time she lived in, she rewrote the narrative and made her own way. Luciana Cimino's meticulously researched graphic-novel biography tells Bly's story through Miriam, a fictionalized female student at the Columbia School of Journalism in 1921. While interviewing the famous journalist, Miriam learns not only about Bly's more sensational adventures, but also about her...

"The story of Bunny Mellon, the great landscape architect and interior designer, becomes a revelatory exploration of extreme wealth in the American century"--

James C. Hormel--a man who grew up feeling different, not only because his family built the SPAM meatpacking "empire" and lived in the only mansion in his small Midwestern town, but because he was gay at a time when homosexuality was not mentioned, let alone accepted. Outwardly, he tried to live up to the life his parents wanted for him--he was a successful professional, married to a lovely woman, and father of five children--but as the 1960s reshaped...