The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T.J. Stiles

Those who know me know that I'm very much not a business guy.  So following up a very long biography of John D. Rockefeller with a very long biography of Cornelius Vanderbilt probably seems odd.  But whatcha gonna do.  Really, they should have probably been read in the opposite order, as Rockefeller supplanted Vanderbilt as the richest American ever and the great business innovator of his era.  Going in I knew the bare minimum about Cornelius Vanderbilt.  Started in steamboats, moved in to railroads, was very very rich.  And that's about it.  

Cornelius Vanderbilt really was that quintessential American self-made man, of the type that it's almost impossible to have in this day and age...in part because of the business innovations in which Vanderbilt was at the forefront.  He quit school fairly early and started a ferry between Staten Island and Manhattan.  He then worked for and partnered with steamboat entrepreneur Thomas Gibbons, ultimately helping him break the steamboat monopolies and becoming the leader in steamboat operations in the emerging financial center of the U.S., New York City.  Vanderbilt and his steamships were instrumental in ensuring the passage of people to and gold and people from the goldfields of California.  Competition in this led to routes through both Nicaragua and Panama and ended up in the start of the century's of U.S. meddling in the region.  Ultimately Vanderbilt moved from steamships to railroads perfecting the art of consolidation of the disparate lines and, generally, using the emerging stock market in that consolidation and in fending off competition, ultimately becoming the richest man in American for most of the last half of the 19th Century and one of the two or three richest Americans ever.  It's almost safe to say that Vanderbilt WAS the transportation revolution in the U.S.  

This is a meticulously researched book.  Around one hundred pages of notes.  And while it's clear that the author admires Vanderbilt the book doesn't descend in to hagiography.  Vanderbilt's faults are on display, particularly his tendency to ignore and berate his children.  But there's a lot to like about Vanderbilt.  He was hard-working, direct and prescient about the trends of both transportation and business innovation.  Railroads, with their incredibly expensive infrastructure and constant costs were a new breed of business that pushed the corporate form into places that could not have been easily foreseen even a few decades earlier.  Vanderbilt was not only able to adapt, but to flourish and push the corporate form in to accommodating truly interstate commerce that could not adequately be addressed by a nation used to sole proprietorships and small partnerships.  Changes that would be pushed even further by Rockefeller. 

It is, however, a very big book.  And it can bog down at times.  But overall it's well worth the effort.  

Originally, yes.  By the time he was born in 1794 it had been condensed. 

Xenogenesis
Miriam Allen deFord, 1969

(one of my favorite covers ever, by Richard Powers)
A collection of sixteen short stories, published between 1950 and 1968 (although one was apparently originally written in 1946). Some of the many themes explored in them include gender roles and sexism, overpopulation, and clashes of cultures (i.e., humans meeting aliens). The latter stories have a somewhat satirical nature, in that they almost always deal with sex in some way that makes you chuckle – like “Featherbed on Chlyntha,” one of the best in the book, narrated by an Earthman abducted and held captive by a highly technologically advanced alien race looking for reproductively compatible species to shore up their dwindling population. The ending is pretty dark, though. And dark humor runs through many of the stories, in fact, although sometimes it’s so dark that you can barely detect it, as in one story, “The Smiling Future,” in which super-intelligent and telekinetic dolphins (mutated by radioactive waste dumped into the oceans by humans) announce that they are taking over the planet.
DeFord, by the way, was an interesting figure; she was a prolific writer of both SF and mystery/crime short stories, but she also wrote quite a bit of non-fiction. She was an early feminist writer and activist, and also an outspoken antifascist and anti-authoritarian, and these qualities are naturally reflected in the stories, so that – unusually for mid-20th century SF stories – there are very three-dimensional female characters, as well as, say, scientists or intellectuals who are not only white dudes of north European stock. So all in all, I’d definitely recommend picking this one up, esp. if, like me, you can find a copy with that beautiful cover.

Did you see the Kickstarter that Robert Meyer Burnett and Max Allan Collins are doing to create a Heller audio drama here.

I’ve read The Happy Index, by James Timpson, CEO of Timpson:






For those outside the UK who may not have heard of Timpson, it’s a retailer with branches across the UK, that cut keys, repair shoes, repair watches, along with other services such as dry cleaning, engraving, etc. It is part of the Timpson Group, which includes other brands such as Max Spielmann (who provide, among other things, photo printing).

I must admit, after reading this book, where Timpson shares his business philosophies and advice, I found it a bit Orwellian (an overused phrase I know).

For instance, Timpson has a Director of Happiness. Feel free to disagree, but that sounds like something you’d see in the Village in The Prisoner. And he refers to his receptionists as “Directors of Smiles”. Oh, and he banned the burger van that used to park near his HQ in Manchester, but there’s free fruit in the office. I wonder, is anyone allowed to bring their own burger in, or must everyone only eat fruit?

There’s mention of questionnaires sent to managers, who are expected to answer how much they know about their employees, from names of partners to what sports team they support, etc. Where’s Number Six when you need him? Why should a manager necessarily need to know who you’re dating or what sports team you support? 

I found it a tad creepy and disconcerting. Let me state I see nothing wrong with a company doing its best to make employees happy, whether that be via perks such as a free gym or managers supporting staff who are bereaved. But once we get into the realm of a Director of Happiness, Directors of Smiles, a ban on burger vans, and questionnaires that managers must answer about employees’ personal lives, well I feel that’s akin to the aforementioned Village. You can’t force happiness, surely? It feels like Timpson wants automatons in his company and not individuals. Something like a ban on the burger van, which USED TO park near the office, makes me wonder if he’s trying to mold everyone into his image (I bet the burger van guy loves the loss of sales!).

It also seems like Timpson wants a one-size-fits-all employee. Before being self-employed, I worked in offices. Getting the job done is the key thing, but people come in all shapes and sizes, from the stoic introvert who comes in, says little and gets on with his/her work to the outgoing guy who likes to chat a lot. Both are fine. Neither are wrong. But it does feel like Timpson wants everyone to wear smiles all of the time (I wonder if the Director of Happiness tries to force smiles).

Sorry for the negativity, but it comes across as fake as politicians’ promises. I appreciate others might feel differently, and I once again stress it’s fine to have a nice environment where employees are supported, but I, personally, would not feel happy working in a company that has done all of the things I have referred to here. Not everyone can be happy 24/7, and I would hate to be the guy whose desk was near a Director of Happiness. And I would not feel comfortable necessarily telling a manager who I was dating, what holiday I went on, etc. When I did work in offices, I collaborated with others, but I kept work and personal stuff separate; if I dated someone, why did anyone in the office need to know? I used to believe in being friendly and collaborative, but with a professional mindset. (Also, not everyone is going to get on, you aren’t going to be everyone’s best friend)

In among all the Orwellian stuff, there is some good business advice, I guess, about visiting your shops rather than making decisions solely in the boardroom, about not being too bogged down in sales data, about supporting shops and employees in a practical sense, etc. And there was a bit if insight into Timpsons. But I could not get past the stuff that would not have felt out of place in The Prisoner.

Superman: Miracle Monday
Elliot S! Maggin, 1981

Like Last Son of Krypton, the first and last time I read this was in 1981, when – as I noted in my above review for that book – I was rather put off by the fact that they were not novelizations of the movies. I remembered even less of the story in this one than in the preceding novel – really, the only thing that stuck in my mind is that it introduced the character Kristen Wells, a historian from future Earth who travels back in time to find out why the third Monday in May is celebrated as ‘Miracle Monday.’ It all has to do with the fact that Superman basically takes on the devil himself, whose demonic agent, calling himself C.W. Saturn, slips into our dimension when Luthor opens a portal into the nether realms as a means to escape from prison. Saturn possesses Wells, and begins creating catastrophic, life-threatening calamities throughout the world in order to demoralize Superman. I’m glad I re-read this, as it’s another outstanding Superman story.
And I got a chuckle out of this line, part of a description of Perry White that did not stand the test of time: “Barrel-chested and robust, White looked like the sort of man Bruce Jenner would be when he grew up.”