Books: Disillusioned Millionaire

THE MAGNATE—Hermann Hagedorn— Reynal & Hitchcock ($3).

The first generation of Rocky Mountain capitalists, piling up their millions in the turbulent frontier period, were usually hard, determined men who were entirely satisfied with the simple acquisition of wealth and power. But so swift was the West's industrial expansion that a Montana-born financier, William Boyce Thompson, beginning his career as a small mining promoter, soon found himself involved in politics that had international ramifications, and before the end of his life had played a spirited—and unsuccessful—part in the greatest historic event of modern times....

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