Larger Than Life: ROBERT MAXWELL

Britain's billionaire publishing baron ROBERT MAXWELL is known for his acquisitiveness as well as his considerable size, and now he has added the U.S. to his hit list

The telephone console resting on a gargantuan round table boasts 90 buttons, and the man seated before it seems bent on using all of them at once. His plump fingers, the nails freshly manicured with clear polish, poke impatiently at the instrument. Visitors flow into the office in a steady stream, yet all the while the man continues a separate dialogue with the console. "He wouldn't be a bureaucrat unless he was in a meeting," he booms into the speaker in a British-accented baritone that is powerful yet velvety. "I want the man, not the message." Poke. A button away, he...

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