Customer Reviews

Chrysler: The Life and Times of an Automotive Genius (Automotive History and Personalities)

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My mother always said that the good things always came last. And so it is with this biography of Walter P. Chrysler. As I sit and look at the books on my library shelves, I find volumes of information on the men who built the automobile industry. Henry Ford, William Durant, the Dodge Brothers, etc. but there were two notable men missing--Charles Nash and Walter Chrysler.

The only work on Chrysler was his own ghost written autobiography which first appeared in serialized form in the Saturday Evening Post back in 1937--and reprinted in book form in 1950, ten years after Chrysler's death.

I was fortunate to meet Vincent Curcio, the author of this new work on Walter Chrysler in 1994, at Walter Chrysler's boyhood home in Ellis, Kansas. Six years is a long time to wait but the wait was worth it. Vincent Curcio spent those six years traveling the country, visiting every place Walter Chrysler ever lived--considering his wunder lust while working for the railroads, Curcio had a lot of steps to cover. He was able to meet and interview old timers who had worked with or knew Walter Chrysler personally. Considering their age, this was a vital link to Chrysler that will soon be lost....

Curcio takes us from railroad town to railroad town, then to Chicago where Chrysler saw and fell in love with an ivory colored Locomobile car that he purchased and had shipped to his home in Oelwein, Iowa (after all, Chrysler did not know how to drive at that point!).

The book is rich in lore about Chrysler--how he moved from working on the railroad to building locomotives FOR the railroads--and his move to Flint, Michigan where he began working for Charles Nash at the giant Buick works. His clashes with GM founder William Durant led to his early retirement--a retirement that ended when nervous bankers asked him to salvage first the Willys Corporation and then Maxwell-Chalmers. The latter, of course, would be his stepping stone to building the Chrysler Corporation.

The book chronicles the rise of Chrysler Corporation, the building of the Chrysler Building in New York City and Chrysler's personal life. Its a warts and all story--from Chrysler's stock manipulations, to his million dollar mistress, to his run-ins with the law over illegal prohibition era booze and illegal taking of game. Every story you may have ever heard about Chrysler, or the cars he built, is in this book--and documented in detail.

Vincent Curcio's book is not an "easy" read. At over 600 pages you will not skim through it in a night or two. Its the size of a Bible--and for Chrysler fans, it will be the bible on Walter Chrysler for years to come. I highly recommend it.

(Note - portions of this review have been reprinted from the Plymouth Bulletin magazine, published by the Plymouth Owners Club, Inc and is used by permission)

I picked up this book after reading Bill Vlasic's "Taken for a Ride", about the DaimlerChrysler merger. This book goes back to the beginning of the story, tracing Walter Chrysler's beginnings through the early decades of his car company. Chrysler's life, which was never less than flamboyant, is the ideal subject for a biography (why did no one write one before?), and Vincent Curcio has brought a colorful and engaging style to the story. The book's focus shifts between the company's business decisions, always daring if occasionally foolish, and Chrysler's personal life, which is wildly entertaining. My only complaint about the book is that it might have been a little bit shorter; even Walter Chrysler has trouble filling up 600+ pages. But it's a delight to read nonetheless.

Chrysler : The Life and Times of an Automotive Genius is an entertaining, engaging biography of a man and his times. So much more than a dry biography of one of the major figures of the automotive industry, this book by Vincent Curcio provides fascinating insight into American industrial life in the late 19th and early 20th century.

Walter Chrysler was the quintessential "working man," a railroad (and later automobile industry) mechanic by trade who first mastered himself, then proceeded to lead others in the burgeoning automobile industry. His early years in the railroad industry and his transition from mechanic to leader are nicely chronicled along with the development of American transportation history. Mr. Curcio lucidly explains the evolution of modern manufacturing and the integral parts played by seemingly (taken on their own) inconsequential methods and practices.

While not as well known as a man (although the car and skyscraper are certainly famous), Chrysler embodied the American entrepreneurial spirit as deeply as any other leader of the auto industry. He was willing to take unusual risks, some resulting in relative failure (the Airflow), but all transforming the nature of the industry. He was not an early pioneer, first joining Buick in 1912. However, he completely understood design, engineering and manufacturing techniques. Perhaps more importantly, his ego was of a different mold. He was not afraid to accept the ideas or contributions of his employees. Chrysler made decisions perceived as unusual. For example, he built the graceful, elegant art-deco Chrysler Building, headquartering the company in New York at a time, its silhouette dominating the skyline of yesteryear. He experimented with unconventional auto designs, unafraid to introduce concepts into full production. Yet for all of this, Chrysler remained an enigma, certainly less famous than Ford or GM's myriad of leaders.

Mr. Curcio writes in a unique style, reminiscent of biographies penned in the early 20th century. His prose is fluid, yet the use of oft-archaic language transports the reader into a different era. The book is a real pleasure and there are a number of photographs inspersed throughout the text. HOWEVER, the primary problem with the book is the lack of proper editing and documentation of research in the later chapters. For example, there are numerous typographical errors and poorly constructed sentences. The last few chapters detract from an otherwise fine narrative. One glaring inconsistency is a mention of Chrysler's conversation with Wilbur Wright in Dayton Ohio when he was developing the Chrysler Airflow. That conversation must have been "via seance" as Wilbur Wright died in 1912.

Even with the above, I'd recommend the book from the standpoint of biography as well as overall automotive history (as well as industrial history in general).

Having read extensively in the past about both Ford Motor Company and General Motors, I was very interested in getting to know the other member of the "Big Three" (sadly, today we can only talk about the remaining two after Chrysler's incompetent Bob Eaton surrendered the company to Daimler Benz).

Although the book is centered in Walter P. Chrysler the author finds it hard not to get carried away by much more imposing personalities in the early automotive business, mainly Henry Ford and William C. Durant (founder of GM). They are mentioned 52 and 53 times respectively.

Both Ford and Durant are much more interesting personalities than Chrysler himself and if not for anything else, the book is worth the read just to get to know Mr. Durant. The reason he is much less known today than his other two competitors is that he resisted the temptation to change General Motors name to Durant Motors (he could have done it but decided the GM trademark was too valuable), later in his life he did found a company called Durant Motors but it didn't survive long. If there is an epic to be told about the automotive industry in the USA it is Durant's: he founded General Motors, was ousted from the company, founded Chevrolet, bought his way back to GM control, was ousted again, founded Durant Motors, lost everything after the crash of 1929 and if not for the monetary help his friends (including Walter Chrysler) gave him at the end of his life he would have lived his last days in abject poverty.

Walter Chrysler actually made his reputation and original fortune working for William Durant at General Motors' Buick division and after he quit the corporation eventually assembled the Chrysler Corporation (mainly from Maxwell Motors and the Dodge Brothers enterprises). It was a great accomplishment in itself as he started very late (too late thought many) to matter much, and yet he climbed to the third place in sales and eventually to the second place (outranking Ford Motor from 1936 to 1951). Sure, GM (through Alfred Sloan leadership) outclassed both of them and by such a wide margin that (until very recent times) there was absolutely no comparison between the leader and the other two.

An interesting fact mentioned in the book is that the Chrysler Building at New York was NOT built by the Chrysler Corporation, but by Walter Chrysler himself so he could give it to his children. At the time it was completed, it was the tallest building in the world.

The scope of Curcio's book is very wide and you end learning many things from the first years of automotive history. In other words, it is much more than Walter Chrysler's biography. I fully recommend it.

This biography of Walter Chrysler is proof that sometimes less might be better. As Curcio says of his subject, "His progress took time, and was nothing if not methodical." The book indeed is methodical, and at times overweight with superfluous information. Scenes, especially during his early years, seem embellished and overdrawn - sometimes making for interesting anecdotes, but making this reader wonder when the main story would continue. Also for entire chapters Curcio seems to be using Chrysler's autobiography, LIFE OF AN AMERICAN WORKMAN, as his main (only?) source.

Some judicious editing and trimming also would have been beneficial: included is a 50-page chapter on the early history of the automobile, for example, that goes on way too long to little effect. There are also some doubtful assumptions made, such as in this opening sentence of the chapter on the Chrysler Building in NYC: "Everyone knows that the Chrysler Building contains seventy-seven stories that rise to the height of 1,046 feet, 4.75 inches." Really? (And I thought it was 4.85 inches.) That chapter, by the way, after that dubious first sentence, happens to be, I think, the best in the book, and finds Curcio writing at his best.

Also quite interesting and informative was the chapter on Chrysler's difficulties with streamlining and his famous airflow car. Curcio, who is described on the book's back cover as being a "long-time car enthusiast," is at his happiest writing about the technical intricacies of automotive engineering, and anyone sharing that interest will be delighted with much of this book. But for someone interested in a well-rounded, focused biography of the man who transformed the Willys-Overland and Maxwell-Chambers motor companies into the automotive empire known as the Chrysler Corporation, might feel a bit overwhelmed by the mountains of information, some not very relevant, needed to wade through before reaching the end of this book.

i really enjoyed this book, in fact, once i got into it i could not put it down. it does not just deal with the life of chrysler, which is a fascinating one, but an extraordinary period of american history. i would recommend this work not just to those interested in the industrial or automotive scene, but also to those interested in the era. definately 5 stars!

A great book! The author is big on automotive history, so you will know more about the industry and the people that formed it. Walter Chrysler just seems to be the man he tells the story around. I have found interest in other people from this time frame to read about too from this book.

Stop whatever you're doing. Take a week off from work and read this book! Rarely is a massive biography a pleasure to read. Usually, even the most critically acclaimed biographies are long on tedious detail and short on page-turning storytelling and exquisite style. Vincent Curcio's biography of automotive pioneer Walter Chrysler is the exception to all these norms. Fascinating, impeccably written and completely engrossing, this sweeping tale is more than just a biography. True to its title, it is also a panoramic view of Walter Chrysler's times. Don't be put off by the length, even though index and all, it is 699 pages long. Even if you don't think you're interested in the automotive industry, read this book anyway. We [...] join the ranks of critics and industry insiders who've praised it and promises you will not be able to put it down.

Super researched book about a true industrial hero. An amazing career with very little mentor assistance, but what there was was understood and put into Chryslers daily plan. His skill set is rare and continues to be rare today. I'm confident that were he around today, Chrysler would still be Chrysler. This book doesn't leave any significant questions unanswered. Bravo!

Vincent Curcio opens his biography of Walter Chrysler with an admission that he did not set out to accomplish the comprehensive work the book became. He discovered a lack of published material about the automaker and decided to fill the gap; his book is a success thanks, in part, to adoring fans Walter Chrysler left in his wake, people who, like Curcio, decided that something had to be done to preserve the memory of this great man. Curcio's technique is unusual in one regard: the deliberate (it HAS to be deliberate) repetition of anecdotes, quotes and information. Whole passages are repeated chapters after you first read them, without any acknowledgement by the author that he already has cited this material. It's as though the author's note cards were scrambled and the same ones picked up more than once. I would like to think Curcio had some good reason for this; the occasional typos that also mar the book make me wonder. Where was the editor?