Commodore: The Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt [Hardcover]

Edward J. Renehan Jr. (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 16, 2007

Using previously unreleased archives, Edward J. Renehan Jr. narrates the compelling life of Cornelius Vanderbilt: willful progenitor of modern American business. Vanderbilt made his initial fortune building ferry and cargo routes for sailing vessels. Then he moved into steamboats and railroads. With the New York Central, Vanderbilt established the nation’s first major integrated rail system, linking New York with Boston, Montreal, Chicago, and St. Louis. At the same time, he played a key role in establishing New York as the financial center of the United States. When he died in 1877, Vanderbilt left a fortune that, in today’s dollars, would dwarf that of even Bill Gates. Off Wall Street, Vanderbilt was a hard-drinking egotist and whoremonger devoid of manners or charity. He disinherited most of his numerous children and received an editorial rebuke from Mark Twain for his lack of public giving. Commodore sheds startling new light on many aspects of Vanderbilt’s business and private life including, most notably, the revelation that advanced stage syphilis marred his last years. This is the definitive biography of a man whose influence on American life and commerce towers over all who followed him.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The latest from Renehan, author most recently of a much-praised biography of another titan of 19th-century business, Jay Gould, is a thorough look at Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794–1877), who rose from nothing to amass one of the great fortunes in American history (more than $158 billion in 2005 dollars) in the burgeoning steamship and railroad industries. A brilliant, vicious businessman with little education, manners or patience for fools—including his long-suffering wife and 14 children—Vanderbilt makes an almost prototypical figure of pure American laissez-faire entrepreneurship. Unfortunately, for significant portions of this bio, the man gets lost behind the icon. Though Renehan's writing proves colorful, insightful and efficient in describing Vanderbilt's spirited early adventures taking on the steamship monopolies of former senator Aaron Ogden and others, the middle third of the book is too often bogged down in details that will appeal mainly to the business-minded—an endless cascade of ships (and their vital stats), routes and dollar amounts—and overshadow both narrative and character. Still, Vanderbilt's personal life is fascinating; highlights include the Vanderbilts' grand tour of Europe, his lifelong penchant for prostitutes (including the Woodhull sisters, whom Vanderbilt made the first female brokers on Wall Street) and the syphilis-induced madness that plagued his final years—material new in this biography and a testament to Renehan's typically assiduous research. (Oct.)
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Review

"Renehan sets out to be neither 'prosecutor nor defence attorney', but succeeds in demonstrating from contemporary sources that Gould's misdeeds have been much exaggerated over a century of telling... Renehan's meticulous portrait does (Jay Gould) proud." The Spectator"

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (October 16, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465002552
• ISBN-13: 978-0465002559
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,063,774 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars No longer much reason for reading this book., June 18, 2009

By 

Samuel McCracken - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Commodore: The Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt (Paperback)

The Renehan book has been superseded for all practical purposes by The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt, by T.J. Stiles (Knopf, 2009).

The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt

The importance of the Stiles book for the Renehan book is that Stiles compellingly demonstrates that two diaries Renehan claimed to use to support his most sensational claim, that the Commodore suffered from syphilitic dementia for the last decade of his life and was no more than a puppet run by his son William, are imaginary. Renehan's tale is contradicted by everything we know about syphilis; he refuses to let anyone examine his copies of the "diaries;" he refuses to name the present owners of the diaries; and, oh yes, he is currently doing time in New York for having stolen and sold letters by Washington, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt belonging to the Theodore Roosevelt Association, of which he had been acting director.

Stiles, on the other hand (whom I have never met) is the real goods.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars We need a good biography of Vanderbilt, January 26, 2009

By 

Donald Costello "dcnj1" (Bridgewater, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Commodore: The Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt (Hardcover)

Many men have built fortunes by being in the right place at the right time and then gone on to major failures when they moved into another arena. Cornelius Vanderbilt is unique, to my knowledge, in that he succeeded in three totally separate areas - he built his initial fortune as a shipping magnate; he was a very successful stock market trader/speculator, and he built a railroad empire. Only the first of these is dealt with in any detail in this biography. The author seems to have done little research on his own, relying primarily on the excellent biography of Vanderbilt by Wheaton Lane published in 1942. The author spends much more time and effort repeating the fact that Vanderbilt contracted syphilis and eventually died from it than in explaining Vanderbilt's stock market dealings or his railroad operations. Most of his discussion of Vanderbilt's stock market adventures surround the Gould/Fisk Erie Railroad scandal, cadged from another secondary source. If this were the major event in Vanderbilt's time in the market he would have died a pauper, rather than the wealthiest man in America.
Vanderbilt created the New York Central System by buying the Harlem River Railroad, the Hudson River Railroad, and the original NY Central (which ran only from Albany to Buffalo). He then merged them to form one of the two greatest railroads in the eastern US. All of this is skimmed over, whereas Vanderbilt's dealings with a couple of psychic charlatans are gone into in great detail. I do give the author credit for his coverage of Vanderbilt's early years, and particularly his part in the famous Gibbons vs. Ogden Supreme Court case. Otherwise, this would have been a 1 star review.
A good current biography of Vanderbilt would be a major contribution towards understanding 19th century business history and the history of American railroading. This isn't it. If you like gossip about the rich and powerful, you may enjoy this book. I felt cheated.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The man and the trade that built nothing into one of America's great personal fortunes, December 26, 2007

By 

Craig Matteson (Saline, MI) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Commodore: The Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt (Hardcover)

I grew up during the 1960s and the term "Robber Barons" was still fashionable and it was shorthand for dismissing all those nineteenth century tycoons. Somehow, we were supposed to just simply know that these guys all got their wealth by taking it from others in a zero sum game. However, the more you know about history, how men like Vanderbilt, Carnegie, and Rockefeller actually earned their money the less that explanation satisfies.

This very interesting biography of Cornelius Vanderbilt reports a picture of the man from his hard youth on Staten Island and his work on its surrounding waters since he was eleven years old in 1805. While unschooled, Cornelius was obviously intelligent about the ways of sailing, was physically strong, brave, and a tireless worker. He admitted to a mania for making money and was willing to work in conditions that left others too afraid or too sensible to sail in. He saved much of his money, but was willing to spend some on drink and rough women around the docks. As his reputation and collection of sailing vessels grew, the newspapers named him "the Commodore" and he retains that title to this day.

Vanderbilt was always willing to challenge the status quo and not let others rest on the political advantages or wealth. He worked for Thomas Gibbons for several years and worked with him in Gibbons breaking the New York monopoly that awarded steamboat trade to a preferred group. Using the Commerce Clause in the Constitution with Daniel Webster arguing their case, Gibbons and Vanderbilt beat the monopoly and bankrupted a man with whom Gibbons had a persona feud. But after Gibbons death and the Commodore's deteriorating relationship with Gibbons' son, he struck out on his own in 1829. As Vanderbilt grew his fleet and range to span the continent through Nicaragua, his personal fortune grew to $20 million by the time of the Civil War.

During the Civil War, Vanderbilt refitted his ship "Vanderbilt" and piloted it with the intention of ramming and sinking the Confederate ironclad the "Merrimack". But the confrontation never took place because the Confederates blew it up in the river in which it had taken refuge and fled. After the war, Vanderbilt was awarded a medal for his generosity and bravery (even though he had intended the use of the "Vanderbilt" as a loan rather than a gift, it ended up being a gift).

His son, William, began to play a bigger part in the Commodore's business, as did the railroad business. At the time of his death, Vanderbilt's wealth was more than $100 million. William, who had done much of the work in growing the $20 million into $100 million, used the remaining eight years of his own life to take the family total to $200 million. That was the zenith of Vanderbilt wealth. Subsequent generations did little earning and many simply squandered their patrimony.

Yes, Cornelius was a sharp dealer and was merciless with his competitors, but he made his money through industry, thrift, and providing valuable transportation to the public at better terms than his competitors. How is that being a Robber Baron? He did bequest $1 million to build Vanderbilt University as his one charitable act, and probably should have done more. However, the public would be engaging in phony accounting if they did not include the benefits his life's provided them and enriched them through the use of his shipping by sail, steam, and rail. In my view, the real Robber Barons were those who used political connections to give themselves monopolies at the taxpayer's expense and who were able to extract high prices because of the lack of competition.

While this isn't the deepest biography I have read, I enjoyed it and found it to be informative about an important figure in American history.

Recommended.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI