Customer Reviews

The Eccentric Billionaire: John D. MacArthur--Empire Builder, Reluctant Philanthropist, Relentless Adversary

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"Love this book. And the author's writing style matched MacArthur's quirkiness. I really think this is a winner."

V. S. McKay
Indianapolis IN

When Nancy Kriplen puts pen to paper, something magic happens.
In this case I refer to her new book "THE ECCENTRIC BILLIONAIR".
This long overdue, well researched biography is the quintessential rags to riches story of one of this country's wealthiest, yet little known self made men. Kriplen paints with her well toned writing skills a never before seen picture of the good, bad and the ugly side of John Donald MacArthur.
This book is a must read and a true treasure and will remain so for many years to come...
Bob Sanford
Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

Couldn't put it down! Very interesting look at the insurance business. Excellent detail and research.

How many times following a performance on PBS have you seen, "Produced through the generosity of The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation"? I never knew who they were or how he became a billionaire.

Now I do, thanks to Nancy Kriplen and her well-written book! Follow MacArthur from Chicago to Palm Beach. Get to know this man, who was extremely frugal throughout his life, and whose legacy now enriches us all.

Nancy Kriplen, already proven to be an excellent biographer (buy her book on Dwight Davis - it's beautifully written), has done it again with her excellent book on John D. MacArthur. She has obviously done an incredible amount of research, yet she has the rare talent to be able to extract from her interviews and secondary research a summary of the best and most interesting information, giving us, as a result, a book of rich details.
As a result, she both entertains and educates us about a fascinating, yet very unlikable -- and eccentric! - subject.

Seeing references to the "John D, & Catherine T. MacArthur" bequests and support from the massive MacArthur Foundation for decades prompted me to look up this biography; the founder of the philanthropist giveaway fortune as just an empire builder after all. The authoress presents a wonderfully reasoned and chronicled story of a rare man,
less gifted as he admits than his material success would indicate. Happily, his son, Rod, gets well earned praise as the guiding light for the phenomenal scope of the foundation. Not everyone has the genius for spending money; it takes talent and Rod McArthur deserves the attention he receives in this book.

Much credit for the objective nature, integrity and creativity of the foundation's disbursements falls properly on his son's reputation. Rod MacArthur persisted in so many ways to accomplish his own reputation in face of rejection by his self-concerned and self-seeking father, John. Realistically, the funding of the foundation with several billion dollars, give or take a few, was required to preserve the MacArthur investments from a federal government tax seeking devastating dismantling and served a greater public, as his lawyer pointed out when establishing the goals of the fndt. just before John's death in Jan. 1978. Funded with several billion, the MacArthur Foundation's assets rose to over $5 billion by 2005.

I was struck by the senior MacArthur's manipulation of rump companies and trade offs that built larger companies he could control which seem similar to Warren Buffett's maneuvers with his "own" companies; Wall Street and the fed. govt. laid the groundwork; and the lack of rules remains the same apparently. The author mined a lot of paper files and researched some companies in their development; a fairly extensive overview is given of John's upbringing and youth.

Most gratifying were references to the lovely Helen Hayes, his sister-in-law, wife of Charles MacArthur, the writer. She was loyal to the family and was used by John to give grace and validity to his many projects and appearances; she saw John clearly. She provides a graceful footnote to this story about a man, less gifted than his material success would suggest for which he never apologized. Indeed, he said "luck" was important to any success he had.

My father did legal work for Mr MacArthur in Colorado so he knew him well, along with Dan and Anita Childs with whom my parents were good friends. They had occasion to visit them in Florida and Mr. MacArthur himself met them at the airport, encouraged them to stay at the Colonnades, never charged them for the room or the food. They had business in Puerto Rico for 3 days and MacArthur told them to leave their stuff in the room until they came back. He couldn't have been more hospitable or gracious. This was in 1969. To read this book one would think MacArthur screwed everybody. According to my mom and dad, he was extremely personable.

Amazon prompted me to review this book which I bought a couple of months ago. Since I have yet to read it, there's really nothing of value that I can remark upon it. In light of the mammoth Ponzi scheme perpetuated by Sam Madoff (as in "Madoff apparently 'made off' with some $50 billion dollars in a cleverly devised investing scheme) that is in the news this week, "The Eccentric Billionaire" should provide a good basis in understanding how the truly greedy rarely are satiated even when the money comes in hand over fist. At least his heirs are putting it to good use by funding a variety of NPR programming.