When 32-year-old Polish servant Basia Johnson married the 76-year-old Seward Johnson, Jr., heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune, eyebrows were raised. When he died 12 years later, leaving his estate to Basia, the stage was set for an epic battle between Basia and Johnson's six children. Undue Influence is a dramatic tale of wealth, power, status, and greed. 32-page photo insert.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The "largest, costliest, ugliest, most spectacular and most conspicuous" inheritance contest in American history here receives thorough, incisive and dramatic treatment from New York Times legal affairs correspondent Margolick. In 1971, 76-year-old J. Seward Johnson, heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune, married his 34-year-old Polish household servant; when he died 12 years later, his six adult offspring sued to stop the widow, Basia, from inheriting most of the half-billion-dollar estate. While Margolick ably conveys Basia's imperiousness and the children's dissolution, the book shines in its sophisticated analysis of the prominent attorneys and New York City law firms representing the various parties, and in its scathing portrait of tough, profane and peremptory Judge Marie Lambert. After a bizarre 17-week trial in 1986, the two sides settled, with Basia paying out approximately $43 million to the Johnson children. Both parties claimed victory, but Margolick's anatomy of the process shows everyone's claims to be tainted. This is a far meatier and more critical look at the case than Barbara Goldsmith's 1987 Johnson v. Johnson. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
At the age of 76, Seward Johnson, the Johnson & Johnson magnate, married Barbara Piasecka, a recent Polish immigrant 42 years his junior. When he died 12 years later, she inherited his $400 million fortune after a protracted and scandalous legal battle with her six stepchildren. This book tells the story of the contesting of that will and the eccentricities of the litigants, the lawyers, and the judge. Margolick's strength is also his weakness; even the most legal-minded reader may become impatient with the wealth of detail in his 600-page account. Because no sources whatsoever are provided, the reader is left still more frustrated. For only the most complete popular legal collections.
- Elizabeth Fielder Olson, Archer & Greiner, Haddonfield, N.J.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
- Elizabeth Fielder Olson, Archer & Greiner, Haddonfield, N.J.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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More About the Author
David Margolick is a long-time contributing editor at Vanity Fair. He has held similar posts at Newsweek and Portfolio. For fifteen years he was a legal affairs correspondent for the New York Times. In October, Yale University Press will publish "Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock," a study of the iconic photograph taken outside Little Rock Central High School during the desegregation crisis of 1957. His prior books include "Beyond Glory: Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling, and a World on the Brink" (Knopf) and "Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song." (Harper Collins).
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Real Life Soap Opera,
By sugarplum (Tampa, Fl.) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Undue Influence: The Epic Battle for the Johnson & Johnson Fortune (Paperback)
Margolick quickly sucks you into the story and uses such detail that you can picture the people, places, and events. The story reads like a true soap opera with events so absurd you have to remind yourself that the book is non-fiction. I highly reccommend this book to anyone wants to be shocked at human behavior and what people will do for money.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hugely satisfying,
By Dana Marks (North Carolina) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Undue Influence: The Epic Battle for the Johnson & Johnson Fortune (Paperback)
This book will wholly satisfy lawyers (& everyone else) interested in a well-informed, insightful and fascinating inside look at the biggest will contest in US history. Its cinematic scope and dramatically drawn characters make it an addictive page-turner you will have difficulty putting down. While the story itself is at times a hilarious soap opera, it is always superbly written and thus a joy to read. I can't recommend it enough!
5.0 out of 5 stars
excellent seller,
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Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Undue Influence: The Epic Battle for the Johnson & Johnson Fortune (Paperback)
Brillian research and fine writing. I wouldnt know where to begin, this is a book filled with a wealth of details about an enormous and enormously rich family. In Mr. Margolick's skilled hands the reader learns the intimate and honestly ludicrous details of how people live with no brakes on their behavior and it aint pretty!
Extremely readable.
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