George Kennan

E.h. Harriman: Railroad Czar, Vol. 2 George Kennan

Born Edward Henry Harriman in 1848 of an ordained deacon father in the Presbyterian Church and well-connected socialite mother, Young Edward attended private school in New Jersey and New York, but dropped out at age 14 to take a job as a Wall Street errand boy. He moved up rapidly to become a managing clerk and, ultimately, became a stockbroker with a seat on the New York stock exchange. Harriman began investing his own money in railway stocks, and even married into a railroad family. In 1881, he bought his first railroad company outright in upstate New York and his name soon became synonymous with "railroad." Volume 2 of this two-volume biography includes Harriman¿s Far Eastern Plans and Russia¿s plan to sell the Chinese Eastern Railroad to his American syndicate. His life and work at his estate, Arden House as well as his foray into a more spiritual life. Included are two fascinating chapters about the rupture of his long-standing friendship with President Theodore Roosevelt.