John D. The Founding Father of the Rockefellers by David Freeman Hawke (1980-05-03)

John D. Rockefeller saved every newspaper clipping about himself, saved every letter he received and copies of every letter and interoffice memo he wrote, kept ledgers listing every cent he earned, spent, gave away. John D. is the first biography in fifteen years and the first ever to use the scrapbooks in the Rockefeller Archives. The story begins with John D's father, "Big Bill" Rockefeller, scoundrel and bigamist, who instilled in John D. (no one ever called him Johnny) a respect for business and especially for business ethics. While still in his teens, John D. left home and got a job as a clerk/bookkeeper in a commission house; four years later, just three months short of his twentieth birthday, John D. opened his own commission house. By 1875 John D. was one of the richest men in America (and on Jay Gould's death in 1892 he would become the richest) and went into semiretirement. He was thirty-six years old.In addition to telling the story of John D's life, David Freeman Hawke seeks to answer three central questions in John D's life: Why was he one of the most reviled men in American history? Why was his fortune so much larger than that of his Standard Oil colleagues? How could this truly religious and by his own lights honest man for decades break the law? David Hawke has blended personal and corporate history in a fascinating and gripping story.DAVID FREEMAN HAWKE is Professor of History at Lehman College of the City University of New York. John D. is his eleventh book.