Hetty: The Genius and Madness of Americas First Female Tycoon by Charles Slack

Hetty: The Genius and Madness of Americas First Female Tycoon Reviews

• 
  Zak

  This was a quick and enjoyable read on a lady I had never heard of before this. Most of us would have at least a passing familiarity with names like Jay Gould, Andrew Carnegie, Cornelius Vanderbilt, J. P. Morgan, etc., but how many have actually heard of Hetty Green née Hetty Howland Robinson? Dubbed "The Witch of Wall Street", she inherited a small fortune from her aunt and multiplied it many, many times over through shrewd investments and business dealings until she was widely considered the richest woman in America during its "Gilded Age". She also had the gumption to go head-to-head with the much-feared Collis P. Huntington, leader of the Big Four, who controlled most of the early American rail networks. She built up such a formidable money-lending business that newspapers used to feature headlines like "Hetty Green Cuts Rates", much like how the WSJ would report on the Fed's moves today.
  
  Perhaps what she was most famous for at the time was her extreme miserliness despite her enormous wealth, to the extent where she brought dresses to the cleaner's and asked for only the bottom parts to be washed to save money and neighbours would see her on top of her house fixing her own roof. The writer tries to be balanced in his portrayal of her though, citing her support of as many as 30 churches at one time by providing them cheap loans at way below market rates. Yes, they were loans, not outright donations because with Hetty Green nothing came free, but still.
  
  You will not get a step-by-step manual on how to get rich with this book but the principles she stood by are there and overall, it was an interesting bit of history.
  
• 
  M.K. Hobson

  The 1996 book, The Wealthy 100, ranked the net work of 100 wealthy Americans by the percentage of the Gross National Product their personal fortunes represented. Hetty, the only woman on the list, came in 36th— five places behind Bill Gates and three places ahead of Warren Buffett.
  
  This is a fascinating, well-written book about an amazing woman. On her own, using financial acumen unheard for a woman in her day and age (she died in 1916, at age 81), she managed to parlay a family inheritance into a fortune so large that she frequently bailed out the City of New York when they encountered cash crunches. When J.P. Morgan called a meeting of New York's financial leaders after the stock market crash of 1907, Hetty was the only woman in the room.
  
  Commentators of the time assumed that such financial acumen had to come with a price; articles were written about how lonely and unhappy she must be. And she did have quite a few odd and sometimes disturbing pecadillos: she absolutely hated to spend money, and would haggle over the smallest items exhaustively. Her son Ned suffered the loss of his leg later in life after a boyhood sledding accident, and it was rumored that his leg could have been saved if Hetty had paid for the best medical attention instead of dragging him around to free clinics, trying to save money. Rain or snow, she walked daily from the New Jersey ferry to Wall Street (she lived in a small apartment in Hoboken) dressed in old clothing, wearing a heavy black veil to keep from being recognized. It didn't work, of course; the disguise simply earned her the nickname "The Witch of Wall Street".
  
  Seeing past the prejudices of her time (I'm forgiving the use of the word "madness" in the book's subtitle, assuming that it was more for marketing purposes), the book paints a portrait of Hetty as a frugal woman who eschewed pretense and frivolity, loved her children, was very happy doing what she was good at. I greatly enjoyed learning more about this colorful and fascinating giant of American finance, of whom I'd known nothing previously.
  
• 
  Rory

  I thought I'd totally dig this book. I love reading about 1. American history, 2. especially women in American history, 3. especially women beating men at their own game in American history, and 4. especially women beating men at their own game in American Victorian to Progressive-era history.
  
  And I remembered seeing a picture of Hetty in the Guinness World Records when I was in grade school. She was deemed the world's worse miser, or something, because she ate cold oatmeal while having kajillions in the bank.
  
  But...it seems that's the most interesting thing about her. This book put me to sleep better than a shot of sherry.
• 
  Gregg

  The first female tycoon and a horrid miser. Evil men are interesting, evil women are fascinating.
• 
  Dean King

  A well-researched and deftly written biography of one of the early-20th century's most intriguing Americans.
• 
  Janice

  Enigma, eccentric, exceptional, endearing
  
  The price of independence versus Because men have always in the past controlled history, it follows that there have always been more biographies about men than women. Some women did rate their own tome, usually they were the wives of a famous man or even more rarely, led such an amazing life, that their own life story deserved to be recorded for posterity. Hetty Howland Robinson Green belongs in the latter category. Born in 1834, Henrietta Howland, Hetty grew up during a period in which the United States was undergoing unprecedented growth. Names l Such as Vanderbilt, Carneige, Morgan, Astor, and Rockefeller formed the informal boys' only club that would ride the heady, wild wave of the Gilded Age. But if the men of the time were amassing fortunes and powers, Hetty Green could teach all of the others guys lessons about finance and she did. The only daughter and only surviving child of Edward Mott Robinson, originally of a noteworthy Philadelphia family, had come to New Bedford MA as a young man to try to establish himself in what was the lucrative business of whaling. Not only did he become employed by one of the most successful whaling companies of the time, Isaac J. Howland, Jr. and Co., he married the daughter and heiress of the huge firm, Abby Slocum Howland. Eventually he would take over the reins of the company expanding its assets and wealth. Showing a particularly adept acumen for business timing, Robinson would drive the company forward until just before the demand for whale oil and the other related products began to wane, liquidating the company assets and searching for other avenues for investment. Although Hetty's father did not hide his disappointment that his first child was a girl, he would soon have his heir in a son that he could tutor in the ways of business. Unfortunately Isaac Howland Robinson born in 1836 was never as strong as his sister Hetty and died in infancy. With his heir gone, Howland began to take more interest in Hetty, taking her with him as he attended to his duties at the whaling company. His daughter would come to be not only her father's companion, she would also from a young age read to her father regarding stock market activity, business trends, and political news. Even though she was becoming an asset to her father, Hetty was not a docile child and her caretakers discovered that a bribe, not of candy or toys but in the form of a coin, would produce cooperation from their young charge bringing her into compliance. And once she got the reward, she was loath to part with it. She accumulated any money that came her way, eventually opening her own savings account by the age of eight. While most young girl's would dream of clothing, parties and romance, Hetty's prime focus was on the accumulation of her wealth, compounding of her wealth, and protecting of her wealth. Although she would eventually marry and have two children, her Quaker roots would prevent her from acquiring so much of the ostentatious show of materialism that was flaunted by many of the other families that rocketed into wealth during this time. Hetty didn't build a mini palace in New York like Mrs. Astor did. She preferred to live in modest apartments in the middle class areas of Brooklyn or Hoboken. Instead of a fancy carriage or automobile, she took public transportation or walked. Instead of dining in restaurants, she would bring dry oats in a bucket when she left for her borrowed office space each day. At lunch she would add water to the oats and cook her porridge on the radiator. She had, however, a brilliant business mind. She had her father's sense of timing and when other's panicked, she remained steady and used the downturn to buy additional but deeply discounted investments. She lent money to churches, corporations, and even the City of New York. Before the Federal Reserve, she provided a supply of cash when the customers of banks and savings and loans were being besieged by panicked depositors. During the financial crisis of 1907, she was the only female invited to collaborate with J. P. Morgan and other financial mega stars on a plan to right the careening ship of the economy which was being overwhelmed by investment losses and bad loans Hetty was certainly an eccentric sight as she made her way around the financial sector in New York wearing her outdated, often dirty clothes, unfashionable hat whose flowers and feathers had seen better times, and carrying a large black valise which was rumored to carry fabulous sums of cash and securities, but which more likely only contained the remnants of a lunch more appropriate for a miserly laborer than a woman worth around $200 million (ten times that much in today's dollars). For Hetty Green, money provided a refuge for what would now be euphemistically referred to as "eccentricities." Even without her considerable fortune, however, she had a philosophy that was beyond any amount of wealth for "she had her life and dared
• 
  Jessica

  Truly, I didn’t want this book to end. I found Hetty such an extremely interesting person.
  
  First thing I would like to address are that so many stories about this woman were wholly exaggerated or if true spun in such a negative way that it’s positively unfair, unwarranted and completely biased. The truth is Hetty was a brilliant businesswoman. Had she been a male back then she would have been heralded as a magnate on par with the Carnegies, JP Morgans or Vanderbilts. As it is she is barely known and if so, only as a horrible, mean spirited miser who valued money more than anything else. The story about Hetty refusing to take her son to the hospital to fix his broken leg is positively untrue. The truth is she took him to many doctors and doled out large amounts of money trying in vain to help him. When her estranged husband was dying, she came to his side and nursed him until he passed peacefully, reading to him every day and staying by his side instead of in New York where her financial empire resided.
  
  Hetty was a Quaker. To those who don’t know, Quakers, much like Amish or even Mennonites don’t put any value in luxuries or over consumerism. So while yes, Hetty wore old, outdated clothes, owned precious little furniture save for the most basics of needs, it wasn’t because she was miserly, it was mostly due in part to her religious beliefs. True, her belongings were meager, however she did not do without. She didn’t like meagerly to the point of eschewing her needs. She ate, kept her homes appropriately heated and paid for carriage fair instead of walking.
  
  For all the salacious stories of her miserly ways, no one ever brings up the fact that she bailed the City of New York out of financial crisis more than once. Nor do they mention the fact that she operated as her own bank and doled loans out at far less the interest rate of interest than regular banks. She did plenty of charitable donations but choose to do so anonymously. And yes, she did have some interesting schemes in her lifetime but unlike those aforementioned male counterparts, she never did anything unethical and she never exploited anyone, nonetheless, those less fortunate in order to get ahead or profit. She didn’t need to; her intelligence was all she needed to get ahead.
  
  She was a formidable opponent in the court room and a monster at speculating the market. I truly think of her as an early feminists. She could handle finances better than most men and saw no reason why as a woman she shouldn’t be able to speculate just as the men did. She was neither fearful or intimidated by any man she met.
  
  Reading about her made me envious. I wish I had half the mind she did. Her intelligence and her strength were both staggering and enviable.
  
• 
  Reza Amiri Praramadhan

  Hetty Green, also known as the Witch of Wall Street, for his tireless shuffling around Wall Street in her shabby black dress and veils. At that time, Wall Street, and indeed, the world of business were still men’s game. However, Hetty managed to become one of the financial giants, a millionaire in the likes of Vanderbilts and Morgan. Armed with his principle to buy when nobody wants to buy and vice versa, Hetty beat men at their own game. Also the highlight of her life, her notorious miserliness. She moved around New York, New Jersey and Vermont, never stayed too long, for her fear of being identified as resident, thus forced to pay tax. And that was one of many, countless examples. She left behind her wealth to her children, who were in contrast against each other. On one side, Edward ‘Ned’ Green, the high-spending, high-roller, jet-set who seemed to be interested to collect many things. On the other side was H. Sylvia Green, who were set to follow her mother like shadow, living under her mother’s domination, freed only after finding a husband whom Hetty deemed would not be marrying Sylvia for her money. Overall, it was a refreshing reading, in a nice, quite short book.
• 
  Kate Lawrence

  I first became aware of Hetty because my sister-in-law claims her as a distant relative. Hetty was a financial genius, no question. Her skill would be remarkable at any time, but especially so for a woman to achieve this in the 19th century. Although she inherited a sizeable fortune to begin with, she had the competence, shrewdness and determination to increase it substantially. At her death in 1916, it had grown to $100 million (in today's dollars, $1.6 billion).
  But this is no story of conspicuous consumption; no palatial Fifth Avenue mansions, dozens of servants, or luxurious attire for her. Born a Quaker, she deliberately chose to live very simply, a sort of genteel poverty in fact, renting small lower-class apartments, moving frequently to avoid taxes, wearing old, unfashionable clothes and getting around by public transportation. As a young woman, she had married and had two children, but left her husband a few years later after he lost a huge sum of money through risky speculation. Hetty was careful to make only safe, conservative investments; managing her fortune was her whole life. Such a seemingly joyless existence was a little sad to read about--until you consider that she totally called the shots throughout her life to live as she chose, which very few women of her time could do.
• 
  Jasanna Czellar

  This was a very odd biography. Mostly because the subject was odd, yet interesting. Hetty was the first female Tycoon in the era of all the great railroad and oil tycoons. She had a seemingly-abrasive personality, and although she claimed to be Quaker, seemed to use it often to get her way with things. Or in a childish way. However, despite her many shortcomings and her odd ways of going about life, I have a respect for her in forging her own trail and not bending to the social peer pressure. How her children turned out, also gives some cause for thought about how she showed them what she found most valuable. She was a tough cookie, but in the end, I think the book shows well, money is just 'stuff'. And it can never buy you fulfillment.
• 
  Lenny

  Very engaging story about wealth and what it does to a family in the late eighteen hundreds.
• 
  Leslie Shinault

  interesting story about an interesting woman. She was a trailblazer for sure and wildly succeeded in a society that didn't want to see a woman succeed at anything.
• 
  Heather Hall-Martin

  Well written book about an amazing woman. Very interesting local history.
• 
  Earl Bayer

  I enjoy these books on obscure historical figures.
  Hetty was unique and her story opens a window on a time that I find fascinating.
  
  
• 
  David Blake

  Well told history of this eccentric...that lived not far from my backyard.
• 
  Jessica Bellas

  A nuanced portrait of one of the most successful business women of all time. Anyone who likes reading about strong women throughout history should read this !