Here is a much needed authoritative biography of one of America's greatest industrial capitalists—at least the peer of Vanderbilt, Hill, Carnegie, and Ford. Its two ample volumes provide us with facts old and new, corrections of previous judgments, and the author's own inimitable way of putting things.

“Did we ever run a prize letter contest ?”

“I think we did, when O'Riley was here.”

“Any good?”

“That's too far back for me.”

So runs the pattern for a conversation that any advertising man has heard. No one in the company now knows whether that contest was a success or a terrible flop, because O'Riley is gone and the company hasn't any memory.