You don't tug on Superman's cape
You don't spit into the wind
You don't take the mask
off that ole Lone Ranger
and you don't mess around with Cornelius Vanderbilt

This book won the Pulitzer Prize and rightfully so. What an amazing life was this one of over 80 years that played such a vital part in the history of the United States.

Knowing absolutely nothing about the Commodore before starting the book, I was eager to find out about him, expected a scoundrel and found a man of character. Stiles obviously admires Vanderbilt and he makes a good case for that admiration.

Vanderbilt was a competitor whose emotional self-control, business sense and vision kept him coming up on top regardless of the particular business he was in. Equally remarkable was his success in engineering, though he had no formal higher education. For example, he had ideas about what would make a speedy but large steamship, went to the shipyard and directed the plans be made into metal and, sure enough, the result was a record breaker.

What times he lived in! It wasn't uncommon for steamboats on a common route to race each other even to the point of deliberately colliding and with a full load of passengers excitedly cheering their boat on! Boilers exploded regularly with the carnage you'd expect, but on the docks people were eager to board. Excitement, danger and fascination with technological progress were inseparable. The word for those with initiative was "go-aheadism", a trait Vanderbilt had in full.

But Stiles doesn't stop with Vanderbilt himself. We meet the whole extended family in a book filled with characters. The Commodore was particularly fond of bringing sons-in-law into his businesses and they, too, succeeded. We meet a full cast of competitors such as Jay Gould and Jim Fisk. Though fighting many in business, Vanderbilt could ally with them as well and competition would not necessarily kill a friendship.

Did you know that Vanderbilt played a key role in the fight between the ironclads Monitor and Merrimack? He also played a key role in the Gold Rush by way of a route across Nicaragua that competed with the Panama route before the famous canal was built. Did you know he was an avid horseman, racing his buggy in the rural areas of northern Manhattan Island almost to the end of his life? This is only a tiny sampler of remarkable things you'll encounter in The First Tycoon.

Paralleling his many successes were the failures of his son, nicknamed Corneil. Whereas the Commodore could do no wrong in the making of money, Corneil could never keep a penny in his pocket, but had such skill as a confidence man that he was able to repeatedly talk others out of their funds. Throughout the book, we follow Corneil in tandem with his father.

Let me leave you with a paragraph from the book that indicates the insight you can expect to find from Stiles...

"Marx says somewhere that men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves. He forgot to add that great plans often come about by accident. How many times had Vanderbilt embarked on important enterprises only because of chance? His (many enterprises) originated in the unexpected. He was quick to turn trouble to his advantage, and to prey on the weak and vulnerable."

Ok, ok, I'll stop talking and let you run to the bookstore.