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The Richest Woman in America: The Life and Times of Hetty Green

Janet Wallach

3.39 · Rating details · 871 ratings · 153 reviews

A captivating biography of America's first female tycoon, Hetty Green, the iconoclast who forged one of the greatest fortunes of her time.
No woman in the Gilded Age made as much money as Hetty Green. At the time of her death in 1916, she was worth at least 100 million dollars, equal to about 2.5 billion dollars today.
Abandoned at birth by her neurotic mother, scorned b ...more

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Hardcover, 281 pages

Published September 25th 2012 by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

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Dec 01, 2012 John Bellamy rated it liked it

Whatever its peculiar defects—of which more later—there is much to admire about Janet Wallach’s biography of Hetty Green. Firstly, it is highly readable, written in a lively style that successfully evokes its characters and scenes from the past in vivid word-pictures. Secondly, it also triumphs as a true “life and times” of its subject, a narrative in which the amazing Hetty is faithfully placed within the events and culture of her era. Thirdly, and most importantly, Wallach’s book also succeeds Whatever its peculiar defects—of which more later—there is much to admire about Janet Wallach’s biography of Hetty Green. Firstly, it is highly readable, written in a lively style that successfully evokes its characters and scenes from the past in vivid word-pictures. Secondly, it also triumphs as a true “life and times” of its subject, a narrative in which the amazing Hetty is faithfully placed within the events and culture of her era. Thirdly, and most importantly, Wallach’s book also succeeds as a sharply revisionist portrait of Green, whose previous chroniclers have generally caricaturized her as kind of a shrewish amalgam of greedy Ebenezer Scrooge and a neurotic bag lady. Wallach’s book is, above all, a persuasive argument that Hetty be taken seriously for exactly what she was: an intelligent woman who merely committed the unpardonable sin of succeeding in what was deemed the exclusively male realm of making money. Along the way, Wallach also disposes of most of the malign mythology and second-hand character assassination that has hitherto passed for Hetty Green biography: the slurs that she was an uncaring mother, that she was a social recluse, or that she was habitually attired in rags, that she was unrelentingly ungenerous with her money. Although she is a bit unconvincing in refuting the charge that Hetty forged the signature on her aunt's will . . .
There are, alas, some egregious factual problems with Wallach’s tome, for which both her publisher and editors—if there were in fact any involved in the issue of her book—should be held at least as responsible as she. Contrary to her assertions, the Erie Canal did not open in 1851 but rather in 1825 (p. 33); the Union did not fire on a Fort Sumter occupied by Confederate forces in April, 1861 (p. 51); there were no New York City newspapers published by either George Hearst or Joseph Pulitzer during the Civil War (p. 51); Fredericksburg was mostly definitely not a Union victory (p. 59), and Jennie Jerome did not marry the Duke of Marlborough (although Wallach later corrects that error on p. 184.). And then there’s the caption to an 1861 photograph of Hetty Green, which informs its viewer that she was then on her way to a dinner party at the home of “former President McKinley.” As McKinley would then have been about 18 and as the relevant narrativetext places her accurately at the home of former president Martin Van Buren, such an error seems almost inexplicable. Perhaps the Nan Talese / Doubleday imprint should follow the example of the auto industry and simply recall this flawed edition of Wallach’s otherwise admirable book and replace it with a corrected version worthy of its considerable merits. I’m only giving this 3 stars but it could have easily gained a fourth without its avoidable deficiencies.

...more

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Aug 18, 2013 Jenny Brown rated it did not like it

This is the most poorly written book I've read this year. Apparently Wallach's publisher saved money by skipping the copyedit. The misuse of language is jarring--for example cowboys in Texas are described as "rustling" cattle in a sentence where the author means herding, not stealing. The sentence structure is clumsy. There are long stretches of writing that read is if they were copied from 19th century newspapers, though there is no attribution.

But far worse are the numerous errors of fact, wh This is the most poorly written book I've read this year. Apparently Wallach's publisher saved money by skipping the copyedit. The misuse of language is jarring--for example cowboys in Texas are described as "rustling" cattle in a sentence where the author means herding, not stealing. The sentence structure is clumsy. There are long stretches of writing that read is if they were copied from 19th century newspapers, though there is no attribution.

But far worse are the numerous errors of fact, which make it clear that Ms. Wallach is ignorant of many commonly known facts of 19th century history and daily life.

Early on she describes ambergris as a whale bone product. It isn't. It's a substance found in whale stomachs. Later she lists companies and people active during the Civil war and states that Pulitzer was active as a journalist at the time. He was at the time, in fact, a new immigrant serving in the Union army. He worked as a journalist years later.

There were many other such small, but telling mistakes of historical , which were all the more damning because they could have been easily checked with a single Google query.

For those who might wonder where the author came up with the information in her page, the notes are a dead loss. There are very few citations, and long tracts of text appear without any clue as to where the facts they describe came from.

Given how poor the author's grounding was in simple details of 19th century life, and the lack of decent footnoting, there is no reason to believe that the story told here is accurate. It certainly doesn't tell us anything about how Hetty Green accumulated her great wealth. And though the author dismisses the worst accusation against Green--that her cheapness led to her son's losing his leg, there are no facts to back up this claim either, and the rest of the picture Wallach paints of Green makes her sound like a thoroughly unpleasant person who would be quite capable of doing just that.

I have to say I find it really depressing that a book this poorly written and researched gets the kind of big book treatment it does, when so many far better biographies languish in obscurity without the big advances and heavy promotion this author, mysteriously, commands. ...more

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Nov 03, 2012 Lena rated it liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

Two and a half stars, rounded up.

Hetty Green was born into a Quaker whaling family in Massachusetts in the 19th century. Early on, she sought to gain her father's attention by learning as much as she could about the family business. While she didn't succeed in gaining her father's respect during his lifetime, she developed a sharp head for numbers and investments and ultimately transformed her inheritance into a fortune worth an estimated 2 billion in today's dollars.

This book was interesting en ...more

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Oct 16, 2020 Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all) rated it did not like it

Shelves: rather-heavy-going, stonking-great-disappointment, abandoned

I've read all I'm going to of this book, about a third of it. If you want a detailed examination of the economic ups and downs of the US in the mid 19th century, you might find it interesting, but as a "biography" of a person it's a total fizzle. After Hetty returns from New York, having rejected the season, she is wheeled in once or twice in every chapter but only as background. The writing style is terrible, overly florid when describing and full of lists of names etc. which saps the already d ...more

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Jan 21, 2013 Patricia rated it it was ok

If you're really into financial dealings - the ups and downs of the stock market through history, mortgages, railroads, and other transactions - then you'll probably give this a couple more stars than I did. I think I wanted more of a personal account of Hetty Green. Was warned when the author indicated in the prologue that Hetty had left no diary, no personal papers, and that her life story had been pieced together from newspaper accounts which are admittedly biased or inaccurate. Still, I do e ...more

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Jan 09, 2019 Lauren Hiebner rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: owned

The author Janet Wallach says in Author’s Notes that this is not a traditional biography but rather “it is an impressionist painting, a series of brushstrokes meant to shed light on a woman and her times”. Unfortunately, the numerous overused similes and metaphors distract from the story of a remarkable woman, Hetty Green. Hetty Green was an amazing woman in a business world of men. She lived a frugal, simple Quaker life and yet conducted ruthless business deals that helped make her the richest ...more

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Aug 11, 2016 Sarah - All The Book Blog Names Are Taken rated it really liked it

Shelves: i-heart-ny, old-money-new-york, gilded-age

Wavering back and forth between 3 and 4 stars. Interesting read and Hetty Green is fascinating. But there are a few 'facts' that don't make sense, so I wonder how many others may be inaccurate. Full review to come.

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Rating: 3 Stars

I went back and forth on this one for a while. At times I felt like 4 stars were deserved, but after taking some time away from the book I really can ...more

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Feb 23, 2013 thewanderingjew rated it really liked it

Hettie (alternately Hetty) Green was born into a family that rejected her. Her father, convinced that he was having a son, was terribly disappointed. When his son was born, 9 months later, only to die, he was bereft, as was her mother. She was further rejected and was sent to live with her grandfather.
Hettie had a very strict and rigid Quaker upbringing, and she learned the lessons well, exhibiting the values and standards of the Friends, for most of her life. She was frugal, moral and honest, i Hettie (alternately Hetty) Green was born into a family that rejected her. Her father, convinced that he was having a son, was terribly disappointed. When his son was born, 9 months later, only to die, he was bereft, as was her mother. She was further rejected and was sent to live with her grandfather.
Hettie had a very strict and rigid Quaker upbringing, and she learned the lessons well, exhibiting the values and standards of the Friends, for most of her life. She was frugal, moral and honest, if not always kind, in the way she lived and conducted her affairs. She remained a Quaker until very late in her life when she converted, was baptized, became an Episcopalian like her husband, and was buried next to him.
She worked hard to gain the love and respect of her father and did succeed, eventually. She found it easy to make money. Her philosophy worked. She was bright and she proved herself worthy of taking over the family business, at a time, in the mid 1800’s, when there were few rights for women and fewer men who gave them the respect that was due an intelligent, accomplished woman, who was expected to do nothing more than shop, embroider, conduct social affairs, and matters of the home. Business skills were unnecessary and thought of as inappropriate for females.
Hettie, however, rose to become a powerful businesswoman with great influence on everything she undertook. Although her business prowess was admired, she was often mocked for it, even though a man with the same skills and success would have been praised for his acumen.
As a young girl, in order to find a suitor, her aunt enrolled her at a fine school for dance, in Sandwich, a town in Cape Cod, MA. There she learned proper decorum and how to conduct herself with grace and charm. However, she was often portrayed as disheveled, never really concerned with vanity or appearance. She was educated intellectually at Friend’s Academy, a Quaker school, where her father’s financial and moral lessons were enhanced.
Hettie married Edward Green, a man of considerable reputation and wealth. They lived in England for several years and Hettie bore two children, Ned and Sylvia. Both her father and her aunt, who stepped in after the death of her mother, and with whom she was extraordinarily close, disappointed her by not trusting her to take care of her own money, leaving their estates in a trust for her, instead, despite the fact that she had proven herself far more capable than many a man. She had hoped for and, indeed, they had promised, to provide her with financial freedom.
Hettie’s life was a roller coaster of financial investments in stocks, railroads, property, and mortgages; marital concerns, social engagements, lawsuits, grudges and revenge. The road she traveled was often bumpy, but her indomitable spirit carried her onward to become the most prominent and wealthy woman of her time, withstanding all the arrows of that period.
She lived during a century of trauma, the Civil War was raging, she witnessed history with the birth of The Emancipation Proclamation, the writings of Karl Marx, bank failures, stock market crashes, (sounds like today!) the beginnings of the woman’s suffrage movement, the demand for equality, an end to slavery, and even the assassination of two Presidents, Lincoln and McKinley. In a man’s world, she was far more successful than men! She survived each crisis on top of the heap.
Her father foresaw the end of the whale oil market, he saw the coming age of railroads, he was an astute businessman and investor, and Hettie took after him. However, she was always a penny-pincher until the end, always given to plain taste in clothing and lifestyle, not very interested in charity, but always interested in making more money.
Always remembering how she was given short shrift in the wills of her family, she wanted to make sure her own children were well provided for and could be independent. She succeeded. She held sway over their choices and decisions without mercy, and as a result, Sylvia did not marry until the age of 38, and Ned kept company with someone for years that his mother would not accept, whom she called Miss Harlot instead of Miss Harlow.
Hettie was nothing, if not outspoken. As a result of her interference, neither child produced an heir to either carry on the name or inherit the fortune. It was doled out piecemeal to many beneficiaries, and the Robinson/Greene family dynasty died with the death of her children.
A remarkable woman, whose main interest was simply making money (and she sure made a lot of it before she “shuffled off this mortal coil”, at the age of 82, as the richest woman in America), comes to life and lives on in the pages of this book, thanks to the research and very authentic presentation of her, by Janet Wallach, the author. ...more

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Mar 16, 2017 Erika rated it really liked it

Hetty Green lived her life the way she wanted, not the way other people expected her to. She tricked men who tried to trick her. She had a head for numbers. She was kind, smart, and funny. She seems to have done a pretty good job with the hand she was dealt in life as a child.

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Dec 06, 2012 George rated it really liked it

Shelves: lacpl-ebook, non-fiction, nook-st

INTERESTING, INSIGHTFUL AND INSTRUCTIVE.

“To New Englanders of every sort, prosperity was a virtue.”—page 17

Hetty Howland Robinson Green (1835-1916) was my kind of gal—smart, frugal, tough-minded, strong-willed, and wealthy—whose rock-solid Yankee New England values and ethics might have closely paralleled my own.

Perhaps growing up a mere fifteen miles and a brief century removed from Hetty’s origins [New Bedford, Massachusetts], bore some influence in that regard. I hope so. It pleases me to th INTERESTING, INSIGHTFUL AND INSTRUCTIVE.

“To New Englanders of every sort, prosperity was a virtue.”—page 17

Hetty Howland Robinson Green (1835-1916) was my kind of gal—smart, frugal, tough-minded, strong-willed, and wealthy—whose rock-solid Yankee New England values and ethics might have closely paralleled my own.

Perhaps growing up a mere fifteen miles and a brief century removed from Hetty’s origins [New Bedford, Massachusetts], bore some influence in that regard. I hope so. It pleases me to think that some of the ‘old fashioned’ Yankee—‘waste not, want not’—wisdom might have survived and been appreciated for at least that many decades. Would that that appreciation might return.

Although I was raised in the area, Janet Wallach’s book, ‘The Richest Woman in America: The Life and Times of Hetty Green,’ still offered up at least a couple of surprises about New Bedford, for me.

First, I was totally unaware of the significant influence of the Quaker community in New Bedford commerce, i.e. whaling, shipping, finance and textile. In fact I was virtually unaware that there even was a Quaker community in New Bedford. Congregationalist and Catholics galore, but not Quakers.

Second surprise, “[in 1857] …whaling reached its peak, with more ships, more capital, and more sailors than ever, making New Bedford the richest city per capita in the world.”—page 55. I have a difficult time getting my mind around the idea of New Bedford, or any other cities in the area, ever having been “the richest city per capita in the world.” Perhaps I’d better read ‘Moby Dick,’ after all.

Recommendation: This is a good—interesting, insightful and instructive—biography, especially for the economically conservative (i.e. skinflints and tightwads) among us.

“American children are not taught how to save money but how to spend it. Everything they want—give it to them so long as you know the price of the credit. That’s the policy of the modern mother and she is raising a nation of spendthrifts whose one thought is to get what they want when they want it.”—page 228

“Watch your pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves.”—page 251

Adobe Digital Editions [ePub], 289 pages,
on loan from http://overdrive.colapublib.org/
...more

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Jul 12, 2012 Doreen rated it liked it

Recommends it for: Nick, Matt, and those who enjoy history and finance.

Recommended to Doreen by: Won it on Goodreads!

Shelves: goodreads-giveaways

This book rates a 3.5 at least, but I just couldn't give it a 4. It is a biography only by the broadest interpretation of the word. I expect a biography to provide information centered on a person's private life, profession, accomplishments, adventures, etc. And though a biography may contain peripheral people and events, I expect the majority of the book to relate directly to the biographee. That is not how this book is written.

Hetty was a private person, not a flashy attention-seeker, so there ...more

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Sep 05, 2013 Lori rated it liked it · review of another edition

Started this book with high hopes since it was by the wonderful author of the Desert Queen, Janet Wallach. Wallach has ability to paint picture of the times she is writing about so vividly that they come feel very real as one reads or listens. Unfortunately, this AudioBook, (this version that ran about 8 & 1/2 hours long), was narrated by what I thought at times was a robot trying to express empathy. Actually I think Siri, the iphone voice would have done a better job. It was Maddening to try to ...more

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May 05, 2013 Holly rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2013-reads, audio

Every listening session I found myself drifting away from the narrative and having to yank my focus back to attention ... then five minutes later it would happen again. This grew exhausting and a little worrisome (what was wrong with me?). But I got behind the wheel one evening during that week and to my surprise was immediately caught up in a "Selected Shorts" story in medias res. So I determined that it wasn't my listening that was entirely to blame: at the start of each section/chapter (and p ...more

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Jun 05, 2013 Angie rated it really liked it

I had never heard of Hetty Green, and I found her intriguing. She was extremely successful as a financier at a time when the field was dominated by men. She was a sharp investor who did her homework. She believed in good causes and helping the middle class. And of course, she also seemed a little paranoid and had a habit of dressing down. She was covered often in the press, but many people didn't know what she looked like. Today it would be much harder for her to fool the public.

Her practical a ...more

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Nov 26, 2012 Wendy rated it liked it

I really enjoyed this biography about the richest woman in America. It's surprising how much Hetty Green did for this country and the city of New York, yet she isn't talked about in history books much, if at all. She saved the City of New York from bankruptcy several times, grew the railroads more than other railroad magnates, and accumulated more wealth than most of the country's leaders of the time. Her eccentric ways earned her a reputation as the "witch of Wall Street" but she was certainly ...more

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Dec 31, 2019 Holli rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: awesome-women

Well written in narrative style. Great at giving context to the times and providing hilarious vignettes into Hetty's life. I am starting to be fascinated by the Gilded Age and it's interesting to me how some names ie Vanderbilt, Morgan, Astor, have stuck with us and others like Green have been lost. By all accounts, she was famous in her day but I imagine she wasn't sensational enough for dramatisations to be made about her. I enjoyed the end with the "wisdom of Hetty Green" too. ...more

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Mar 09, 2013 Ed Thereault rated it liked it

The book feels incomplete, more like an outline or a synopsis of a much richer story. The sprinkling of gilded age luminaries, social customs, and institutions, (the metropolitan museum, the Waldorf Astoria, shops and restaurants, etc) was the kind of information spouted by docents in the Newport Mansions and historical societies.

In short, the book is not bad, it is just superficial.

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Oct 24, 2012 Clara rated it it was ok

Shelves: research

I had hoped to learn more about Hetty the person, but most of the book is about the gilded age -- sort of a mishmash of facts (?) about railroads, financial booms & busts, real estate, even the Wizard of Oz, but very little new about Hetty, except some about her final years. I was disappointed.

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Jul 23, 2012 Kyla rated it liked it

Shelves: giveaways

Though I thought it was going to be more centered around her private life, it was a really good book filled with an immense amount of details and facts about Hetty Green's life ...more

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Nov 13, 2012 Anne marked it as to-read

I just learned about Hetty Green last year when I was staying near Bellows Falls, VT where she lived. Who knew? I am interested to find out more about her.

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Feb 21, 2018 Maggie rated it it was ok

Shelves: nyc, biography-and-memoir, economics-and-money, you-go-girl, gilded-age, you-re-my-obsession, unusual-lifestyles

I listened to the audiobook version. I didn't really care for the reader. Her manner of speaking was very halted and choppy, which was distracting.

The author did a good job informing the reader that Hetty Green was a force with which to be reckoned. I really enjoyed learning more about her personality, her Quaker roots, and her New England families. I find it interesting to read biographies where one's childhood and background heavily influence the subject's later life, in a way that results in I listened to the audiobook version. I didn't really care for the reader. Her manner of speaking was very halted and choppy, which was distracting.

The author did a good job informing the reader that Hetty Green was a force with which to be reckoned. I really enjoyed learning more about her personality, her Quaker roots, and her New England families. I find it interesting to read biographies where one's childhood and background heavily influence the subject's later life, in a way that results in success. I wish the author had told me more about that part of her life, and that of her parents and aunt. I also wish she had told more about her relationship with her husband -- their marriage ended up not being very happy, and the author only skimmed over the reasons why. (In the author's defense, Hetty was a very private person, so perhaps there is simply no historical evidence which provides any details about the estrangement between them. But I like a little Gilded Age juiciness -- who were these other women? Even rumors would have been interesting.)

I could have done without the information about her financial life, but that is just me -- I don't find the world of finance interesting. And with a person like Hetty Green, separating her personal life from her finances is antithetical to any biography of her. Perhaps a better explanation of what exactly was going on in these financial transactions and her plans to increase her wealth would have helped me be more invested (no pun intended) in that part of her life. Rather than telling me that she loaned millions to the city of New York, tell me why she decided to do so, and what kind of profit she received when that deal came to an end. Rather than telling me she bought railroads in Texas, tell me why she did so. What kind of research did she do before investing in a company? What did she look for when deciding what to invest in? Other than selling high and buying low, this is never discussed in the book.

Speaking of financial matters, I was surprised that the 2008 recession was referenced several times in the book. It felt misplaced, forced, and almost as if it has been the only financial crisis our country has seen since Hetty's day. If you're trying to put the Gilded Age economic rollercoaster in the context of American financial history as a whole, how on Earth do you do that without once mentioning the Great Depression? Or the junk bond events of the 1980s? Or the inflation of the 1970s?

I was also very surprised that the epilogue didn't include any information about what happened to her children after she passed away. Based on my admittedly vague previous knowledge of Hetty Green, I believe neither her son nor her daughter had any children, so her entire fortune ultimately went to various charities after their deaths. The book is not clear on this. How many generations had cared for this fortune before the family line ended? How did Hetty feel about this? Was she aware that her restrictions on her children's marriages played a large role in her family tree coming to an end, and therefore, her family's fortune? Did she regret this? Why did her will stipulate that her money be given to the organizations listed in the book? There is no context provided.

While the author is a good writer and clearly did a lot of research, I feel she could have done more with this book. I appreciate the deeper understanding of Hetty's New England roots, but this biography only skimmed the surface of most of her life. I will look for others which delve more deeply. ...more

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Nov 10, 2018 John rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I remember seeing an old copy of the book of world records had categories for richest people. In it, in addition to the richest man at the time was also an entry for Hetty Green under "World's Greatest Miser". It was brutally unflattering. It said things like she would eat her oatmeal cold because she didn't want to pay for the heat and that her son lost her leg because she didn't want to pay for the doctor.

So, when looking for audiobooks for a vacation drive at the library, imagine my surprise I remember seeing an old copy of the book of world records had categories for richest people. In it, in addition to the richest man at the time was also an entry for Hetty Green under "World's Greatest Miser". It was brutally unflattering. It said things like she would eat her oatmeal cold because she didn't want to pay for the heat and that her son lost her leg because she didn't want to pay for the doctor.

So, when looking for audiobooks for a vacation drive at the library, imagine my surprise when my wife finds a biography of her, and moreover the description on the back seems quite sympathetic, even favorable. Upon listening, it becomes clear that what we have in this book is a full-bore attempt at restoration.

This restoration makes for an enjoyable audiobook. It's told with very clear voice at a brisk speed that carries one along with the events, but by no means is too fast for easy comprehension. Hetty's quotes are rendered in a New England accent that stands out as different, but is no less crisp and clear. It's told with enough personality as to give the narrative some feeling, but not so much as to call attention to the acting away from the text.

I'll admit I didn't quite finish the story as the trip ended before the book did. From what I heard from this book, it does give a different perspective on events. As a specific example, although she did turn away the doctor in examining the son's leg, she had received informal medical training and had convinced herself she had already set the injury correctly. More generally, we observed that her spare Quaker upbringing and the key role of male figures in her childhood had given her a distaste for indulgence and an interest in business affairs.

The description of her childhood were not particularly pleasant, but once her youth was behind her, I enjoyed the clever financial dealings with the background of historical events. It's interesting to see the Civil War and Gilded Age rendered from a financial perspective, but also at a personal scale. The press was not kind to Hetty Green, but the book presents that she lived the life she wanted to live in spite of that, at a time in which no other women participated in a financial life to nearly the same degree. She may not have been a heroine at anything other than being smart and being herself, but that alone is a terrific achievement for all the BS (and lawsuits) she had to take.

It may be that this book presents an all-too-flattering portrait; a bit of the pendulum swinging too far the other way. Other reviews question historical details. However, if you don't pay any of that too much mind, it's an enjoyable listen.

Overall, it's clear that the record books should have placed her under "Richest Woman", no matter how she chose to live her life, as that is what she achieved. ...more

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Dec 23, 2020 Sarah rated it really liked it

I'd never heard of Hetty Green, but she was once the richest woman in America. Born into an old whaling family, she inherited a fortune, then grew it dollar by dollar by investing in railroads, real estate, and more than a few municipalities - at one point, she was New York City's largest lender. (She also owned an entire town near Chicago, which I find fascinating.) Fiercely independent, she threw her husband out of the house after he gambled with - and lost - some of her money in a stock marke ...more

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Mar 29, 2019 Pat rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A twofer month - 2 excellent books about women of substance!!!! I had never heard of Hetty Green mentioned at all but never amongst Vanderbilt, JP Morgan, etc., and she bested them all by investing her own money without help and setting her own terms! Fascinating, and she raised 2 children and taught them the same principles about accumulating money and spending it reinvesting. She was a Quaker and had a wonderful set of Wisdoms reiterated at the end of the book a few of which are:

Watch your pen ...more

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Aug 23, 2018 Kaarin rated it liked it

When I read a "biography" I expect tons of biographical information, heavy background information and, in this case, what happened to the estate. Well, I think this book fell short. I did however find all the historical information quite interesting (i.e. the many recessions, Lincoln's assasination, etc.). The author provides a listing of all of her sources of information which is fine but who has the time to find all these sources and obtain more information? I really think the book could have ...more

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Mar 09, 2020 Mystic Miraflores rated it it was amazing

This was a very interesting book. I had never heard of Hetty Green before and I found out why toward the end of the book. She didn't have any descendants as her children didn't have their own offspring. So the Greens have died out, unlike the Rockefellers and Vanderbilts (so far). Nor are there charities or buildings named after the Greens, unlike the Huntington Library, the Getty Museum or the Hirschorn Museum. Hetty was definitely a woman before her time. Ms. Wallach did a lot of research to ...more

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Apr 10, 2019 Caroline rated it really liked it

I'm enjoying american history biographies recently - never would have guessed! This was a good one to audiobook in the car, since the lack of plot (hint: she makes money by investing) probably would have made it a slog for me to read. But being a captive audience duirng NPR's membership campaign allowed me to soak up the atmosphere and think about the timeline. The characters could have used a bit more development rather than just saying Sylvie was lumbering over and over, but I enjoyed it nonet ...more

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Apr 20, 2018 Caety rated it liked it

Giving 3 stars because some of the "facts" don't seem to add up. However, you do get a sense of the life and time period of Hetty Green and her family. The trials and courageous dealings with making a fortune in a male-dominated time period. She believed in helping people and stayed true to her Quaker upbringing, being a spend-thrift and actually living in middle-class neighborhoods. She needs a place in our history books. ...more

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Sep 15, 2017 Kathryn rated it it was ok

The life of Hettie Green is fascinating, but this book falls flat. The writer is obsessed with lists, the editor didn't do their job, and the constant shifting between world history and Hettie's life is done with no ease. I wouldn't recommend this book, but I'd encourage you to research Hettie Green as she was an extraordinarily accomplished woman. ...more

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Jan 16, 2019 Brittany rated it liked it

I like to think I know a good deal about gilded age figures, but I hadn’t heard of Hetty Green. A woman who became rich by investing her inherited fortune smartly, being frugal, and not letting men take over her finances. She is an incredible figure with both good and bad qualities, but somehow the book fell a little flat to me which should be hard to do given her incredible story.

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