The Richest Woman in America: Hetty Green in the Gilded Age

By Janet Wallach

Categories: Biographies & Memoirs, Business & Money

Janet Wallach tells the life of Hetty Green, who turned an inherited fortune into one of the largest of the Gilded Age through shrewd, patient investing. Green bought bonds, railroads and real estate when others panicked, lent money to New York City and lived famously frugal. Wallach follows her childhood in a New Bedford whaling family, her marriage, her court fights and the reputation that earned her the nickname "the Witch of Wall Street."

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• Shane Parrish: “I can't remember what prompted me to re-read The Richest Woman in America: Hetty Green in the Gilded Age, but I enjoyed it the second time more than the first.”