"A fascinating look at the real Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel, the designer who forever revolutionized the way women look. She was a free spirit, brilliant business woman, and beauty who never found reciprocated love. Madsen, with authority, delves into this fashion doyenne's business and private lives to reveal one woman's extraordinary progress: from orphan to millinery shopkeeper, from lodestar of feminine style to a very rich woman with a closet full of dark secrets."
"The ultimate Hollywood story revealed: the sizzling relationship between Joseph Kennedy, patriarch of America's most influential political family, and Gloria Swanson, one of the most prominent silent film stars of her day. Gloria and Joe were in love with each other and with the movies, especially Queen Kelly, which completed the real-life ménage à trois. Starring along with the star of the screen and the Boston Brahman in this exposé are Erich von Stroheim, Kennedy's wife Rose, Swanson's husband, and a cast of colorful hangers-on. Madsen recreates their love, scandal, and world, which in its extravagance and intrigue has never been surpassed."
"Author of fourteen biographies, Axel Madsen chronicles the people who shaped the 20th century. In The Deal Maker, he sheds light on a man whose tireless optimism led to the formation of the first super-corporation. A charismatic salesman in the late 19th century, William Durant started a cart-building business after accepting an especially comfortable ride one day. By the time he turned forty, he was a millionaire wondering what to do with the rest of his life. When he was approached by retired plumber David Buick and a group of friends from his hometown of Flint, Michigan, Durant had only ridden in an automobile twice. His ensuing creation of General Motors essentially invented modern-day corporate America, gaining and losing him three fortunes in the process. Durant's story highlights the uneasy relationship between inventors and those who control the capital to exploit those inventions. Nelson Runger's narration takes listeners to a time when men like Durant, Henry Ford, J.P. Morgan, and Pierre du Pont were making decisions that would shape America's future."
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