wealth
Fortunes made, inherited, or spent on increasingly strange things.
Prizes Are For Boys
What does it take to invent modern estate planning, compose polytonal symphonies on weekends, and then leave a Pulitzer-winning piece in a drawer for thirty-six years?
The Tidy Man
Who lobbies the League of Nations, twice, to adopt a calendar he designed himself?
The Man Who Left Nothing Behind
If a man dripping in diamonds dies owning only razors, combs, and a pair of sunglasses, where did the diamonds go?
The Man Who Collected the World by the Ton
What happens when a man's collection outgrows every method of counting except weight?
Sir Thomas Phillipps Wanted Every Book in the World
What happens when a man who sleeps on a sofa because his bedroom is full of manuscripts finally has to move houses?
The Witch of Wall Street
What kind of woman eats cold oatmeal for lunch, sleeps with a revolver tied to her hand, and gets a personal visit from J.P. Morgan asking for financial advice?
The Man Who Gave Too Much
He gave away so much gold in Cairo that the Egyptian economy took twelve years to recover — and somewhere on the way home, he ran out of money entirely.
The Woman Who Started the War Early
She raised a revolutionary flag twelve days before the revolution was declared — on a warship that was, on paper, a trading ship.
The Man Who Could Not Fail
He shipped coal to Newcastle during a miners' strike and sold every piece at a premium.
The Man Who Set Himself on Fire to Cure Hiccups
He inherited 132,000 acres at age two and died in a debtors' prison at thirty-seven, and those are not the strange parts.
The Man Who Weighed the Earth and Hid From His Housekeeper
He measured the density of the entire Earth. When he saw his housekeeper on the stairs, he built a second staircase.