Includes index.

What happens to a family after it has acquired great wealth? This fresh new biography of several generations in one such family tree -- the Goulds -- provides fascinating insight and a variety of surprising answers. Jay Gould made it. Gould amassed over $150,000,000 and was said to have become the richest man in America. His story comprises almost a third of the present book. Jay Gould's descendants spent it. Some spent it wisely, some not too well, but their lives were all affected by it, often in unexpected ways. A memorable account of how a fortune was gained, how it was spent, who spent it, and how it lives on, Edwin P. Hoyt's narrative vividly creates a departed world populated by the likes of Jim Fiske, Cornelius Vanderbilt, August Belmont, Russell Sage, J. P. Morgan and Andrew Carnegie. HIs book tells how it was then, and what has happened since. The story of the Goulds makes engrossing reading. -- From publisher's description.

SACFinal081324