Makers and shapers

Notable business biographies of the year

Cornelius Vanderbilt

Cornelius Vanderbilt is the man for whom the term “robber baron” was first used. He founded the modern corporation as we know it today. Totally self-made, when he died in 1877 this New York-based railroad and steamship magnate was worth $100 million. Stiles says he “was a man of action — decisive, dramatic, and always interesting. He courted physical danger, fought high-stakes financial battles, and always set the terms of his existence”. A terrific subject for a dense but satisfying book.

The First Tycoon
The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt
Author: T J Stiles
Publisher: Alfred A Knopf
Price: $37.50

 

John Maynard Keynes

They say Keynes is back. The brilliant English economist who died in 1946 had a most influential prescription for economic policy in times of depression: deficit spending. The free market isn’t entirely self-correcting, he said, and governments should intervene heavily at certain times — if necessary, spending money they don’t have.

In the aftermath of the 2008 crisis, policymakers have turned once more to the long-dead Keynes for guidance. Historian Peter Clarke shows how Keynes was wise in recognising the role of uncertainty in economics, and insisting that theories should explain facts. Clarke also shows how Keynes’s life and times shaped the evolution of his views.

Keynes
The Rise, Fall, and Return of the 20th Century’s Most Influential Economist
Author: Peter Clarke
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Pages: 211
Price: $20

Coco Chanel

There may have been no “little black dress” and certainly no Chanel No. 5 had it not been for Gabrielle Bonheur “Coco” Chanel, the impossibly stylish Frenchwoman who gave her name to perhaps the most famous fashion brand of all. Without Coco, fashionable women may not have got into trousers until the midcentury — those, too, were her invention. The woman herself remains a bit of an enigma, one which Justine Picardie sets out to unravel in this new biography. Picardie worked for Vogue and now writes on fashion, so she is well placed to appreciate both Coco’s work and her life — which was not quite as clean and elegant as her designs.

Coco Chanel
A Life
Author: Justine Picardie
Publisher: It Books
Pages: 336
Price: $40 (forthcoming)

Warren Buffett

Buffett’s stock-picking sense is renowned, and there are many devoted emulators of “Buffettology”. Not only is this billionaire a brilliant investor, he can actually write. Collections of his essays are bestsellers, because Buffett has a sharp but kindly wit. He is famous for being reticent and for living simply in a modest home in Omaha, Nebraska. He and Bill Gates together have committed to leave most of their wealth to charity. So Buffett’s private life is routine, but not boring, and his every public pronouncement is regarded with serious attention. If anything, it’s difficult to be too critical of him, and that’s the only flaw of this major recent biography.

The Snowball
Warren Buffett and the Business of Life
Author: Alice Schroeder
Publisher: Bantam
Pages: 976
Price: $35

Manubhai Madhvani

Successful Indian entrepreneurs are usually shy of biographers. And few would, or even can, write their own memoirs. But that’s just what Manubhai Madhvani has done. The Madhvanis, originally from Gujarat, were among the richest families in Uganda until Idi Amin came to power and first expropriated, then expelled all Asians. That’s just one up-and-down in Madhvani’s career — he had to build his fortune up again in exile in the UK, and then again... Now a regular on UK rich lists, his family is back in business in Uganda. The book is ghostwritten by Giles Foden, a first-class British novelist and author of The Last King of Scotland (1998), set in Amin’s Uganda.

Tide of Fortune
A Family Tale
Author: Manubhai Madhvani with Giles Foden
Publisher: Random House India
Pages: x + 270
Price: Rs 395