Louis Graveraet Kaufman : the fabulous Michigan gatsby who conquered Wall Street, took over General Motors, and built the world's tallest building / Ann Berman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Berman, Ann, author.

Series:

Painted Turtle Press

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Entrepreneurship--Upper Penninsula (Mich.)--Biography.

Entrepreneurship.

Jews--United States--Michigan--Upper Penninsula--Biography.

Jews.

Bankers--Biography.

Bankers.

Automobile industry and trade.

Empire State Building (New York, N.Y.).

Wall Street (New York, N.Y.).

Capitalists and financiers--Michigan--Biography.

Capitalists and financiers.

General Motors Corporation.

Marquette County (Mich.).

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

246 pages : illustrations, portraits ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

Detroit : Wayne State University Press, [2025]

Summary:

"This fascinating biography recounts the life and legacy of a titan of American banking, Louis Graveraet Kaufman (1870-1942). Also known as LG, he was a Gatsbyesque figure born in Michigan's Upper Peninsula who married into great wealth and then amassed far more of his own. Under LG, New York's Chatham Phenix National Bank and Trust Company became one of the nation's largest banks and the first in New York to boast a network of branches. When he was denied entry into the exclusive, Protestant, old-money Huron Mountain Club, LG responded by building his own retreat: the world's largest log lodge, a 26,000-square-foot behemoth near Marquette, Michigan. Christened Granot Loma, it became the site of lavish Prohibition-era parties, attracting many celebrities who came in private rail cars to enjoy jazz and liquor chez Kaufman. A darling of the press, LG became a household name, making news by coordinating the famous takeover of General Motors in 1916, narrowly escaping death in the Wall Street Bombing of 1920, and financing the Empire State Building during the Great Depression. Author Ann Berman highlights Kaufman's remarkable journey from "barefoot boy" to trailblazing branch banking giant, proving LG was not just a man of his time but one worth reading about over a century later." -- From Amazon.

Contents:

How it all began

The Kaufman family conquers Marquette

Louis Graveraet Kaufman conquers New York

Granot Loma rising

West egg in the Upper Peninsula

The sweets of success: power, money, and high society

The beginning of the end.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [225]-246).

Description based on publisher data; resource not viewed.

ISBN:

9780814348154

0814348157

OCLC:

1453973514

Publisher Number:

90102054888