The Great Getty: The Life and Loves of J. Paul Getty - Richest Man in the World [VINTAGE 1985]

Fine unread condition textured red boards, black cloth spine, and gold spine lettering contained in a fine condition price-clipped dust jacket. Includes Author Dedication; List of Illustrations; Acknowledgments; Preliminary Page Quote by H.L. Mencken; Preface; Epilogue: The Aftermath; Appendix I: Getty's Annual Income and Federal Income Tax Paid, 1923-75; Appendix II: Chronology of the Getty FOrtune; Appendix III: The Twenty-One Codicils to Getty's Will, 1958-76; Appendix IV: Notes and Sources; and Index. Illustrated with three section of black-and-white photographic plates and family tree illustrated front and rear endpapers. "A riveting account of an enigmatic life and its turbulent aftermath. Lenzner leaves us spellbound by this man of many contradictions." - William E. Simon, former Secretary of the Treasury. "An eloquent and terrible warning to all who are struggling to get rich." - John Kenneth Galbraith. "Very interesting and enjoyable reading about a fascinating man." - Donald T. Regan, Chief of Staff to the President of the United States. "A compelling account of a miserable yet fascinating man who for all his personality defects was 30 years ahead of the world in high-stakes empire building." - Seymour Hersch, author, The Price of Power. "It reads like a thriller. Absolutely chilling. Like watching a cobra devour the world." - Erich Segal. "Hadrbitten oilman, spectacular lover, absent parent, miserly art collector, philandering and bigamous husband, bohemian expatriate, social snob, physical coward, Hitler sympathizer, writer, master businessman, and the richest man in the world -J. Paul Getty was all these things and more. Now, in The Great Getty the real Getty is revealed at last. Jean Paul Getty was, by 1957, the richest man in the world - and the richest mane ever to pay only $500 or less a year in income taxes. By the time Getty was 24, he had made his first million, become estranged from his very proper parents, and gotten slapped with a paternity suit. By 1930, he had married and divorced three different teenaged girls within five years - only to marry twice more, one time neglecting to divorce his previous wife first. After wresting control of the family trust from his deaf and aging mother, Getty established himself in the midst of the Depression as an international oilman - one of thefirst to see the potential of Arab oil - and an international bon vivant. Using never-before-examined sources, Robert Lenzner reveals Getty's long romance with Adolf Hitler's Third Reich - a romance so vivid that the State Department considered Getty dangerous and took away his passport. Living out of hotel rooms on two continents and running his business out of shoe boxes, Getty eluded the "Nazi" tag and established his company as the powerful "eighth sister" of international oil. J. Paul Getty collected oil shares, art, and women. He attempted to become a British aristocrat, installed guards in his bedroom and a pay phone for his guests - and gave a start to an ambitious you man called Claus von Bulow. (Years later, Getty's son would secretly underwrite von Bulow's murder defense). Surrounded by a bevy of young women, Getty spent his last years writing his sons in and out of his will. One died young of a brain tumor, one became a drug addict, and another was a probable suicide. When J. Paul Getty died in 1976, he left behind a fortune in art and oil that soon became worth over $6 billion. And he left behind as well a reputation as the savviest, most compelling, and contradictory business genius ever." - from the inner front and rear jacket flaps.…