Empire: A Tale of Obsession, Betrayal and the Battle for an American Icon - Hardcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

MITCHELL PACELLE is an award-winning journalist who has covered business for The Wall Street Journal over the past eleven years. He has won the New York Press Club's 1999 Business Reporting award, was a finalist for UCLA's Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism, and was part of the team nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the collapse of the Long-Term Capital Management hedge fund.

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Empire
THE UNTOLD STORY BEHIND THE BATTLE FOR THE ULTIMATE PRIZE

"Great business writing and even greater gossip . . . [Pacelle] has great fun with the bizarre cast of characters who plot and connive against one another in what reads like a cross between film noir and a Harold Robbins novel." ––Publishers Weekly

"Empire is a fascinating and entertaining ′biography′ of one of the twentieth century′s greatest landmarks, complete with a cast of unsavory characters with egos and ambitions to match the Manhattan skyline. Pacelle gives a fine architectural and economic history of America since the Depression, but his lucid prose and gift for narrative make the book read like a first–rate mystery novel." ––Ross King, author of Brunelleschi′s Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture

"In his well–crafted chronicle, Mitchell Pacelle captures the manic ambitions and outsized egos of the real estate tycoons who would own America′s ultimate trophy property." ––James Hirsch, author of Hurricane: The Miraculous Journey of Rubin Carter

Aus dem Klappentext

It is the most famous skyscraper in the world-a towering edifice whose silhouette defines New York's skyline. Each year, millions of visitors from all over the world flock to its upper reaches to take in its dramatic views. Yet few are aware of the triumphs and tragedies that have played out in its storied corridors. Ever since it was erected during the Great Depression, the Empire State Building has been coveted by ambitious, self-made men who have gone to great lengths to call it their own. It has carried some of them to prominence, others to the precipice of financial ruin. For a few, the building has exacted an even higher toll-costing them friends, family, and even their freedom.

EMPIRE is a gripping account of a frenzied decade-long contest for control of America's premier skyscraper. MITCHELL PACELLE, an award-winning writer for The Wall Street Journal, takes us behind the scenes in a bizarre drama of greed, rivalry, duplicity, and betrayal. Taking advantage of extensive access to key players, he traces the saga from the boardroom where an intricate ownership web was spun to the time-warped world of a Japanese tycoon; from castles in Britain to jail cells in New York and France.

Pacelle brings vividly to life a colorful and intriguing cast of characters at the center of the contest, including: * Hideki Yokoi, a reviled Japanese billionaire who gathered storybook buildings as if they were trophies-and whose obsession with owning the Empire State Building would tear his family asunder * Kiiko Nakahara, Yokoi's daughter, and her husband, Jean-Paul Renoir, whose own quest for the building would lead them on a ruinous legal odyssey on two continents * Harry and Leona Helmsley, the building's link to a fading era of Manhattan real estate kingpins, whose iron grip on the building would come under spirited attack from many quarters * Donald Trump, who would maneuver to gain a slim stake in the skyscraper, then play it for all it was worth

Brilliantly written, with twists and turns that surprise like fiction, EMPIRE offers a rare glimpse into the era of old-world real estate tycoons, and explores the culture clash that erupted when the new guard rose to challenge them. What unfolds is one of the most captivating business tales of our time.