Diamond Jim Brady

A spirited biography of the financier and bon vivant whose lavish lifestyle embodied the Gilded Age. One of the most colorful figures of the most glamorous era in U.S. history, James Buchanan "Diamond Jim" Brady was the high lord of the New York glitterati during the Gilded Age. Brady's was a classic rags-to-riches story. He rose from bellhop to supersalesman, creating a national reputation as a savvy money man in an age filled with industrial titans and robber barons. A celebrated bon vivant, he was renowned for his limitless appetites, for his ability to pack away colossal quantities of food and drink at a single sitting, for his much-storied relationship with Lillian Russell, the world-famous entertainer, and of course, for the profusion of gaudy jewelry with which he bedecked his massive girth and from which his nickname derived. This lively biography vividly recreates New York in the Gilded Age, with its many memorable characters, scandals, and accomplishments. H. Paul Jeffers (New York, NY) has written over twenty books of fiction and nonfiction, including Commissioner Roosevelt and Colonel Roosevelt.