TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS IN WALL STREET

NY: Irving Publishing Company, 1888. First Edition. Signed presentation from Clews on a front blank page: "Adolph J.G. Franck Esq., With the compliments of Henry Clews. Aug. 3, 1897." Perhaps the 19th century's best book on Wall Street, it is a fascinating examination of the financial markets during a period of rapid economic expansion. Clews was a titan in finance and this firsthand account reveals shocking stories of political and economic manipulation and how he helped bring down the mighty Boss Tweed. He writes about the madness of the markets and how the era's greatest speculators amassed their fortunes- in an era of little regulation. Clews was born in England in 1836 and emigrated to the United States in 1850. In 1859, he cofounded Livermore, Clews, and Company- what became the second largest marketer of federal bonds during the Civil War. In 1877, he split away and started Henry Clews & Company, a member of the New York Stock Exchange, which made him enormously wealthy. I do not have much information about Franck, except he was born in 1865 in Germany (like Clews) and died in Sussex, New Jersey in 1926. Thick 8vo., pictorial green cloth, stamped in gilt; 717 pages with 21 pages of press reviews. Illustrated with nearly 50 plates.. Very Good (covers bright with minor wear; contents clean & tight with frontispiece foxed; minor cracking rear hinge but still nice & tight).