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Thanks to Steve Fraser for his lengthy review of my book, The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt ["The Misunderstood Robber Baron," Nov. 30]. I wish to offer a few words in response, but I hope I don't sound querulous. Fraser offers a healthy amount of praise, and his criticisms largely spring from a sympathy with wage workers. That's precisely the attitude readers--including me--want and expect in your pages. We certainly don't find enough of it elsewhere.
But I would like to stress the nuances that I tried to impart to my portrait. Fraser leaves the impression that my book descends into simple praise for a great capitalist, whereas I tried to uncover the complexities of Vanderbilt's long career. Vanderbilt's life, I found, contributed to the central conundrums of a corporate economy in a democratic society.
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