Meet You in Hell: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and the Bitter Partnership That Changed America

by Les Standiford

Book Overview

Two founding fathers of American industry. One desire to dominate business at any price. "Masterful . . . Standiford has a way of making the 1890s resonate with a twenty-first-century audience."-- USA Today "The narrative is as absorbing as that of any good novel--and as difficult to put down."-- Miami Herald The author of Last Train to Paradise tells the riveting story of Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and the bloody steelworkers' strike that transformed their fabled partnership into a furious rivalry. Set against the backdrop of the Gilded Age, Meet You in Hell captures the majesty and danger of steel manufacturing, the rough-and-tumble of the business world, and the fraught relationship between "the world's richest man" and the ruthless coke magnate to whom he entrusted his companies. The result is an extraordinary work of popular history. Praise for Meet You in Hell "To the list of the signal relationships of American history . . . we can add one more: Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick . . . The tale is deftly set out by Les Standiford." -- Wall Street Journal "Standiford tells the story with the skills of a novelist . . . a colloquial style that is mindful of William Manchester's great The Glory and the Dream. " -- Pittsburgh Tribune-Review "A muscular, enthralling read that takes you back to a time when two titans of industry clashed in a battle of wills and egos that had seismic ramifications not only for themselves but for anyone living in the United States, then and now." --Dennis Lehane, author of Mystic River

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1400047684
• ISBN13: 9781400047680
• Release Date: June 2006
• Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.61 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.2" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

The Heart(lessness) of the Matter

Two men with incredible drive and egos. At one time business partners, but that was history. And that is where the real story begins. Author Les Standiford delivers a classic on the fractious professional relationship of Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick, with the backdrop being the 1892 Battle of Homestead (Pennsylvania) between the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers and the Carnegie Steel Company, the control of its "history" and the aftermath for both men, which ultimately found them at war....between themselves. But in the Spring of 1919 a frail Carnegie, 83, sent an emissary - with letter in hand - to Frick, seeking a meeting to reconcile their differences. "But, so far as anyone knew, the two men had not exchanged a word in nearly twenty years - not since Carnegie drove Frick out of the business and Frick successfully pressed a monumental lawsuit against his former partner, the first in a long string of vengeful acts," writes Standiford. And how Frick, 69, responded - "Tell him I'll see him in Hell, where we both are going" - spoke volumes on an old rivalry that would (soon) go to their graves. Frick died in December, while Carnegie had passed away in August. "He'd gone toe-to-toe with strikers, assassins, and even Carnegie himself, and had rarely met a grudge he could not hold. Long before Frick had constructed the mansion that would dwarf Carnegie's 'Highlands' up the street, he had gone out of his way to purchase tract of land in downtown Pittsburgh, then built a skyscraper tall enough to cast Carnegie's own office building next door in perpetual shadow," Standiford writes. Standiford meticulously travels through the shadows to find the real story of the two men that goes beyond the philanthropic Carnegie and Frick's financial wizardry. It was a partnership that truly transformed America and Standiford gets to heart(lessness) of the matter that brought the pair together and ultimately drove them apart.

Enjoyable reading

Certainly a good book to learn about the relation between two of America's great industrialists. Very easy reading.

Excellent Read

After moving to Pittsburgh I toured Frick's mansion, Clayton. I find it to be so interesting that I picked this book up from the bookstore on the way home. It turned out to be a fascinating read and I would definitely recommend it to anyone. The author is able to make the history come alive and make the personalities of Carnegie and Frick identifiable. Immediately after I finished I gave it to my wife and she loves it too.

Great read!

Meet You in Hell is well-researched and well-written. I enjoyed it very much and have been recommending it to my patrons who like non-fiction.

Yes, and there's even MORE to the story...!

In this lively and informative book, Les Standiford puts on record what has long been whispered in Pittsburgh and New York for more than a century. Standiford boldly tackles the once taboo subject of H C Frick's unyielding ruthlessness, compared and contrasted with Andy Carnegie's twin desires to make himself rich enough to live like a Laird in Scotland and then to cherubically make amends as his days dwindled down. Happily Mr. Standiford lifts the veil and presents the truth about J G A Leishman--a likable fellow sandwiched between two clashing titans and would-be mentors. As a student of Mr. Leishman's life and dual careers in the steel industry and international diplomacy, I was glad to see his role mentioned. Of course, there is much more to that side of the story, including the labyrinthine way that Frick engineered Leishman's ouster and ... oddly enough, repeated almost step-by-step that same performance with Leishman's future son-in-law, James Hazen Hyde, in the Equitable Insurance scandal a decade later. (Neither Patricia Beard in After the Ball nor H C F's descendent in the BIG book about his life go far enough in telling the whole story). Someday, perhaps Mr. Standiford will write a sequel to this book, all about John Leishman and his family. If so, I will be cheering him on! But back to this book, it is a must-read for anyone who has roots in Western Pennsylvania, anyone who wonders about the dark side of beneficent moguls and anyone who just wants to know what made these larger than life characters tick. The story of their two buildings in the `Burgh is worth the price of the book! It is, one must say, most fortunate that the imposing "Miss Frick" is no longer icily holding forth from the cobwebs at Clayton. Now, even though he is sealed beneath tons of concrete at Homewood Cemetery, her beloved father H C cannot rest easily... whether in hell or not... If you find this review helpful you might want to read some of my other reviews, including those on subjects ranging from biography to architecture, as well as religion and fiction