Cornelius Vanderbilt

(1794–1877)
The Wealthiest Man in America

Victoria Woodhull Tennessee Celeste Claflin Cornelius Vanderbilt Reverend Henry Ward Beecher Elizabeth Cady Stanton Frederic Douglass J. P. Morgan Susan B. Anthony

Cornelius VanderbiltBorn into a New Dutch dirt farming family on Staten Island, the young, ‘Cornele’ Vanderbilt grew up looking across the waters at Manhattan Island. At age eleven, having left school after the third grade, the young Vanderbilt who already mastered sailing his father’s flat hulled, single hemp sail, periauger, entered into an arrangement with his parents to buy the small craft and his freedom in lieu of being placed as an apprentice. The youngest ‘Captain’ sailed vegetables to Manhattan Island and quickly learned to fill his boat with dry goods from the merchants to deliver to the Staten Islanders. Vanderbilt built the single craft business into a sailing ship empire. Vanderbilt seized an opportunity to learn steam propulsion and created a steamship empire. He often conquered competitors, forcing them to pay him a tribute not to compete with his ships on their routes.

The Wealthiest Man In America

Eventually Vanderbilt abandoned sailing ships, and proceeded to build the greatest railroad empire in America. Vanderbilt also conquered the most treacherous of all ventures, the stocks and bonds of Wall Street, and became the owner of the single largest company in America. Fiercely independent and driven, the Commodore competed with a ruthless patience. He always kept accounts to settle in the future if someone had got the better of him… for a while.

At age seventy-four, Vanderbilt met and fell completely and helplessly in love with Tennessee Celeste Claflin and her healing hands. She rejuvenated the elderly industrialist. He humored his paramour by agreeing to work with her sister, Victoria. Vanderbilt was shocked when Victoria could discover more information than his professional and often brutal agents. The Vanderbilt family was so alarmed with the romance between the Commodore and Tennessee that they arranged a marriage to a distant cousin and eventually removed Tennessee from the Commodore’s life.

Outrageous; The Victoria Woodhull Saga Vol 1 Book Image

This debut novel won 12 literary awards. OUTRAGEOUS, traces an icon of Victorian American feminism, Victoria Woodhull from childhood poverty and horrific abuse to becoming one of the wealthiest women in America, founding the first woman-owned brokerage firm on Wall Street, and the first woman-owned newspaper. Victoria will stop at nothing to achieve her destiny.

Scandalous; The Victoria Woodhull Saga Vol 2 Book Image

Volume 2 of The Victoria Woodhull Saga brings Victorian America and the struggle of women to life. The facts amaze, audacity engages, lascivious adventures entertain, and the abuses of power render all of it Scandalous!

Scandalous has won 5 literary awards.

Neal Katz Awards

2016 Winner of three Gold Medals: IBPA Ben Franklin, Bill Fisher Award for Best First Book by a Publisher, the IPPY Award for Best Historical Fiction, and Gold Medal for Historical Fiction/Personage by Reader's Favorite. Other Awards: Finalist in the Historical Fiction category of the 2016 Next Generation Indie Book Awards, Second Place winner of the IndieReader Discovery Award for Best Fiction, Best New Fiction in the International Book Awards for 2016, Finalist in two categories Independent Author Network Book of the Year, Chantecleer Goethe Award Finalist, Shelf Unbound Notable 100, and one of IndieReader's Best Books of 2016.