About this item
"A operatic tour-de-force." - Tilar J. Mazzeo, author of The Widow Clicquot"An impressive feat of research, told swiftly and enthusiastically." - San Francisco ChronicleFrom Vanderbilt and Rockefeller to Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, America's captains of industry are paragons of entrepreneurial success, and books about business history, from The First Tycoon to The Big Short, show exemplars of capitalistic cunning and tenacity ... but just as American cocktail connoisseurs can mistake Absolut, Skyy, Grey Goose, or Ketel One for the quintessential clear spirit, so too has America's vision of business history remained nave to a truth long recognized in Eastern Europe: since the time of Tsar Nicholas, both vodka and commercial success have been synonymous in Russia with one name - Smirnoff.
About the Author
Linda Himelstein is a veteran journalist. She began her career in the Washington bureau of The Wall Street Journal and has worked for several other publications, appearing on television outlets such as CNN and C-SPAN as an expert commentator on news of the day. In 1993, Ms. Himelstein joined BusinessWeek in New York as its legal affairs editor. One of her cover stories, titled the Bankers Trust Tapes, earned national headlines and helped BusinessWeek win the National Magazine Award. As legal affairs editor, Ms. Himelstein also covered the lawsuit filed by Smirnov's descendants. They sought to return the trademarks and copyrights of the vodka empire, lost in the tumult following the Russian revolution, to the family and to Russia. The family's story captured the heart and mind of Ms. Himelstein. In 1996, Ms. Himelstein relocated to the Bay Area, writing about finance and retail for BusinessWeek. Two years later, she became the Silicon Valley Bureau Chief just as the technology boom took off. Despite the excitement of Silicon Valley, Ms. Himelstein could not forget the Smirnovs and their compelling story. At the end of 2004, Ms. Himelstein left the magazine and focused her energy for more than four years on the research, reporting, and writing necessary to tell the fascinating--and wrenching--tale in The King of Vodka.
