The Great I Am

New York: The Macaulay Company. Very Good. (c.1933). First Edition. Hardcover. (grey buckram; no dust jacket) [modestly shelfworn, a bit of soiling to edges of text block, spine turned, small puncture wound to spine]. "This is the story of a swindler who made a fortune so vast that his millions won him a position among the most respected citizens. Without honor, without illusions, without conscience he sacrificed women and men to his lust for wealth and power. His marriage was a business deal; he drove his mistress to suicide and exploited her death as a sensation in his newspapers. Yet he won fame as a philanthropist and as a champion of morality! But life took a sinister revenge." The novel's protagonist was said at the time to have been based on Frederick Bonfils, longtime publisher of The Denver Post (who had conveniently died the year before the book's appearance), although Variety reported that the publishers went to some lengths to evade the issue. .