Ultimate Folly: The Rises and Falls of Whitaker Wright

by Henry MacRory

A gripping story of greed, treachery and ruthless ambition. Few people have led such an extraordinary life as Whitaker Wright. Few have died in such sensational circumstances. Beginning his career as an impoverished preacher, Wright crossed the Atlantic to prospect for gold, surviving a Native American massacre before he made his fortune. Then the bubble burst. Leaving behind a string of angry investors, he fled to England to start again. Soon he was one of the world's richest men. At his 10,000-acre estate in Surrey, he employed an entourage of seventy-seven staff, moved a hill that blocked his view and built an underwater glass smoking room. On his vast steam yacht, he entertained the Prince of Wales, the Kaiser and half of Britain's aristocracy. His downfall was as dramatic as his ascent. On the last trading day of the nineteenth century, his financial empire – which he had propped up by cooking the books – went belly up. This time, the trail of furious investors stretched all the way to the Prime Minister. With the police in hot pursuit, Wright fled to New York, but his escape was short-lived. At the end of what the press dubbed 'the most dramatic trial of modern times' he was sentenced to seven years in jail. Minutes later, he sprang a last dreadful surprise... Other great swindlers have followed in Wright's footsteps, but none have surpassed him in daring and shamelessness. Drawing on family papers and archives from around the world, this compelling account of Wright's life reads like a thriller and offers an insight into the mind of the ultimate gambler and conman.

333 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 12, 2018

Reviews

[salema cornick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book on the ultimate swindler Whitaker Wright. Compelling and unputdownable. Wright was a fascinating character, and Henry MacRory has done a great job in writing this biography. Highly recommended.

[Derek · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was delighted at the publication of the first full-length biography of my great-great uncle.

Henry Macrory has an impeccable track record as a journalist (deputy editor of the Sunday Express) and spins a tale that will keep you reading.

There is no doubt as to the author's ability as a biographer. He has probably read everything there is on Wright and has left no stone unturned in his research.

Wright's life contains the ingredients of a true drama - physical danger, extreme wealth, an excessive lifestyle, infidelty, gross deception and an unexpected dramatic ending (Wright committed suicide after being convicted of fraud). I can't recommend this book enough. It should be made into a movie. No question!

[Alix Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

A rollercoaster of a book. An immense amount of research sifted and sorted into an extremely comprehensive form, especially when detailing the financial shenanigans which might otherwise turn off some readers. Written in a manner that keeps the reader very engaged, Henry Macrory has done his utmost to unravel this extraordinarily complex and conflicting character of whom we can never have a full understand. I look forward greatly to the author's next book.

[MLD · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 star rating. Historically I found the book interesting but thought it a bit of a stretch to call Whitaker Wright a shameless swindler (title). He was a businessman who made a lot of money through investors...albeit some quite gullible in his get-rich schemes. I was a bit lost in the aspects of the buying & trading of the stock mining shares, yet this bigger than life tycoon certainly knew how to live larger than life with his spending and new found wealth. Especially appealing to me is his appearance in Rossland, BC in 1898 where he was all but forgotten. I’ve resided here 20 years and only recently found out about him. A very interesting fellow whose exploits led him to the gold mines of Red Mountain (Le Roi mine) and his ultimate demise.

[Matt Boak · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book boils down to:

Man buys mines
Man tells others they’re more successful than they are
Others buy stocks in company that owns mines
Man makes lots of money
Man gets found out

There really isn’t much more to it.

All that said, as someone keen on history I did enjoy the context of the story set against the California gold rush as well as those in Australia and Canada, which I didn’t know much about.

You can also see some symmetry with the current craze for crypto currencies and the speculative mining crazy of the 19th century.

Ultimately, it wasn’t an incredible story brilliantly told, but there was enough there to entertain and inform without blowing me away.

[Nick Burridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

An early day Maxwell or Madoff....

[JC Moran · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book about an unusual man, Well researched and illustrated,