
Purchase
The Extraordinary Career of a Luxury Retailing Pioneer
Collins
April 2007
On Sale: April 10, 2007
224 pages ISBN: 0061235377 EAN: 9780061235375 Hardcover
Add to Wish List
Non-Fiction Memoir
In this candid
memoir, A. Alfred Taubman explains how a dyslexic Jewish kid
from
Detroit grew up to be a billionaire retailing pioneer, an
intimate of
European aristocrats and Palm Beach socialites, a respected
philanthropist and, at age 78, a federal prisoner.
With a
unique blend of humor and genius, Taubman shows how selling
fine art
and antiques really isn't that different from marketing root
beer or
football, and offers penetrating insights into that
quintessential
palace of commerce, the luxury shopping mall. Alfred Taubman
may not
have invented the modern shopping center but, in the words
of The New Yorker, "he perfected it." Taubman's life has been a storybook success, with its share
of unique
challenges. A pioneer builder and innovative real estate
developer, he
was also a brilliant land speculator, operator of a quick-serve
restaurant chain, and owner of a major department store
company. But
what seemed like the pinnacle of his career, buying and
reinventing the
venerable art auction house Sotheby's, would lead to his
conviction in
an international price fixing scandal. Despite the
twists and turns, Taubman's life and business philosophy can
be summed up in one evocative phrase: Threshold
Resistance.
Understanding and defeating that force�breaking down the
barriers
between art and commerce, between shoppers and merchandise,
between
high culture and popular taste�has been his life's work.
No awards found for this book.
Comments
No comments posted.
Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!
|