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The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Texas Oil Fortunes
Penguin Press
February 2009
On Sale: January 27, 2009
464 pages
ISBN: 1594201994
EAN: 9781594201998
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
In The Big Rich, bestselling author and Vanity Fair special
correspondent Bryan Burrough chronicles the rise and fall of
one of the great economic and political powerhouses of the
twentieth century—Texas oil. By weaving together the epic
sagas of the industry’s four greatest fortunes, Burrough has
produced an enthralling tale of money, family, and power in
the American century. Known in their day as the Big Four, Roy Cullen, H. L. Hunt,
Clint Murchison, and Sid Richardson were all from modest
backgrounds, and all became patriarchs of the wealthiest oil
families in Texas. As a class they came to be known as the
Big Rich, and together they created a new legend in
America—the swaggering Texas oilman who owns private
islands, sprawling ranches and perhaps a football team or
two, and mingles with presidents and Hollywood stars. The truth more than lives up to the myth. Along with their
peers, the Big Four shifted wealth and power in America away
from the East Coast, sending three of their state’s native
sons to the White House and largely bankrolling the rise of
modern conservatism in America. H. L. Hunt became America’s
richest man by grabbing Texas’s largest oilfield out from
under the nose of the man who found it; he was also a
lifelong bigamist. Clint Murchison entertained British
royalty on his Mexican hacienda and bet on racehorses—and
conducted dirty deals—with J. Edgar Hoover. Roy Cullen, an
elementary school dropout, used his millions to revive the
hapless Texas GOP. And Sid Richardson, the Big Four’s
fun-loving bachelor, was a friend of several presidents,
including, most fatefully, Lyndon Johnson. The Big Four produced offspring who frequently made more
headlines, and in some cases more millions, than they did.
With few exceptions, however, their fortunes came to an end
in a swirl of bitter family feuds, scandals, and
bankruptcies, and by the late 1980s, the era of the Big Rich
was over. But as Texas native Bryan Burrough reveals in this
hugely entertaining account, the profound economic,
political, and cultural influence of Texas oil is still
keenly felt today.
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