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Milton S. Hershey's Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire, and Utopian Dreams
Simon and Schuster
January 2006
Featuring: Milton S. Hershey
320 pages
ISBN: 0743264096
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Biography
THIS BOOK IS NEITHER LICENSED NOR SPONSORED BY THE
HERSHEY COMPANY. Hershey.
The name means chocolate to America and the world, but as
Michael
D'Antonio reveals, it also stands for an inspiring man and
a uniquely
successful experiment in community and capitalism that
produced a
business empire devoted to a higher
purpose. One of the
twentieth century's most eccentric and idealistic titans of
industry,
Milton S. Hershey brought affordable milk chocolate to
America,
creating and then satisfying the chocoholic urges of
millions. He
pioneered techniques of branding, mass production, and
marketing, and
gained widespread fame as the Chocolate
King. But as he
developed massive factories, Cuban sugar plantations, and a
vacation
wonderland called Hershey Park, M.S. never lost sight of a
grander
goal. Determined that his wealth produce a lasting legacy,
he tried to
create perfect places where his workers could live, perfect
schools for
their children, and a perfect charity to salvage the lives
of needy
children in perpetuity. Along the way, he overcame his
personal
childhood traumas, as well as the death, after a short and
intensely
romantic marriage, of the one woman he ever
loved. In
childhood, Milton was torn by the constant conflicts
between his stern
mother and starry-eyed father. He watched his father go
bust in the oil
fields and his sister die of scarlet fever. As a young man
he failed
with businesses in Philadelphia, New York, and Chicago.
Milton finally
succeeded in Lancaster, thanks to a caramel recipe copied
from another
confectioner and a lucky break provided by a British
importer. Then, at
the history-shaping Columbian Exhibition, Milton found the
chocolate-making technology that would allow him to bring a
new taste
to America. When they heard about his plan to build a
chocolate empire
complete with its own little city in rural Pennsylvania,
his friends
said he needed a legal guardian. Ten years
later, Milton
controlled the U.S. chocolate market, and his town, Hershey,
Pennsylvania, was the ideal American village. Factory
workers lived in
graceful homes. Their children attended the best schools.
Local parks,
libraries, and theaters rivaled the best in big cities.
Trains brought
thousands of tourists every day, who flocked to see the
miracle town,
the Hershey zoo, and an enormous amusement park.
Not
content with these accomplishments, a childless M.S.
Hershey founded an
orphanage for boys at his family homestead. After his wife
Catherine's
death, the press revealed that he had secretly willed his
entire estate
to the Hershey Industrial School, as it was called. This
was only the
beginning of his giving. Through the Great Depression,
Milton Hershey
used his fortune to fund a massive building program that
kept all his
workers employed and spared the community the real
hardships of the
era. Before he died, he even gave away his mansion, keeping
just two
rooms for himself. Remarkable as Hershey was,
his legacy
is even more powerful. It includes the $8 billion Hershey
Trust (the
single largest private fund for children in the world), an
idyllic
company town in central Pennsylvania, and a corporation
that proves
that the ideals of community and commerce can lead to
profit. This
first-ever, major biography of an American icon paints a
vivid picture
of what Milton S. Hershey accomplished as the ultimate
progressive
businessman. Hershey's life suggests a kind of capitalism
that seems
warmer, and more personal. He was a gambler, raconteur,
despot, and
servant. And he stands as a rare, and perhaps unique,
example of
ambition, altruism, ego, and humility.
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