CHAPTER TWO

A Precocious Dropout Forges His First Empire

In the end, William Crapo Durant was perhaps not only the most forgotten but the most enigmatic of the twentieth century’s great entrepreneurs and innovators. He was:

image  The son of an alcoholic father who abandoned his family

image  Raised by a socialite divorcee in an era when single mothers were shunned

image  A high school dropout

  A devoted son but distant father

  The romantic suitor of a teenage ...

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