The Man Who Sold America

A Note on Sources

One Lasker biography already exists: John Gunther’s Taken At the Flood, published by Harper & Brothers in 1960, eight years after Lasker’s death. Gunther was an internationally renowned travel writer who achieved literary significance in 1949 with the publication of Death Be Not Proud, a moving account of his son’s death from a brain tumor. He had known Lasker socially and undertook his biography at the request of Lasker’s widow, Mary.

Taken At the Flood is an engaging piece of work by a skilled journalist who had the great advantage of being able to talk to many of the people who played important roles in Lasker’s life. We have drawn on Gunther’s work extensively and have also dug through his Lasker-related papers at the University ...