This small book (pocket size, and only 200 pages) is part of a series of brief biographies published by Knopf in the 1950s. With his interest in railroads, the Pacific Northwest, and interesting characters, Holbrook was the perfect choice as a biographer for the man known as The Empire Builder. Holbrook’s narrative is as crisp as you might expect, and he presents Hill in all his complexity, neither idolizing nor demonizing him.

Near the end of the book, Holbrook mentions Hill's agricultural interests, and his promotion of immigration to settlements along the line of the Great Northern. The subsequent depression-era failure of dryland farms in eastern Montana is covered in Bad Land: An American Romance by Jonathan Raban.

For a brief glimpse of Hill, with more detail on the Great Northern route through Washington, read Gary Krist's excellent The White Cascade: The Great Northern Railway Disaster and America’s Deadliest Avalanche. ( )

$30. 1955 First Edition. Dust Jacket torn otherwise fine condition.