Reviews
"This may cost me my place at the Left Wing Self-Righteous League’s annual summer picnic and placard march, but there has always been something about the life stories of self-made industrial millionaires that appeals to me. The more quixotic the story, tilting at factories as it were, the more fascinating the tale. In particular, those American inventors and entrepreneurs from the early decades of the previous century with their brilliant ideas (a lightbulb turned on over Edison’s head, so he invented it) with their gargantuan mansions and audacious dreams replaced the great explorers as the daring figures to be admired in Boy’s Life books, or F. Scott Fitzgerald novels. A Diamond as Big as the Ritz? Dig it up!
Carl G. Fisher (1874-1939) was a fabulously eccentric self-made man. His first notable achievement was that he could run faster backwards than other people could going forwards. This is a delightful quirk and had me pondering in an extended digression how many other people there are around us with similar, yet undiscovered skills, as who ever thinks to test that out? Evidently Fisher maintained this odd ability well into adulthood which also makes me wonder how on earth he knew? According to his much younger cousin Jerry, the author of The Pacesetter, Carl was no stranger to the gargle later in life, so one can just imagine some booze-fueled wagers being laid along recently cleared stretches of Miami Beach or Montauk, Long Island.
Ah yes, those. It is fair to say without a bit of exaggeration that without Carl Fisher there would have been no Miami Beach or Montauk as we know them today and without those…well darling, whatever’s a poor rich boy to do? Fisher quite literally carved Miami Beach out of jungle and cleared the land for Montauk, although the latter indirectly cost him his $23 million fortune as the Montauk development was putting lots up for sale just as the Great Depression hit. Uh oh.
Yet that is the appeal of rogues, gamblers and businessmen. They play high stakes with their own money. That same instinct led Fisher to build the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and to be a leader in pushing for the development of the Lincoln Highway, the first road to traverse the continental United States between New York and San Francisco. The highway would likely have been completed a decade earlier had not one Henry Ford been the lone auto magnate to not dip into his pocket and help subsidize the $10 million project. Indeed, Fisher’s battles with Ford, along with his attempts to keep Al Capone the hell out of Miami Beach are two of the great episodes in this book.
Carl Fisher’s life should be as well-known as Ford’s (or indeed Capone’s) yet it had been lost until this fine book was written. Enjoy."
- Hubert O'Hearn, San Diego Book Review
Carl G. Fisher (1874-1939) was a fabulously eccentric self-made man. His first notable achievement was that he could run faster backwards than other people could going forwards. This is a delightful quirk and had me pondering in an extended digression how many other people there are around us with similar, yet undiscovered skills, as who ever thinks to test that out? Evidently Fisher maintained this odd ability well into adulthood which also makes me wonder how on earth he knew? According to his much younger cousin Jerry, the author of The Pacesetter, Carl was no stranger to the gargle later in life, so one can just imagine some booze-fueled wagers being laid along recently cleared stretches of Miami Beach or Montauk, Long Island.
Ah yes, those. It is fair to say without a bit of exaggeration that without Carl Fisher there would have been no Miami Beach or Montauk as we know them today and without those…well darling, whatever’s a poor rich boy to do? Fisher quite literally carved Miami Beach out of jungle and cleared the land for Montauk, although the latter indirectly cost him his $23 million fortune as the Montauk development was putting lots up for sale just as the Great Depression hit. Uh oh.
Yet that is the appeal of rogues, gamblers and businessmen. They play high stakes with their own money. That same instinct led Fisher to build the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and to be a leader in pushing for the development of the Lincoln Highway, the first road to traverse the continental United States between New York and San Francisco. The highway would likely have been completed a decade earlier had not one Henry Ford been the lone auto magnate to not dip into his pocket and help subsidize the $10 million project. Indeed, Fisher’s battles with Ford, along with his attempts to keep Al Capone the hell out of Miami Beach are two of the great episodes in this book.
Carl Fisher’s life should be as well-known as Ford’s (or indeed Capone’s) yet it had been lost until this fine book was written. Enjoy."
- Hubert O'Hearn, San Diego Book Review
"..a fascinating book about a fascinating but forgotten man. Fisher doesn't white-wash his relative's faults or embellish his assets. This is a cards-on-the-table biography. The Pacesetter is heavily notated and draws on hundreds of sources to light the shadows of a marketing genius who shunned the spotlight. {It} takes Fisher through his quarrels with Miami Beach resident Al Capone, the liquor Fisher hid during Prohibition, the developer's fights with Florida anti-Semitism and racism, and the death of his only child, 26 days after the boy was born."
**** Four Star Rating --- The Indianapolis Star
"{The Pacesetter} was written.... to offset a general lack of biographical information....Extensively researched, it gives significant detail about Fisher's projects. Fisher's achievements deserve to be documented..."
---Library Journal
Amazon Reviews
"Jerry Fisher captures Carl’s driven spirit well in The Pacesetter. Fisher’s meticulous details of the circumstances that moved Carl from one adventurous business venture to another shows how inspired he was to overcome his tumultuous upbringing and make himself a successful industrialist. The archival letters and pictures in the book add to the historical accuracy of The Pacesetter."
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- Nicole Sorkin (Amazon Review)
Read Full Review
- Nicole Sorkin (Amazon Review)
"I learned so much about the early years of the Indy 500 and the speedway just from reading this book. Carl G. Fisher was a name I had never heard associated with it. I am so glad I read the book. He started out as a very poor boy. He was considered stupid by many. He quit school at the age of six. The problem wasn't that he was stupid, it was that he couldn't see. This is something that was discovered later in his life. Not only did he create the Indy 500, but he was responsible for two major highways. The Transcontinental highway that crossed the United States East and West and the Dixie Highway went from Indianapolis to Miami. He began to build up Miami. Fisher Island is actually named after him. The more I read his book the more I became convinced that although he made a lot of money, it seemed to be more about the adventure, getting somewhere with his ideas." Read Full Review
-Sandra K. Stiles
-Sandra K. Stiles
"What do the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Miami Beach, and the Lincoln Highway have in common? They were all the creations of Carl. G. Fisher (1874-1939), a promoter and business tycoon with the vision, determination and wealth of his friends Harvey Firestone and Henry Ford, but not, alas, with their well-thumbed niche in American history. Finding a much-deserved place for him among the legends of American enterprise is the avowed purpose of this book, written with clarity by one of Mr. Fisher's cousins, Jerry M. Fisher. Like many businessmen who rose to prominence early in the 20th century, Fisher left school at an early age and worked in a variety of low-paying jobs before making his fortune. From the beginning, he exhibited boundless energy and a lust for life that inspired confidence in investors and eventually presidents of the United States. The Indiana native's early years were closely associated with the automotive industry. He made his fortune with Presto-O-Lite, the first effective automobile headlight. He created the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as a place for auto makers to improve their product through competition. Ever civic minded, he worked tirelessly to raise private capital to build the nation's first transcontinental highway--the Lincoln Highway (the "Father Road" to John Steinbeck's Route 66 "Mother Road". Read Full Review
- Ricardo Mio
- Ricardo Mio
"I am so glad I stumbled upon The Pacesetter. It was a great read and I learned so much from it. I had no idea that Carl Fisher had created the Indy 500 and devolved Miami Beach into what it is today. I am very surprised that his name is not more recognized. His achievements in life are still being enjoyed many many years later. The pictures that accompanied the text really helped bring the story to life. I would recommend this book to anyone!"
-tanzania
-tanzania
