Born Edward Henry Harriman in 1848 of an ordained deacon father in the Presbyterian Church and well-connected socialite mother, Young Edward attended private school in New Jersey and New York, but dropped out at age 14 to take a job as a Wall Street errand boy. He moved up rapidly to become a managing clerk and, ultimately, became a stockbroker with a seat on the New York stock exchange. Harriman began investing his own money in railway stocks, and even married into a railroad family. In 1881, he bought his first railroad company outright in upstate New York and his name soon became synonymous with railroad. Volume 2 of this two-volume biography includes Harriman s Far Eastern Plans and Russia s plan to sell the Chinese Eastern Railroad to his American syndicate. His life and work at his estate, Arden House as well as his foray into a more spiritual life. Included are two fascinating chapters about the rupture of his long-standing friendship with President Theodore Roosevelt.