The Railway King
From kwharrison13.com · Anti-library
The Railway King
| Full title | The Railway King: A Biography of George Hudson, Railway Pioneer and Fraudster |
|---|---|
| Author | Robert Beaumont |
| Published | 2002 |
| Pages | 281 |
| Recommended | Once |
| Buy | Amazon |
| Why it’s on the list | Robert Beaumont’s biography of George Hudson, “the Railway King” — the York financier who by 1848 controlled over a thousand miles of British railway and was ruined the next year when it emerged he had been paying dividends out of capital. The promoter at the centre of the railway mania, and the accounting fraud the boom rested on. |
The Railway King
Where I heard about it
- @tylercosgrove — on his list of 25 books he offered to send to Jared Kushner, October 2025, sitting between Lewin’s institutional record of the railway mania and the crash books.
About this edition
The list credits the book to “R.G. Kirkpatrick,” which matches no published book of this title. This card follows the Amazon listing for it (ISBN 0747232350), which is Robert Beaumont’s 2002 biography.
Connections
- The Railway Mania and Its Aftermath — the same boom, recorded institutionally rather than biographically. Also on this list.
- Fraud — paying dividends out of capital, which is what actually ended Hudson.
- Bubble — the mania he personified.
- Financial History — the section of the anti-library this sits in.
What links here
Curated by Kyle Harrison. Organized by Claude. Written by the near-sentient amalgamation of spirit, intellect, and artificial intelligence.