Audiocassette Review

*** 1/2 “The Great Pierpont Morgan” by Frederick Lewis Allen, read by Walter Zimmerman. Unabridged on seven cassettes. Books on Tape. (800) 626-3333.

Allen’s 1948 biography of the most conspicuous of the American financiers has been newly recorded. The reason may well be that Morgan’s insistence on character and personal rectitude contrasts so sharply with the present sorry state of ethics in the business community as personified by Ivan Boesky, the greenmailers, the collapsing savings and loans and the legalized lootings of leveraged buyouts. Allen’s thoughtful and by no means sycophantic biography ends with Morgan’s fervent statement before a congressional committee in 1912 that he simply would not deal with a man whose character he did not respect. Morgan, you have the feeling, would be appalled at present Wall Street. As always, Zimmerman’s reading is crystal clear and attention holding, Allen’s portrait freshly relevant. Information: (800) 626-3333.