Not since the days of the Louisiana Purchase has America seen any bigger real estate transactions than those executed by
William Zeckendorf, the derring-do head of Webb & Knapp. Figuring with supersonic speed and an uncanny flair for making
money, the flamboyant impresario bought and sold property, remodeled whole sections of New York, Denver, Washington,
Montreal and Dallas, and moved the UN, the capital of the world, to New York. At the peak of his power, William Zeckendorf
was a man with the Midas touch in an age of computers.
From his windowless teakwood igloo office set in a white marble lobby (designer 1. M. Pei explains, "It would be ridiculous
to create any environment for him other than one consisting exclusively of himself."), William Zeckendorf played a real-life
game of Monopoly and won the largest real estate empire in the world-so large, in fact, that Wall Street tottered when he
went bankrupt. And bankrupt he was, but never in spirit.
Now beginning what he calls his "second life," William Zeckendorf says, "I've had no reverses of anything except money. My
sense of accomplishment is full, and the cities and the art and the architecture I have influenced will live long after I am gone."
An autobiography bursting with vitality, enthusiasm, and financial know-how, Mr. Zeckendorf reveals himself as a visionary whose
creativeness and sense of adventure are matched only by his unalloyed joy at being able to successfully juggle a dozen incredibly
complicated transactions at once. The spectacular Mr. Zeckendorf, who has fished for piranhas in South America and sold ships to
the Greeks at profit, comes to life in this autobiography. You will not want to miss meeting him.
William Zeckendorf's grandfather was a German immigrant and Indian trader who, in 1868, established a store in Tucson, Arizona.
It is still doing a flourishing business there under the name of Steindorf's.
Mr. Zeckendorf was born in Paris, Illinois, in 1905. Shortly thereafter, the family moved to Long Island where he spent a classic
American boyhood. He attended public schools and dropped out from New York University to work for an uncle in the real estate
business. Since the collapse of Webb & Knapp, Mr. Zeckendorf has worked with his son, William, Jr., and his son-inlaw, Ronald
Nicholson, in a new real estate firm.
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