Here, in a marvellously gripping and

rewarding novel, is the story of the tycoons

who created and built the motion picture

industry- not in Hollywood but in New York

City at the turn of the century.

In particular, it is the story of Max Britsky -

born in the East Side ghetto of New York,

penniless - and of his struggle to survive

and to conquer the world he had entered.

It is also the story of the woman he married,

of love and hate, of fraud and financial

piracy and infighting, of loyalty and betrayal.

In other words, it is just the kind of tale you

would expect from one of the master story-

tellers of our time. It is not a book to be put

down easily. Once you enter the world of

New York at the turn of the century, the

world of Rector s and Delmonico s and

Boss Murphy of Tammany Hall and

Monk Eastman, that king of hoodlums, you

will partake of a wonderfully rewarding feast.

And you will welcome Max Britsky into the

world of literary immortals. Like Dan Lavette

of San Francisco, the hero of Howard Fast s

The Immigrants, Max Britsky is a man for

all seasons, and you will live with him,

laugh with him, and weep with him.

The story told in this novel, the story of the

creation of the film industry, an industry that

changed the world, has never been told in

fiction. It is one of the great stories of the

twentieth century, narrated here by a man

who is one of the most widely read

novelists of the twentieth century. It is the

best, the most fulfilled, of all Howard Fast s

novels.