King of Vodka

<p>A operatic tour-de-force. --Tilar J. Mazzeo author of <em>The Widow Clicquot</em></p><p>An impressive feat of research told swiftly and enthusiastically. --<em>San Francisco Chronicle</em></p><p>From Vanderbilt and Rockefeller to Bill Gates and Steve Jobs America's captains of industry are paragons of entrepreneurial success and books about business history from <em>The First Tycoon </em>to <em>The Big Short</em> show exemplars of capitalistic cunning and tenacity...but just as American cocktail connoisseurs can mistake Absolut Skyy Grey Goose or Ketel One for the quintessential clear spirit so too has America's vision of business history remained naïve to a truth long recognized in Eastern Europe: since the time of Tsar Nicholas both <em>vodka </em>and <em>commercial success </em>have been synonymous in Russia with one name--Smirnoff. Linda Himelstein's critically acclaimed biography of Russian vodka scion Pyotr Smirnov--a finalist for the James Beard Award winner of the IACP and Saroyan Awards and a BusinessWeek Best Business Book of 2009--is the sweeping story of entrepreneurship empire and epicurean triumph unlike anything the world has ever seen before. </p>