COLGR49: Jay Gould

[Dave Monroe]

And again, from Charles Hollander, "Pynchon, JFK and
the CIA: Magic Eye Views of The Crying of Lot 49,"
Pynchon Notes 40-41 (Spring-Fall 1997), 61-106 ...

"Called 'The Mephistopheles of Wall Street,' and
'Promoter of Rascality Sans Pareil,' Jay Gould was an
American financier of the Reconstruction period, a
rival of J.P. Morgan, who (with his partner Jim Fisk)
tried unsuccessfully to seize control of a Morgan
railroad during the post-Civil War boom, in 1869--a
fact Pynchon also uses in 'The Secret Integration.' 
In 1902, Gould's son, George Jay Gould, led another
raid on Morgan, and was again outmaneuvered.  By
naming Gould, Pynchon summons the multi-genrational
conflict between Gould and Morgan interests.  As owner
of the Erie Railroad, Gould granted kickbacks to
Standard Oil, the Rockefeller enterprise.  Pierce
Inverarity tried to pattern his career on Jay Gould's,
we assume, since Gould's bust is 'the only ikon in
[Pierce's] house' (CL 10).  The name Pierce also
recalls Henry Clay pierce (of the Pierce-Waters Oil
Company), another self-made mogul--similar to Jay
Gould--with questionable scruples ...." (p. 70)

Agree or otherwise with his methodologies and
conclusions, Hollander does do his research, there are
some great annotations in this and other essays of
his.  Hollander's source here, by the way, seems to be
...

Chernow, Ron.  Titan: The Life of John D.
   Rockefeller, Sr.  NY: Random House, 1998.

Oh, and on Bartok ...


--- Saioued Al-Zaioued <chicagoist at hotmail.com> wrote:
> 
> a  tune from Bartok's, and a bust of Jay Gould that
> Inverarity owned.
> 
> (Jay Gould (1836-1892) was a corrupt financier who
> once messed with the gold market crippling it for 
> years and made a massive return. If Pierce has a 
> bust of Gould it means he is kinda twisted and
> perhaps even corrupt, or at least wants to convey
> that image.)

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