Carnegie Heritage

ANDREW CARNEGIE in CARNEGIE HERITAGE:  A beautifully illustrated book about how Andrew Carnegie became the richest man in the world; his life and legacies.

The family origins of the Carnegies go back to 12th-century Brittany, in northern France, and to the Scottish counties of Fife and Angus. Andrew Carnegie, the philanthropist, who is the chief hero of this book, was descended from David Carnegie, 1st Earl of Southesk. While Andrew eschewed any idea of high birth, preferring to be seen as a poor weaver's son, he relished all the historical tales of derring-do about William Wallace, Robert the Bruce and Bonnie Prince Charlie. William Shakespeare and Robert Burns were his favourite authors, whom he never tired of quoting. Carnegie Heritage brings into focus his family background and personal character, exploring his amazing life and his unprecedented legacy of humanitarian foundations and endowments.

When writing the book, the co-authors had the great pleasure of travelling to Skibo Castle and meeting several of Andrew Carnegie's descendants, who have been most helpful with personal information and family photographs. A number of less-closely related Carnegies are given prominence in these pages, such as Susan, who founded the precursor to the Royal National Lifeboat Association, and the Jacobite David, who established a notable brewery in Gothenburg, Sweden, after the 1745 Rising. Beautifully illustrated and copiously crossreferenced, this publication, the fifth in the remarkable 'Heritage' series from Braykc Publishing, deserves a place on the bookshelf of anyone who admires Andrew Carnegie and the rich store of benefits which he left to all mankind.

The book is a treasure-chest of facts, statistics and surprises and much of the information has not appeared in print in this form before.