The many lives of Kenneth Myer
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The many lives of Kenneth Myer
(Miegunyah Volumes, 2nd ser.,
Miegunyah Press, 2008
- : hardback
Available at 1 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Bibliography: p. 589-601
Includes index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
When Kenneth Baillieu Myer's father fell dead on the footpath in 1934, Ken's life changed in that instant. As the elder son of the Jewish immigrant retailing genius, Sidney Baevski Myer, who went from pedlar to philanthropist millionaire in fifteen years, Ken was immediately acknowledged as head of the family at 13 years old. Groomed by his ambitious mother to lead the Myer empire, Ken with his brother oversaw Myer's failure as a major retailing force and sold it to Coles.This biography is about money: making it, giving it and its responsibilities. It explores immigration, assimilation, anti-Semitism and acculturation in twentieth-century Australia. With 'Nugget' Coombs as his mentor, Ken gave away his fortune and founded modern philanthropy in Australia. He spoke, read and wrote Japanese. Visionary and romantic, he was depressive and driven, charming one moment, icy the next; unpretentious, generous, a passionate conservationist and, above all, unconventional. For sinking a Japanese submarine and a German U-boat during the war, he was awarded a DSC and mentioned in dispatches. Happiest when finally free of Myer, he died with his Japanese wife in a plane crash in Alaska in 1992.
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