Composition
The man with the greatest impact on the list was arguably Andrew W. Mellon, who had been dead for 20 years: the second category, covering the second to eighth richest individuals, included his son, daughter, niece and nephew. The list also included seven members of the Rockefeller family, five members of the Ford family, four members of the Du Pont family (and a non-family DuPont executive), and four General Motors executives.
Five separate categories divided the list based on the amount of the fortune: $75,000,000–$100,000,000; $100,000,000–$200,000,000; $200,000,000–$400,000,000; $400,000,000–$700,000,000; and $700,000,000–$1,000,000,000. Fortunes smaller than $75,000,000 were not considered worthy of inclusion in the list. For comparison, equivalent amounts in 2005 US dollars are given below each subheading; the presumed source of the wealth is enclosed in parentheses.
Read more about this topic: Wealthiest Americans (1957)
Famous quotes containing the word composition:
“There was not a grain of poetry in the whole composition of Lord Fawn, and poetry was what her very soul craved;Mpoetry, together with houses, champagne, jewels, and admiration.”
—Anthony Trollope (1815–1882)
“Those Dutchmen had hardly any imagination or fantasy, but their good taste and their scientific knowledge of composition were enormous.”
—Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890)
“The composition of a tragedy requires testicles.”
—Voltaire [François Marie Arouet] (1694–1778)