COLONEL GREENE AND THE COPPER SKROCKET: THE SPECTACULAR RISE AND FALL OF WILLIAM CORNELL GREENE, COPPER KING, CATTLE BARON, AND PROMOTER EXTRAORDINARY IN MEXICO, THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST AND THE NEW YORK FINANCIAL DISTRICT.

Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1974.  x,325pp. Index. Bibliography. Notes. Numerous photographs including a frontis. portrait. Maps. Pictorial endpapers. Green cloth with title in gilt on the cover and spine. First edition. Except for some oxidation of the gilt on the cover and spine, it is a fine copy. The clipped dust jacket exhibits slight edgewear, overall, very good+. William C. Greene, born of sober Quaker stock, became on the most flamboyant and  spectacular mining promoters in the West. For twenty years prior to 1896, he labored without success as a miner, rancher and farmer in Arizona. Almost overnight, he suddenly emerged as the central figure in an industrial empire based on the large copper deposits in the mines of Cananea, Sonora. His company, Greene Consolidated Copper, became one of major sources for copper with an average output of 70 million pound. Additionally, he owned thousands of cattle and 800,000 acres of grazing and crop lands in Sonora and Arizona. By 1905, Greene was considered one of the wealthiest businessmen in the world. In 1907, Greene’s copper empire collapsed through a combination of overextending himself, aggressive creditors, tactics of competitors, and strikes by hostile miners. Much of what has been written about Greene’s career has been exaggerations and inaccuracies. Sonnichsen has, through extensive research, presented the most accurate account of Greene to date.