The Eccentric Billionaire: John D. MacArthur--Empire Builder, Reluctant Philanthropist, Relentless Adversary

He was hated, feared, and admired. The country's second-richest man at the time of his death, John D. MacArthur (1897-1978) also became one of its great benefactors. Every year, some two dozen American writers, artists, intellectuals, and scientists receive as much as a half million dollars in grants known as the 'genius awards' from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. But MacArthur was not the benevolent figure you might expect. Stingier than J. Paul Getty, as money-obsessed as Howard Hughes, and as ruthless as Cornelius Vanderbilt, MacArthur was one of the most multi-layered 

Dexter in the dark

Dexter. He's a charming monster. A macabre hero. A serial killer who only kills bad people

Dexter is alone for the first time in his life, and he realizes he's being hunted by an adversary more sinister than anything he's ever faced.

M called this case a soft option. Bond can't quite agree. The tropical island is luxurious, the seductive Honey Rider is beautiful and willing, but they are both part of the empire of Dr. No . . . The doctor is a worthy adversary, with a mind as hard and cold as his solid steel hands. Dr. No's obsession is power. His only gifts are strictly pain-shaped.

In language of great simplicity and power, Hemingway tells the story of an old Cuban fisherman, down on his luck--he hasn't caught a fish in 84 days--who goes out in his small skiff one more time. This time he hooks a huge marlin. During his relentless ordeal, a long and agonizing battle with the marlin far out in the Gulf Stream, the old man faces long days of hunger and exhaustion, his courage and his respect for his adversary never flagging. The man is old and tired and at the end of his life, but he remains the archetypical Hemingway hero who refuses to accept defeat.