Inscribed by the author in black ink to the front free endpaper: “With love to Frank, my childhood playmate, my pal of youth, and my friend for eternity Ed.” The recipient is likely the Chicago journalist Frank Albert Smothers (1901-1981).
‘The author was an expert in the production and trading of wheat and soybeans. He wrote a well-known novel, The Plunger, featuring the life of “Old Hutch,” one of the first wheat kings. He wrote the present work as a public relations exercise defending futures trading in wheat from the taints of manipulation and chicanery surrounding it’ (Dennistoun). This is Dies’ first book, and he was also most likely the author of Behind the Wall Street Curtain (1952).
Dennistoun, Bubbles, Booms and Busts, 573.
