The Lehman Trilogy

Basis for the 2022 'Tony Award Best Play' winner Magnificent in scope, internationally lauded, and transcendent, the novel in verse that inspired the sensational West End and Broadway play of the same name. The Lehman Trilogy follows the epic rise and fall of three generations of that infamous family and through them tells the story of American ambition and hubris. After leaving his native Bavaria, Henry Lehman arrives in America determined to make a better life. Sensing opportunity in the Deep South, he opens a textile shop in Alabama, laying the foundation for a dynasty that will come to dominate and define modern capitalism. Emanuel and his brother Mayer begin investing in anything and everything that will turn a profit, from cotton to coal to railroads to oil to airplanes—even at the expense of the very nation that forged them. Spanning three generations and 150 years, The Lehman Trilogy is a moving epic that dares to tell the story of modern capitalism through the saga of the Lehman brothers and their descendants. Surprising and exciting, brilliant and inventive, Stefano Massini’s masterpiece—like Hamilton—is a story of immigration, ambition, and success; it is the story of America itself from a daring and original perspective. Translated from the Italian by Richard Dixon

On a cold September morning in 1844, a young man from Bavaria stands on a New York dockside, dreaming of a new life in the new world. He is joined by his two brothers and an American epic begins. 164 years later, the firm they establish - Lehman Brothers - spectacularly collapses triggering the largest financial crisis in history. The story of a family and a company that changed the world, Ben Power's English-language adaptation of Stefano Massini's vast and poetic play The Lehman Trilogy premiered at the National Theatre, London, in July 2018.

The inside account of a financial meltdown that reshaped Wall Street In 1983, Lew Glucksman, then co-CEO of the heralded investment bank Lehman Brothers, demanded the resignation of chairman Pete Peterson, with whom he had long argued over how to manage the company. Shockingly, Peterson, who had taken charge a decade earlier and led Lehman from near collapse to record profits, agreed to step down. In this meticulously researched volume, Ken Auletta details the turmoil, infighting, and power struggles that brought about Peterson’s departure and the eventual sale of one of Wall Street’s oldest and most prestigious firms. Set against the backdrop of the 1980s stock exchange, where hotshot young traders made and lost millions in a single afternoon, the story of Lehman’s fall is a suspenseful battle of wills between bankers, traders, and executives motivated by greed, envy, and ego. Auletta, who conducted hundreds of hours of interviews and was granted access to private company records, has crafted a thorough, enduring, and engaging account of pivotal events that continued to influence this storied financial institution until its ultimate demise in 2008.

On September 11, 1844, Henry Lehman arrived in New York City on a boat from Germany. Soon after, he moved to Montgomery, Alabama, where he and his brother Emanuel established a modest cotton brokering firm that would come to be called Lehman Brothers. On September 15, 2008, Dick Fuld, the last CEO of Lehman Brothers, filed for corporate bankruptcy amid one of the worst financial crises in American history. After 164 years, one of the largest and most respected investment banks in the world was gone, leaving everyone wondering, "How could this have happened?" Peter Chapman, an editor and writer for The Financial Times, answers this question by exploring the complete history of Lehman Brothers between those two historic Septembers. He takes us back to its early days as a cotton broker in Alabama, and then to its glory days as one of the leading corporate financiers in America. He also provides an intimate portrait of the people who ran Lehman over the decades-from Henry Lehman, the founder, to Bobbie Lehman, who led the company into the world of radio, motion pictures, and air travel in first part of the 20th century, to Dick Fuld, who allowed it to morph into a dealer of shoddy securities. Throughout his account of this imperiously rich firm, Chapman examines the impact Lehman Brothers had not only on American finance but also on American life. As a major backer of companies like Pan American Airlines, Macy's, and RKO, Lehman helped lead the country into major new industries and helped support some of its most intrepid entrepreneurs. He then shows how, starting in the 1980s, Lehman's increased focus on short-term gain investments led the firm down the dangerous path that would eventually lead to its demise. In the end, the story of Lehman Brothers is not only the story of a truly important American company but a cautionary tale of what happens when leaders lose sight of their core mission in their quest for something too good to be true. Praise for The Last of the Imperious Rich: "Thought provoking and illuminating" - The New York Times "Chapman has succeeded in holding up a mirror to America's past - and what its future might hold" - Bloomberg

Stephie Jay was one of the most beloved reality television stars and social media influencers of the last decade, regarded as 'royalty' in the city of Newcastle Upon Tyne where she lived. Now she's dead from what everybody but her parents have accepted to be a tragic but inexplainable suicide. Jake Lehman is a private investigator trying to keep his head above the water line as the North East stumbles alongside the rest of the UK towards an economic collapse. Broken from a past that left him betrayed and scapegoated by his ex-police colleagues and a corrupt local government, Lehman is hired by Stephie's parents to investigate their daughter's death and prove it was not as it has been portrayed. To do that, Lehman's going to have to face down his past, his addictions and all the demons that come with both. Lehman's Terms is a journey down a dark path to the truth with an irreverent narrator who's too busy deconstructing the tale he's telling you to realise just how out of his depth he is. If you're a fan of Shane Black movies, 80s soft rock music and Elmore Leonard novels, this is for you! ------------------------------- Reviews for "Lehman's Terms": "If Shane Black wrote a Geordie private eye thriller for Ross Noble this would be it!" - Emily John. "An unconventional action thriller; purposefully meandering (in a good way) but when it kicks into gear its impossible to put down! It's dark, funny AND actually quite moving!" - Sarah Mitchell. "I, and hopefully a wider audience, found [McClane] quite enjoyable as a guide into the world of the P.I." - Thomas Ludlow. "An exciting, investigative, thrill-ride where lots of stuff gets smashed the f**k up!" - Rob Leatt. "If you like 80s action movies, s**t soft rock, comedic ramblings about pop culture (specifically the ending of The Fugitive) and an irreverent new spin on old private eye tropes, THIS is the book for you! This is DEFINITELY the book for you!" - James Grant. "★★★★★ ... by the time you get to the shocking reveal it is impossible to put down!" - Helen Grover. "It's assured in its style and sets that out from the start. I blasted through it for one reason: It's f**king good!" - Mark Flaherty. -------------------------------

Without William Shakespeare, we wouldn’t have literary masterpieces like Romeo and Juliet. But without Henry Condell and John Heminges, we would have lost half of Shakespeare’s plays forever! After the death of their friend and mentor, the two actors are determined to compile the First Folio and preserve the words that shaped their lives. They’ll just have to borrow, beg, and band together to get it done. Amidst the noise and color of Elizabethan London, THE BOOK OF WILL finds an unforgettable true story of love, loss, and laughter, and sheds new light on a man you may think you know.

Here, Barbara Lehman takes readers on a timeless trip to a world of secret messages left in secret boxes hidden in secret places.

When Lehman Brothers bank went under, the world gasped. One of the world's biggest and most successful banks, its downfall was the event that sparked the slide of the world economy toward a Great Depression II. This is the gripping inside story of the dark characters who ruled Lehman, who refused to heed warnings that the company was headed for an iceberg; the world-class, mid-level people who valiantly fought to get Lehman off its disastrous course; the crash that didn't have to happen. A news-breaking explanation that answers the question everyone still asks: "why did it happen?" Larry McDonald, a former vice-president at Lehman Brothers in charge of distressed debt trading and convertible securities, was right at the centre of the meltdown of the company and gives an intimate look at the madhouse that Lehman became. This book shows beyond a doubt that Richard Fuld, the long-time CEO of Lehman, and his top executives, were totally out to lunch, allowing Lehman's risk profile to reach gargantuan proportions. While the traders, like Larry McDonald, clearly predicted more than two years in advance that the market for packaged subprime mortgages and credit default swaps would evaporate, the high-flying Lehman bosses pushed hard on the gas pedal until the very end.