STILES: Well, one of the fascinating things about Vanderbilt is that his career speaks to some of the great themes in American history, and one of them is the expansion of the American economy. INSKEEP: Well, what did he use to begin to vault himself forward in business and in the world? We see through his letters that he began to inhabit the social world that his wealth had lifted him to. As he rose in status, he actually sought to become gentlemanly. STILES: But as he aged, even though he never learned to spell properly, his letters became more formal. His lack of education actually allows us to gain access to the way he spoke.

He would write in this pattern of speech that I didn't find even in other letters from uneducated individuals. But those that survive show that he wrote completely phonetically. He abominated papers, according to his long-time clerk. Cornelius Vanderbilt did not write well, or all that often. He did that even though he didn't have much education. That's far more than any individual today. Cornelius Vanderbilt controlled around five percent of the U.S. Stiles is the author of 'The First Tycoon,' which won the National Book Award for Non-fiction this year. Rumor and legend has it that he was involved in numerous fist fights, and I actually found court records that showed that he engaged in fist fights and won into his 50s. He was combative, living in a level of society that was intensely competitive and confrontational. STILES (Author): He was six feet tall at a time when the average American man was 5'7' or 5'8'. His statue still looms over the entrance of New York's Grand Central terminal. Cornelius Vanderbilt owned shipping lines and railroads in the 1800s. And this morning, we're going to look at a man who shaped this country's economy. We're learning about some American lives in this final week of the year, a few of the people who got us where we are.

The first tycoon by tj stiles