by Lawrence R. Gustin, with Kevin M. Kirbitz
The storied Buick Motor Company, foundation for General Motors, had in its early days, "the management of the stars," said legendary GM chief executive Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. "It was Buick that made any kind of General Motors car line worth talking about," he said, describing Buick in the early 1920s. In 1921 Sloan wrote to GM's chairman: "It is far better that the rest of General Motors be scrapped than any chances taken with Buick's earning power.
Those early Buick 'stars' included Billy Durant, savior of Buick, founder of GM and later found of Chevrolet; Charles Nash, once GM president and founder of Nash Motors, an American Motors predecessor; Walter Chrysler, once president of Buick and founder of Chrysler Corporation; Walter Marr, builder of the first Buick automobile, who was interacting with Henry Ford before the turn of the last century; and Louis Chevrolet, a Buick racing star before lending his name to another Durant enterprise, the Chevrolet automobile.
But few remember the founder - the man who gave the Buick marque its name. "Few aspects of American automobile history have been so poorly recorded" as the early career of David Dunbar Buick, said prominent auto historian George May.
Now, award-winning journalist Larry Gustin - who has written about Buick's past, present and future for more than half a century - has pulled together the first detailed look at the life of David Buick, in association with a GM engineering manager, Kevin Kirbitz. It's not always a heroic story. David Buck was sometimes ignored as an automotive pioneer and dismissed as a dreamer.
But he created a team that developed the legendary "valve-in-head' engine. And he produced a car that - after it was turned over to Billy Durant - provided the foundation for GM, which would become the world's largest industrial corporation.
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Brue Catton once wrote that of all the takes that are told in Detroit, "there is no tale as strange as the tale of David Buick." It's now told in more detail than ever before.
Praise for earlier editions:
"A meticulously researched book written in a popular style that's difficult to put down. By skillfully weaving together the careers of David Buick and his contemporaries and their car, Larry Gustin fills a gaping hole in automotive history."--David L. Lewis, professor of business history, University of Michigan
"A good, succinct history of the early days of one of America's great mainstream automobiles and the men responsible for it." --Z. Taylor Vinson, The New York Times
"David Buick's Marvelous Motor Car is one of the best-written, most readable, most enjoyable, most insightful pieces of Detroit motor history ever written. I started reading it a few nights ago and did not put it down. Bravo!" --Warren Brown, Washington Post auto editor (in blog)
The storied Buick Motor Company, foundation for General Motors, had in its early days, "the management of the stars," said legendary GM chief executive Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. "It was Buick that made any kind of General Motors car line worth talking about," he said, describing Buick in the early 1920s. In 1921 Sloan wrote to GM's chairman: "It is far better that the rest of General Motors be scrapped than any chances taken with Buick's earning power.
Those early Buick 'stars' included Billy Durant, savior of Buick, founder of GM and later found of Chevrolet; Charles Nash, once GM president and founder of Nash Motors, an American Motors predecessor; Walter Chrysler, once president of Buick and founder of Chrysler Corporation; Walter Marr, builder of the first Buick automobile, who was interacting with Henry Ford before the turn of the last century; and Louis Chevrolet, a Buick racing star before lending his name to another Durant enterprise, the Chevrolet automobile.
But few remember the founder - the man who gave the Buick marque its name. "Few aspects of American automobile history have been so poorly recorded" as the early career of David Dunbar Buick, said prominent auto historian George May.
Now, award-winning journalist Larry Gustin - who has written about Buick's past, present and future for more than half a century - has pulled together the first detailed look at the life of David Buick, in association with a GM engineering manager, Kevin Kirbitz. It's not always a heroic story. David Buck was sometimes ignored as an automotive pioneer and dismissed as a dreamer.
But he created a team that developed the legendary "valve-in-head' engine. And he produced a car that - after it was turned over to Billy Durant - provided the foundation for GM, which would become the world's largest industrial corporation.
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Brue Catton once wrote that of all the takes that are told in Detroit, "there is no tale as strange as the tale of David Buick." It's now told in more detail than ever before.
Praise for earlier editions:
"A meticulously researched book written in a popular style that's difficult to put down. By skillfully weaving together the careers of David Buick and his contemporaries and their car, Larry Gustin fills a gaping hole in automotive history."--David L. Lewis, professor of business history, University of Michigan
"A good, succinct history of the early days of one of America's great mainstream automobiles and the men responsible for it." --Z. Taylor Vinson, The New York Times
"David Buick's Marvelous Motor Car is one of the best-written, most readable, most enjoyable, most insightful pieces of Detroit motor history ever written. I started reading it a few nights ago and did not put it down. Bravo!" --Warren Brown, Washington Post auto editor (in blog)
