What do you think?
Rate this book
Katharine and R. J. Reynolds: Partners of Fortune in the Making of the New South
Separately they were formidable—together they were unstoppable. Despite their intriguing lives and the deep impact they had on their community and region, the story of Richard Joshua Reynolds (1850–1918) and Katharine Smith Reynolds (1880–1924) has never been fully told. Now Michele Gillespie provides a sweeping account of how R. J. and Katharine succeeded in realizing their American dreams.
From relatively modest beginnings, R. J. launched the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, which would eventually develop two hugely profitable products, Prince Albert pipe tobacco and Camel cigarettes. His marriage in 1905 to Katharine Smith, a dynamic woman thirty years his junior, marked the beginning of a unique partnership that went well beyond the family. As a couple, the Reynoldses conducted a far-ranging social life and, under Katharine’s direction, built Reynolda House, a breathtaking estate and model farm. Providing leadership to a series of progressive reform movements and business innovations, they helped drive one of the South’s best examples of rapid urbanization and changing race relations in the city of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Together they became one of the New South’s most influential elite couples. Upon R. J.’s death, Katharine reinvented herself, marrying a World War I veteran many years her junior and engaging in a significant new set of philanthropic pursuits.
Katharine and R. J. Reynolds reveals the broad economic, social, cultural, and political changes that were the backdrop to the Reynoldses’ lives. Portraying a New South shaped by tensions between rural poverty and industrial transformation, white working-class inferiority and deeply entrenched racism, and the solidification of a one-party political system, Gillespie offers a masterful life-and-times biography of these important North Carolinians.
From relatively modest beginnings, R. J. launched the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, which would eventually develop two hugely profitable products, Prince Albert pipe tobacco and Camel cigarettes. His marriage in 1905 to Katharine Smith, a dynamic woman thirty years his junior, marked the beginning of a unique partnership that went well beyond the family. As a couple, the Reynoldses conducted a far-ranging social life and, under Katharine’s direction, built Reynolda House, a breathtaking estate and model farm. Providing leadership to a series of progressive reform movements and business innovations, they helped drive one of the South’s best examples of rapid urbanization and changing race relations in the city of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Together they became one of the New South’s most influential elite couples. Upon R. J.’s death, Katharine reinvented herself, marrying a World War I veteran many years her junior and engaging in a significant new set of philanthropic pursuits.
Katharine and R. J. Reynolds reveals the broad economic, social, cultural, and political changes that were the backdrop to the Reynoldses’ lives. Portraying a New South shaped by tensions between rural poverty and industrial transformation, white working-class inferiority and deeply entrenched racism, and the solidification of a one-party political system, Gillespie offers a masterful life-and-times biography of these important North Carolinians.
381 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2012
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 4, 2017
Read this before a trip to Salem-Winstom - along with another book The Guilded Leaf. Very interesting and interesting journey of very successful and very screwed up family. Wealth is powerful and can be a plague on relationships.
August 9, 2018
I bought this during a visit to Reynolda three years ago and just got around to it. The influence of R.J. and Katharine Reynolds on Winston-Salem, the state of North Carolina, the United States, and social progress at large is fascinating and almost unbelievable. I wonder what Katharine would have accomplished had she not died young.
I haven’t even read something this thorough about my own city. I suppose I should.
My only complaint is that the book isn’t laid out chronologically. It’s structured by topic, and I understand why, but it does make for some confusion and repetition. This compliant is a speck - the thoroughness of the content and provision of context is astounding.
I haven’t even read something this thorough about my own city. I suppose I should.
My only complaint is that the book isn’t laid out chronologically. It’s structured by topic, and I understand why, but it does make for some confusion and repetition. This compliant is a speck - the thoroughness of the content and provision of context is astounding.
July 7, 2014
I found this to be a really readable dual biography of both RJ and Katherine Reynolds. I used to be a docent at Reynolda House so I knew some of their story, but the book provided more information that I hadn't learned previously. It was also interesting how she incorporated race and gender into the book, both in how they were viewed in the early 1900s and how they related to both RJ and Katherine.
October 31, 2013
This book took a while to grab me, but once they got to Winston-Salem, it was fascinating. I learned so much about the town I grew up in and the people that put it on the map. I especially enjoyed finding out what an amazing woman Katherine was. I recommend this for anyone with an interest in Winston-Salem.
February 18, 2015
interesting history of Reynolds family in Winston-Salem, focuses primarily on building their empire
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews