Welcome to my author website, which contains the latest information about my non-fiction writings, which started with a biography of the actress Jean Arthur in 1997, published by Limelight Editions. The year 2014 saw publication of two new books: American Queen, a biography of Kate Chase, a Civil War-era socialite and political hostess; and An All-American Murder, about a notorious cold case homicide in Columbus, Ohio in 1975. The former, published by Da Capo Press, is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other sites, and the latter is a free e-book available on Scribd as well as Google Books. In 2016 Da Capo published my biography of American Revolutionary war hero and guerrilla fighter Francis Marion, the “Swamp Fox.” He was the subject of a Walt Disney television series in the late 1950s-early 1960s and the inspiration for the Mel Gibson film "The Patriot."
My latest book is about the influential early 20th century white shoe lawyers of Wall Street, published in March 2019 by Dutton, a division of Penguin Random House. The title is "White Shoe: How a New Breed of Wall Street Lawyers Changed Big Business--and the American Century."
Dutton will also be publishing my next book, entitled “Rogues’ Gallery: The Birth of Modern Policing and Organized Crime in Gilded Age New York.”
Thank you for visiting! - John
NEW: WHITE SHOE
BY JOHN OLLER
“Entertaining history”
—Wall Street Journal
“In White Shoe, John Oller traces America’s earliest super lawyers, hard-charging Wall Streeters who tilted history in the building of the Panama Canal, the birth of gargantuan American businesses, and the pursuit of world peace. A riveting portrayal of the swaggering advocates who deftly pulled the most important strings while raking in the biggest fees.”
—David O. Stewart, author of The Summer of 1787 and Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln’s Legacy
“A lucid account of the rise of the modern law firm and the concomitant rise of the modern corporation. Students of economic and legal history will find Oller's book insightful and revealing.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Oller makes the history of such firms surprisingly fascinating in this nuanced look at how their formation and development during the Progressive Era (1890–1916) “led to the creation of a new organizational society” in the United States . . . A valuable addition to the literature on America’s transformation during the Gilded Age.”
—Publisher’s Weekly (starred review)
“This fast-paced history of the period from the white shoe perspective will be both entertaining and enlightening for most readers.”
—Library Journal
NOW AVAILABLE IN PAPERBACK: THE SWAMP FOX
by John Oller
"Not only a new Francis Marion, but a new American Revolution emerges from these riveting pages. Best of all, John Oller has performed this feat with solid, totally convincing research. This is a book that every American will learn from—and enjoy."
—Thomas Fleming, bestselling author of The Great Divide
PURCHASE ON: AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | INDIE BOUND | iBOOKS
OTHER BOOKS BY JOHN OLLER:
"Beautiful, brilliant, and wildly ambitious, Kate Chase was a master of political intrigue and behind-the-scenes power in an era when women were told to be seen and not heard. A terrific work of historical research and reconstruction, American Queen follows her fascinating but forgotten life to tell the story of the Civil War and its scandalous aftermath—its assassinations, impeachments and sexual hijinks—from an entirely fresh perspective."
- Debby Applegate, Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher
"A tragic, fascinating story well-told."
- Greg Victor, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
!["Every time I think I’ve read all there is to read about vintage Hollywood, I’m disarmed and delighted to find original and important new books on the subject. Jean Arthur: The Actress Nobody Knew [is] among the best I’ve read in years." - Leonard Maltin, film critic](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54162099e4b01440253fc8ae/1411227072563-6DO1OG4ZLIB5WWFFYWL6/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kOgdHaFoCkRvBedbwFHmZvlZw-zPPgdn4jUwVcJE1ZvWEtT5uBSRWt4vQZAgTJucoTqqXjS3CfNDSuuf31e0tVFNfnowbp7FNOvEsFbbNFAJy1OHRJfxDf0t0V7jelwRXx3Ye91CEgaaEUzIoM0iF6k/image-asset.jpeg)
"Every time I think I’ve read all there is to read about vintage Hollywood, I’m disarmed and delighted to find original and important new books on the subject. Jean Arthur: The Actress Nobody Knew [is] among the best I’ve read in years."
- Leonard Maltin, film critic
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