Most of know the name James Mellon, unrepeatable book African Hunter shall forever stand in the Parthenon of big-game hunting literature, for it is the finest book ever written on African hunting by a single author.

Few people know that Mellon has written several other books on diverse subjects—topics that range from the portraits of Abraham Lincoln to the experiences of slaves in the Old South.

Mellon’s latest, just published, work is a fascinating biography of his great-great grandfather, Judge Thomas Mellon. Mellon describes how his illustrious but virtually unknown ancestor came to be the founder of the family fortune. Thomas Mellon had numerous children, and of those five were sons who survived to adulthood. Thomas initially brought these five young men into the family business to help him with, among other things, the buying and selling of discounted mortgages. (And I thought that was a recent phenomena!) Old Man Mellon gave his five sons loans to start their own businesses, and his instructions to them were clear: They were to go forth and make money, under their father’s guidance, but they had to pay back every cent of their loans and the loan terms were less favorable than those of the clients of Mellon Bank.

I am onto page 480 now and there is even a snippet on how James Mellon got to do all his hunting. I will not spoil the read by saying much more but if you like free markets, capitalism and American history this is your book.

What is the title of this book?

The title is "The Judge: A Life of Thomas Mellon, Founder of a Fortune"

Aziz

Aziz is correct, called The Judge. Mellon sent me a copy (I knew him because our company reprinted his African Hunter and he wrote the foreword to AHII) and I started reading it thinking I would drop it after one chapter. By chance I started in the middle (I do that often with books) and liked it so well that I restarted on page 1! Good thing I did because the beginning is a bit slow but the more you read the more you get pulled in. I asked Jay to sign a number of copies for SP and we are selling them on our Safari Press web site, they are flying out the door, flabbergasting me because we only sell hunting and firearms books.

That they are signed helps I am sure as his books signed are hard to find, he never makes any appearances. (He obviously does not write for the money.) When we had him at our booth at SCI in 2004 it was the first time ever he had been to a hunting convention and he told me that he had only done one other book signing ever, at Abercrombie & Fitch in NYC in the 1970s for his AH. He told me he was so mobbed at SCI that "This was the hardest day I have ever worked in my life" I about collapsed with laughter but of course I do have to work for a living. He is a great man, very congenial, easy to get along with, unassuming and it is a great shame he never shows at any of these hunting clam digs.

Publisher Safari Press and Sports Afield

Ludo, thanks for getting the books signed. I ordered one this morning and am looking forward to reading it.