2019.072.101

This is a novel by the late author and Merrimack College history professor Edward G. Roddy. This novel follows the birth, life and death of businessman and American Woolen Company owner William M. Wood. William M. Wood was the owner and proprietor of the Ayer and Wood Mills in Lawrence, and was involved in the creation and division of the land that would one day become the city's sprawling Mill District. William M. Wood came from familiar and humble beginnings, the son of an immigrant family who rose to power through hard work, dedication and luck, a posterchild for stories of success in American business. This, as Roddy explains in the novel, is barely even a morsel of William M. Woods’s real story, as he was an elusive man to pin down, but as such a man of that caliber deserved as comprehensive a biography as was possible. In the process of digging through archives and Wood’s living familial connections in several cities and towns in Massachusetts, Roddy achieved this biography. An interesting addition to this particular copy of the book is the collection of newspaper clippings hidden within its front cover. The obituaries of the author, Edward G. Roddy, as well as the board leader of the Gardner Museum, Malcom D. Perkins, are included in this small collection. A full page of an Eagle Tribune newspaper from 1984, where this obituary is also present, is enclosed as well.