Reviews

This well-written Horatio Alger-like tale of 72-year-old, Arkansas-born Walton is refreshingly upbeat, in contrast to the life stories of some other contemporary entrepreneurs. Walton is a publicity-shy, multibillionaire businessman who, despite an arrested case of leukemia--and, more recently, myeloma--still heads the Wal-Mart discount chain he founded in 1962. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Trimble, editor of the Kentucky Post , bases the biography on interviews with hundreds of ``associates,'' as their boss calls his employees, all testifying to the hard work, integrity, business acumen and common-touch gift for human relations to which they attribute his success. Walton is also a passionate quail hunter and tennis player, drives an old pickup and pilots his own Cessna. As he plans new ventures, the author warns, K martstet lc and Sears had better watch out. (Nov.)

Readers curious about what makes billionaire Walton run may be disappointed by this folksy biography. The only ``warts'' Trimble describes about the founder of the Wal-Mart stores are Walton's frugality (the company's headquarters offices, housed in a warehouse building, have been described as ``early bus station''), his antipathy to labor unions, and the destruction of small ``mom and pop'' retail businesses in many communities where Wal-Mart operates. While Walton (who was working on his still unfinished autobiography when Trimble began working on this book) and his family declined to cooperate with the author, they did not attempt to obstruct the work either. The result, from interviews with associates, friends, and some relatives, as well as published sources, is a readable, mostly objective, but bland biography. This is most appropriate for general and business collections in public libraries. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/90.-- Sue Kamm, Los Angeles P.L.