Hetty Green: The Witch of Wall Street

Joseph A. Citro, one of our favorite "scary" authors, offers an intimate look at Hetty Green, subject of one of our Trivia Contests. What follows is an excerpt from his new novel, Green Mountains, Dark Tales.

"Vermonters have always been known as a thrifty lot. But if tightfistedness were an Olympic event, the all-time champion would be Hetty Green, Bellows Falls' own Queen of cupidity."

"For whatever it may be worth, Hetty was not a Vermonter by birth. She was born Henrietta Howland Robinson at New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1835. Her family had made a fortune in the whaling industry and had become completely obsessed with money. The Robinsons passed their monetary monomania along to Hetty."

"As a young woman she'd launch a bombast any time the Robinsons considered spending even a modest amount of money. She realized that every dime her parents spent was a dime she would fail to inherit later."

"On her twenty-first birthday Hetty refused to light the candles on her cake, saying she didn't want to waste them. Next day she cleaned them up and returned them to the store for a refund."

"This parsimonious performance seem especially odd, for on that same twenty-first birthday Hetty inherited seven and a half million dollars, beginning a trend that would eventually make her the richest woman in the world. And perhaps the most eccentric."

"...Through a series of shrewd but more conventional investments Hetty made their fortune grow, and won herself the title of 'The Queen of Wall Street.' However, rival investors, jealous of her repeated successes, preferred to call her 'The Witch of Wall Street' -- and that's the title she eventually took to her grave."

Source: Joseph A. Citro, Green Mountains, Dark Tales, University Press of New England, 1999.

Please visit the following website for additional information about Hetty Green.

If you are interested in ordering this book, it is available in our Country Bookstore: Folklore. Click on the link below to view more descriptive information, pricing and/or order Green Mountains, Dark Tales from the Amazon.com catalog.