Author at the Library: "The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King," with Rich Cohen, the author of "Tough Jews" and "Sweet and Low."

The author unveils the biography of Samuel Zemurray, who rose from poverty to become head of the United Fruit Company and played controversial roles in the history of several Latin American countries.  The little know antihero, the son of a Jewish Russian farmer, started with nothing but a pile of rotten bananas, overthrew two governments in Central America, created the basic CIA template, bested and took over United Fruit, and went to war with Huey Long.  It is a fascinating story about a capitalist revolutionary, driven by an indomitable will to succeed.