Roy D. Chapin

The Man Behind the Hudson Motor Car Company

by J. C. Long

Introduction by Charles K. Hyde

360 Pages

Paperback
9780814331842
Publication Date: July 2004

$26.99

BUY

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Authors
Praise

Now back in print, this is the only biography devoted to the life and career of Roy D. Chapin—one of the foremost figures in the history of Detroit's independent automotive industry.

"John Cuthbert Long's Roy D. Chapin is a thorough and detailed biography of a remarkable, but little-known Detroit automobile industry pioneer. Historians should include Roy Dikeman Chapin (February 23, 1880–February 16, 1936) in any listing of significant American auto industry pioneers, along with the Duryea brothers, Ransom E. Olds, Henry Leland, Henry Ford, William C. Durant, and the Dodge brothers. Outside the cloister of automotive historians, Roy Chapin is an unknown. This is in part because no company or car bore his name. Unlike many contemporary auto pioneers, Roy Chapin was a modest man who did not promote himself. Even Long's superb biography of Chapin is not well-known because it was privately printed in 1945 with a small press run. In reprinting this volume, Wayne State University Press is making an important contribution to automotive history."

—From the introduction by Charles K. Hyde, Department of History, Wayne State University

J. C. Long published fourteen books between 1923 and 1968, nine of them biographies. Also during his lifetime, Long managed the education department of the National Automobile Chamber of Commerce, served on the editorial staff of the New Yorker, and was the manager of publications for Bethlehem Steel Company.

Since 1945 J. C. Long's biography of Roy Chapin has been an undiscovered gem, known primarily to the few hundred people to whom Chapin's widow Inez distributed the original printing. Now this superb recounting of the story of a key auto pioneer is available to a wide audience. Anyone interested in the history of the twentieth century's most influential industry will be grateful."

~Robert Casey

Hudson Motor Company's talented and charismatic founder Roy D. Chapin died before his historical significance was recognized, relegating him to undeserved obscurity. Fortunately J. C. Long, who knew Chapin well, wrote a privately printed biography in 1945. The reissue of this long unavailable book is good news for automotive historians."

~Barry Dressel

A biography of Roy D. Chapin, one of the most significant figures in the first third-century of the American automobile, is long overdue. I salute the decision to publish Roy D. Chapin: The Man behind the Hudson Motor Car Company."

~Z Taylor Vinson, Editor of the Automotive History Review, a Publication of the Society of Automotive Historians