C A King Popular Books
C A King Biography & Facts
King Camp Gillette (January 5, 1855 – July 9, 1932) was an American businessman who invented a bestselling safety razor. Gillette's innovation was the thin, inexpensive, disposable blade of stamped steel. Gillette is often erroneously credited with inventing the so-called razor and blades business model in which razors are sold cheaply to increase the market for blades. However, Gillette Safety Razor Company adopted the business model from its competitors. Biography The Gillette paternal ancestors were French Huguenots who sought refuge in England in the late 16th century. One or two generations later, in 1630, Nathan Gillette sailed from England to the newly founded Massachusetts Bay Colony in North America. King Camp Gillette was born on January 5, 1855, in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, and raised in Chicago, Illinois. His family survived the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. While working as a salesman for the Crown Cork and Seal Company in the 1890s, Gillette saw bottle caps, with the cork seal he sold, thrown away after the bottle was opened. This made him recognize the value in basing a business on a product that was used a few times, then discarded. Men shaved with straight razors that needed sharpening every day using a leather strop. As existing, relatively expensive razor blades dulled quickly and needed continuous sharpening, a razor whose blade could be thrown away when it dulled would meet a real need and likely be profitable. Safety razors had been developed in the mid-19th century, but still used a forged blade. In the 1870s, the Kampfe Brothers introduced a type of razor along these lines. Gillette improved these earlier safety-razor designs and introduced the high-profit-margin stamped razor blade made from carbon steel sheet. Gillette's razor retailed for a substantial $5 (equivalent to $170.00 in 2023) – half the average working man's weekly pay – yet sold by the millions. The most difficult part of development was engineering the blades, as thin, cheap steel was difficult to work and sharpen. This accounts for the delay between the initial idea and the product's introduction. Steven Porter, a machinist working with Gillette, used Gillette's drawings to create the first disposable razor blade that worked. William Emery Nickerson, an expert machinist and partner of Gillette, changed the original model, improving the handle and frame so that it could better support the thin steel blade. Nickerson designed the machinery to mass-produce the blades, and he received patents for hardening and sharpening the blades. (Nickerson was later elected to Gillette's board of directors.) To sell the product, Gillette founded the American Safety Razor Company on September 28, 1901 (changing the company's name to Gillette Safety Razor Company in July 1902). Gillette obtained a trademark registration (0056921) for his portrait and signature on the packaging. Production began in 1903, when he sold a total of 51 razors and 168 blades. The second year, he sold 90,884 razors and 123,648 blades, thanks in part to Gillette's low prices, automated manufacturing techniques, and good advertising. Sales and distribution were handled by a separate company, Townsend and Hunt, which was absorbed by the parent company for US$300,000 in 1906. By 1908, the corporation had established manufacturing facilities in the United States, Canada, Britain, France, and Germany. Razor sales reached 450,000 units and blade sales exceeded 70 million units in 1915. In 1917, when the U.S. entered World War I, the company provided all American soldiers with a field razor set, paid for by the government. Gillette vetoed a plan to sell the patent rights in Europe, believing correctly that Europe would eventually provide a very large market. Gillette and John Joyce, a fellow director, battled for control of the company. Gillette eventually sold out to Joyce, but his name remained on the brand. In the 1920s, as the patent expired, the Gillette Safety Razor Company emphasized research to design ever-improved models, realizing that even a slight improvement would induce men to adopt it. He was almost bankrupt due to spending large amounts of money on property, and to his having lost much of the value of his corporate shares as a result of the Great Depression. Gillette died on July 9, 1932, in Los Angeles, California. He was interred in the lower levels of the Begonia Corridor in the Great Mausoleum located at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. Personal life Gillette was also a Utopian Socialist. He published a book titled The Human Drift (1894) which advocated that all industry should be taken over by a single corporation owned by the public, and that everyone in the US should live in a giant city called Metropolis powered by Niagara Falls. A later book, World Corporation (1910) was a prospectus for a company set up to create this vision. He offered Theodore Roosevelt the presidency of the company, with a fee of one million dollars. (Roosevelt declined the offer.) Gillette's last book, The People's Corporation (1924), was written with Upton Sinclair and later inspired Glen H. Taylor. Gillette was initiated to the York Rite of Freemasonry, till his elevation to the highest degree of Grand Master. Gillette married Alanta "Lantie" Ella Gaines (1868–1951) in 1890. They had one child, King Gaines Gillette (1891–1955). In his later life he traveled extensively and was universally recognized from his picture on the packets of razor blades. People were surprised that he was a real person rather than just a marketing image. A Gillette company history stated that in non-English speaking countries people would often ask for "the kind with the Man's Face" blades. Around 1922 or 1923, he built a residence at 324 West Overlook Road, in "The Mesa" district of Palm Springs. A 4,800-square-foot (450 m2) main home and 720-square-foot (67 m2) guest house. The homes, sitting on 1-acre (4,000 m2) of land, are what remain of the original estate. Legacy The company continues in the present day as the Gillette brand of Procter & Gamble. Gillette is widely credited with creating the "razor-razor blade business model". Some peers in the marketing industry quote him as one of the innovators who revolutionized the freebie marketing ideas. The Gillette Company continued to thrive and sell products under a variety of brand names including Gillette, Braun, Oral-B, and Duracell. In 2005, the Gillette company was sold to Procter & Gamble for US$57 billion. It is now known as Global Blades & Razors, with the Gillette brand, a business unit of Procter & Gamble. King Gillette Ranch King Gillette purchased property for a large ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains near Calabasas in Southern California in 1926. The master plan and new buildings on the ranch were designed and built for Gillette in the late 1920s by renowned architect Wallace Neff. The architectural style was Spanish Colonial .... Discover the C A King popular books. Find the top 100 most popular C A King books.
Best Seller C A King Books of 2024
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Reading with Patrick
Michelle Kuo“In all of the literature addressing education, race, poverty, and criminal justice, there has been nothing quite like Reading with Patrick.”The AtlanticA memoir of the lifech...
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To Catch an Heiress
Julia QuinnWhen Caroline Trent is kidnapped by Blake Ravenscroft, she doesn't even try to elude this dangerously handsome agent of the crown. After all, she's been running from unwanted marri...
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The Paleontologist
Luke DumasUSA TODAY BESTSELLERA haunted paleontologist returns to the museum where his sister was abducted years earlier and is faced with a terrifying and murderous spirit in this chilling ...
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The Last Hellion
Loretta ChaseA ferocious conflict of wills...Vere Mallory, the Duke of Ainswood, has everythinghe's titled, he's rich, he's devastatingly good lookingand he seems determined to throw it all awa...
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Bayou Born
Hailey Edwards"Edwards [creates] amazing fantasy worlds that the reader becomes completely engrossed in." GoodreadsHer beginning may be our end . . . Deep in the humid Mississippi bayou, a halfw...
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The Skystone
Jack WhyteThis first novel in Jack Whyte's riveting Arthurian series tells how the story of Camelot may have actually come to be.We all know the storyhow Arthur pulled the sword from the sto...
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Murder in Room 305
Gary C. KingKathryn Ann Martini graduated from Yale with a bright future in the banking business. Young, beautiful and ambitious, she had everything going for her. Until she met Michael David ...
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A Magic Steeped in Poison
Judy I. LinA #1 New York Times Bestseller!Judy I. Lin's sweeping debut A Magic Steeped in Poison, first in a duology, is sure to enchant fans of Adrienne Young and Leigh Bardugo.I used to loo...
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For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Politics
Donna Brazile, Yolanda Caraway, Leah Daughtry, Minyon Moore & Veronica Chambers“For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Politics. It’s a wonderful, necessary book.”– Hillary ClintonThe four most powerful African American women in politics share the story of the...
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Whalefall
Daniel KrausA USA TODAY BESTSELLER Named a Best Book of 2023 by Book Riot, Shelf Awareness, and NPRThe Martian meets 127 Hours in this “astoundingly great” (Gillian Flynn, #1 New York Times be...
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Wyrd Sisters
Terry PratchettIn Terry Pratchett's Wyrd Sisters, Granny Weatherwax teams with two other witchesNanny Ogg and Margat Garlickas an unlikely alliance to save a prince and restore him to t...
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Unstoppable
Michael G. Long & Bea JacksonThis powerful and triumphant picture book biography tells the story of how openly gay civil rights leader Bayard Rustin defied prejudice as he planned and organized the historic Ma...
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The Death of a King
Paul DohertyThe fate of a king is not always glorious...The dramatic events of Edward II's death are told with masterful skill by acclaimed writer, Paul Doherty, in The Death of a King. Perfec...
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The Memory Wood
Sam LloydTHE MUSTREAD RICHARD & JUDY BOOK CLUB PICK. Chilling, moving and unputdownable, The Memory Wood is a thriller like no other. 'Beautifully told, with two superbly drawn young pr...
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The King of Clubs
Agatha ChristieA dead heiress on a train, a murdered recluse, a wealthy playboy slain at a costume ball are but a few of the unfortunate victims of confounding crimes committed in the pages of Ag...
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King Rat
China MiévilleAwardwinning author China Miéville began his astounding career with King Ratnow in a new Tor Essentials editiona mix of a young man's search for identity with a pulsepounding story...
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The Singing Sword
Jack WhyteWe know the legends: Arthur brought justice to a land that had known only cruelty and force; his father, Uther, carved a kingdom out of the chaos of the fallen Roman Empire; the sw...
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Banners of Hell
Paul DohertySummer 1312. The brutal murder of King Edward II's favourite, Peter Gaveston, unleashes a horde of demons . . .Sir Hugh Corbett, Keeper of the Secret Seal, hastens to the Dominican...
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High Heels and Mistletoe
C.A. KingHigh Heels & Mistletoe is the gold medal winner in the Readers' Favorite 2021 International Book Awards for the Fiction Holiday category.Call it an allergy or a family curse, ...
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The Death of the Red King
Paul DohertyIn 1100, King William II died in a tragic accident... or was it murder?In The Death of the Red King, acclaimed historian Paul Doherty investigates the suspicious death of William I...
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King Air C90 - The Training Workbook
Douglas S. CarmodyThe King Air C90 Training Workbook is a comprehensive training manual and study guide for King Air C90 Initial and Recurrent Training students.
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A History of Ancient Egypt
John RomerThe ancient world comes to life in the first volume in a two book series on the history of Egypt, spanning the first farmers to the construction of the pyramids. Famed archaeologis...
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Leading Minds
Howard E. Gardner & Emma LaskinDrawing on his groundbreaking work on intelligence and creativity, Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner, developer of the theory of Multiple Intelligences, offers fascinating revela...
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Once in a Great City
David Maraniss“A fascinating political, racial, economic, and cultural tapestry” (Detroit Free Press), Once in a Great City is a tour de force from David Maraniss about the quintessential Americ...
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He
Robert A. Johnson“Entertaining, informative, thoughtprovoking, mysterious, poetic. Men who read it will surely learn much about themselves, and womenparticularly those who are unfortunately misled ...
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A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War
Joseph LoconteHad there been no Great War, there would have been no Hobbit, no Lord of the Rings, no Narniaperhaps even no conversion to Christianity by C.S. Lewis.Discover the untold story of h...
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Rage of a Demon King
Raymond E. Feist“A massive, entertaining tale.”Ft. Lauderdale SunSentinelThe Serpentwar rages on! In Rage of a Demon Kingthe spellbinding third installment in Raymond E. Feist’s masterful epic fan...
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Lord of Scoundrels
Loretta ChaseThey call him many names, but Angelic isn't one of them . . . Sebastian Ballister, the notorious Marquess of Dain, is big, bad, and dangerous to know. No respectable woman would ha...
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Sweet Paris
Frank Adrian BarronA dazzling cookbook featuring 59 seasonal dessert recipes with American and French influences, accompanied by exquisite photographs and tips on serving and hosting with French...
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Flight or Fright
Stephen King#1 New York Times bestselling author and master of horror Stephen King teams up with Bev Vincent of Cemetery Dance to present a terrifying collection of sixteen short stories (and ...
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In Bed With the Devil
Lorraine HeathThey call him the Devil Earla scoundrel and accused murderer who grew up on the violent London streets. A proper young lady risks more than her reputation when consorting with the ...