22 November | 8:11  |  Jeffrey Rothfeder

I'm the writer of McIlhenny's Gold and just want to point out that my book is not in any fashion uncomplimentary to the McIlhenny's. I think they have a wonderful family business that has survived when most others from that period are long gone; they are brand and marketing genuises; they have an instinctual feel for creating and acting on an excellent business model; and they are a family of fascinating characters. Like any other family, they have black marks, skeletons in the closet, dubious personality traits and I wrote about them honestly....but not in a style that in any way demeaned what the family has accomplished. Bernard and I have similar feelings about the family -- we are both extremely impressed. His book, self-published as it is, simply cannot be as unbiased as mine is. Otherwise, any disagreement is overplayed. To demonstrate my conclusions about the McIlhennys, here is the third to last paragraph in my book: Whatever the outcome, it's been a magnificent journey for the McIlhennys, distinguished by extraordinary business acumen and a family's ingenuity spooling seamlessly through epochs of slavery, war, invention, genius, myth, racial uneases, half-truths and untruths.