A Hazard of New Fortunes — Volume 3

A bold publisher dreams up an extravagant dinner at Delmonico's to announce the birth of a daring new periodical, hoping the gathering of America’s leading writers, artists and journalists will spark a literary revolution. He envisions a self‑governing arts scene, a banquet that will generate headlines and ideas before the first issue even reaches printers. Yet the scale of the affair, the cost and the temperaments of his collaborators already begin to test his optimism.

The schemer, Fulkerson, balances admiration and suspicion toward the enigmatic financier Dryfoos, whose restless ventures—from western mines to distant railroads—have earned both awe and bewilderment. Their conversations reveal a clash between bold, almost reckless ambition and a cautious, almost fatalistic pragmatism. As the dinner preparations advance, listeners are drawn into the tension between visionary idealism and the messy realities of money, reputation, and unseen motives.