author
A colorful con man turned memoirist, this early 20th-century figure wrote with firsthand knowledge of scams, speculation, and the wild edges of American finance. His best-known book offers a lively, unapologetic look at the world of mining fraud and hustle.
Born Jacob Herzig, George Graham Rice became known as a promoter, swindler, and writer whose life moved through gambling rooms, forged identities, and speculative mining deals. He eventually settled on the name George Graham Rice and built notoriety around schemes tied to tip sheets, mail fraud, and mine promotion.
Rice is best remembered for My Adventures With Your Money, an autobiography that draws on his own career in fraud and promotion. The book has lasted as a vivid account of the culture of speculation in the American West and of the personality of a man who turned his own scandals into a story.
Because reliable biographical material is limited and much of what survives focuses on his criminal career, he is usually discussed less as a conventional literary author than as a fascinating historical voice from an era of bold scams and boom-and-bust ambition.