Little Man in a Big Hurry: The Life of Joseph Hirshhorn, The Man Behind the Museum Book

Little Man in a Big Hurry is the remarkable story of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, who donated the largest private art collection ever accumulated to the people of the United States.
A rags-to-riches story of an immigrant Jewish boy, barley eight years old, who arrived in the United States from Latvia in 1907 and who, through oversized ambition, energy, smarts, luck, and determination, accumulated a multi-million-dollar collection of contemporary art which is now housed on the Mall in Washington, D.C., in a Smithsonian Museum which bears his name: The Joseph H. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.
Joe's father died in Latvia when Joe, the twelfth of thirteen children, was one year old. By 1906 his mother, with two of her daughters, arrived in Brooklyn where they worked in sweatshops to bring the remainder of the children to America. From this humble beginning, ambitious Joe set out to lift his family out of poverty.
His first financial successes were made as a broker's broker., with later successes in gold and uranium mining. He was also married four times, and struggled to balance family life with the work that consumed him. Having developed a fascination with art that brightened up the "ugly walls" where he had lived as a child, Joe Hirshhorn began a hobbythat would soon turn into a joyful obsession, buying and collecting art. After he accumulated a vast and impressive collection, offers to house the collection came pouring in from London, Italy, Canada, and Israel. Finally, under the administration of President Lyndon Johnson, a suitable museum was built where Mr. Hirshhorn's collection is on display. Little Man in a Big Hurry is his amazing story as told by his daughter, Gene.