Silas Burroughs, the Man who Made Wellcome: American Ambition and Global Enterprise

Silas Burroughs arrived in London from
America in 1878 and proved himself an exceptional entrepreneur, taking the
pharmaceutical business by storm. He was the brains and energy behind Burroughs
Wellcome & Co. With his business partner Henry Wellcome he created an
internationally successful firm, the legacy of which can be found in the
charity the Wellcome Trust, yet few now remember him and the impact he made in
his short lifetime.



A consummate salesman, Burroughs was also an
astute businessman, with new ideas for marketing, advertising and
manufacturing: his writings describe sales trips around the world and the
people he met. He was also a visionary employer who supported the eight-hour
working day, profit-sharing, and numerous social and radical political
movements, including the single tax movement, free travel, Irish Home Rule and
world peace. In this first biography of
Burroughs, Julia Sheppard explores his American origins, his religion and
marriage, and his philanthropic work, as well as re-evaluating the dramatic
deterioration of his relationship with his partner Wellcome.