<p> Flamboyant mobster Arnold Rothstein was gambling and money. He was the inspiration for Meyer Wolfsheim in <i>The Great Gatsby</i> and Nathan Detroit in <i>Guys and Dolls</i>. It was rumored he masterminded the 1919 World Series fix. He was Mr. Broadway, a king of corruption holding court from his private booth at Lindy's Restaurant. </p> <p> In this lively, sprawling biography, the inimitable Nick Tosches -- "one of the greatest living American writers" (<i>Dallas Observer</i>) -- examines the myth and extraordinary legacy of Arnold Rothstein. It is an elegy to old New York that places an iconic, larger-than-life criminal kingpin firmly at the center of nothing less than the history of the entire Western world. </p>