The Devil and Dr Barnes, by Howard Greenfield (Marion Boyars, £12.95 in UK)

Albert C. Barnes is remembered mainly for the Barnes Foundation in Merion, Pennsylvania, whose rigid terms were broken a few years ago when some of its art collection was released for public touring and display. Originally an industrial chemist, he quickly made a fortune, then turned to art collecting and after a shaky start amassed a remarkable nucleus of 20th-century masterpieces. Barnes was a notoriously "difficult" man to deal with, though his hatred of art snobbery and academic humbug does suggest that his heart was in the right place. He died a sudden and violent death in 1951, when his car was hit by a ten-ton truck and his body was thrown 40 feet away.