Character guide

Frank Algernon Cowperwood

major

Also known as Frank, Frank Cowperwood, young Cowperwood, Mr. Cowperwood, Cowperwood

Frank Cowperwood learns finance at his father's bank the way other boys learn scripture, and by his early twenties he is clearing six thousand a year in note brokerage while quietly buying into every new streetcar franchise he can reach. What makes him dangerous is not greed alone but appetite: he wants the inside of every deal and the woman he cannot have, and he treats both as problems of arrangement. His rise through Philadelphia's corrupt franchise politics sets the novel's engine in motion and makes his eventual collision with the men who made him inevitable.

Aileen Butler

major

Also known as Aileen, Butler, old Butler

Aileen is the beautiful, dashing daughter of a political boss, raised Catholic and accustomed to being adored, and she falls for Cowperwood with a fervor that matches his own. To him she is not merely a mistress but a link between the wonderful days before the panic and a still-to-be-triumphant future, and he refuses to give her up even when discretion would save him. Her presence turns a financial scandal into a moral one, and the rumor of their connection does as much damage to Cowperwood's case as any ledger.

George W. Stener

supporting

Also known as Stener, Mr. Stener, Treasurer Stener, George

Stener is a real-estate and insurance man of no particular gifts who is elevated to city treasurer because he is faithful, useful for drumming up votes, and utterly without ambition of his own. He is not a bad fellow; he is simply weak, a puppet in the hands of Butler, Mollenhauer, and Simpson, and it is precisely this weakness that makes him valuable to Cowperwood. Their partnership, built on Stener's willingness to sign what he does not fully understand, is the hinge on which the novel's central financial crime turns.

Edward Malia Butler

supporting

Also known as Mr. Butler, Butler, Edward Butler, Eddie

Butler is one of the three men who jointly run the city's politics, a hard, grim, experienced operator whose word shapes who gets elected and who gets franchises. His tenderness for Aileen, his first baby girl, is the one soft place in a life of machine politics, and the discovery of her affair with Cowperwood strikes him as a betrayal he cannot think his way out of. His grief and rage will determine whether Cowperwood's fall is merely financial or total, and his divided loyalty between fatherhood and the political order he upholds drives the novel's middle act.

Henry Worthington Cowperwood

supporting

Also known as Henry Cowperwood, Henry, Mr. Cowperwood, old Cowperwood

Henry Cowperwood is a trustworthy, sound-organization man, known to the Drexels and the Bank of the United States as a most reliable individual, and he rises steadily without ever being called brilliant. He is pleased by young Frank's fascination with discounts, collateral, and the British East India Company shares worth four times their face value, and he explains the machinery of money with patient pride. His quiet, respectable world is the baseline against which his son's spectacular and unscrupulous ascent—and eventual crash—will be measured.

Mrs. Henry W. Cowperwood

minor

Also known as Mrs. Cowperwood, Henry Cowperwood

Frank's mother, a quiet and supportive presence in the family.

Lillian Cowperwood

supporting

Also known as Lillian, little Lillian

Lillian enters the novel as the young woman Frank courts and marries, a wife whose world is domestic and whose husband opens a new and terrifying vista of what life can be. She is not without feeling or dignity, but she is no match for the scale of Cowperwood's ambition or the force of his desire for Aileen, and the public reads his affair as a plan to desert her and the children. Her quiet presence makes his ruthlessness legible: the cost of his rise is measured in the home he leaves behind.

Mrs. Frank Cowperwood

supporting

Also known as Mrs. Cowperwood, Frank Cowperwood

She is the proud, passionate daughter of a powerful contractor who risks her social standing for a man her father helped destroy. Her marriage to Frank is both a defiant victory and a slow reckoning with the price of loving someone whose ambition never pauses. In the novel's middle arc, her loyalty and restlessness test whether Cowperwood's private life can survive the ruin of his public one.

Harper Steger

supporting

Also known as Steger, Mr. Steger, Harper

Steger moves through Philadelphia's courtrooms and private offices with perfect manners and no illusions, drawn to Cowperwood as the most fascinating client he has ever served. He is subtle, indifferently cruel, and motivated less by loyalty than by the conviction that proximity to genius will make him richer and more conspicuous. As the legal net tightens, his counsel becomes the thin line between Cowperwood's freedom and the penitentiary.

Judge Wilbur Payderson

minor

Also known as Judge Payderson, Wilbur Payderson, Payderson

Presiding judge at Cowperwood's trial.

Walter Bonhag

minor

Also known as Bonhag, Mr. Bonhag

A prison guard who becomes an antagonist to Cowperwood.

Mrs. Butler

minor

Also known as Butler, old Butler

Edward Butler's wife and Aileen's mother.

Norah

minor

Also known as Honey

A young woman who becomes Cowperwood's mistress in Chicago.

Henry A. Mollenhauer

supporting

Also known as Mollenhauer, Henry Mollenhauer, Mr. Mollenhauer

Mollenhauer is the kind of power broker who treats city government as a private treasury and every crisis as a chance to consolidate control. When Stener comes to him panicked over half a million in missing funds, Mollenhauer coolly calculates how to squeeze the treasurer, absorb his shares, and decide whether Cowperwood or Stener will bear the blame. His cold pragmatism shapes the novel's central question: in a city run by men like him, can anyone with ambition stay clean?

Mark Simpson

minor

Also known as Simpson, Senator Simpson, Senator Mark Simpson, Mark

A corrupt state senator allied with Cowperwood's enemies.

Albert Stires

minor

Also known as Stires, Albert, Mr. Stires

Cowperwood's loyal clerk and later business associate.

Callum Butler

minor

Also known as Callum, Butler

One of Edward Butler's sons.

Mamie Calligan

minor

Also known as Mamie

A servant in the Cowperwood household.

Warden Michael Desmas

minor

Also known as Desmas, Warden Desmas

Warden of the prison where Cowperwood is incarcerated.

Uncle Seneca

minor

Also known as Seneca

Frank's uncle, a wealthy and domineering relative.

Edward Strobik

minor

Also known as Strobik, Edward, Ed

A corrupt city councilman.

Mr. Semple

minor

Also known as Semple

Lillian Cowperwood's brother-in-law.

Henry Waterman Sr.

minor

Also known as Henry Waterman, Henry, Sr.

A wealthy businessman and associate of Cowperwood.

Frank Cowperwood Jr.

minor

Also known as Frank, Little Frank

Cowperwood's young son.

Mr. Chapin

minor

Also known as Chapin, old Chapin

A minor business figure in Philadelphia.

Walter Leigh

minor

Also known as Lee, Leigh, Walter

A young man who socializes with Cowperwood.

Stephen Wingate

minor

Also known as Wingate

A business associate of Cowperwood.

Sheriff Jaspers

minor

Also known as Jaspers

The sheriff involved in Cowperwood's arrest.

Arthur Rivers

minor

Also known as Mr. Arthur Rivers, Rivers

A minor character in the legal world.

W. C. Davison

minor

Also known as President Davison, Davison

President of a bank Cowperwood deals with.

Edward Tighe

minor

Also known as Tighe, Mr. Tighe

A minor business figure.

Joseph Cowperwood

minor

Also known as Cowperwood

Frank's younger brother.

Terrence Relihan

minor

Also known as Relihan

A minor character in the prison setting.

George Waterman

minor

Also known as George, Waterman, Mr. George Waterman

A minor business associate.

Father David

minor

Also known as David, Father

A priest who appears briefly.

Dennis Shannon

minor

Also known as Shannon

A minor political figure.

Marjorie Stafford

minor

Also known as Marjorie, Mamie

A young woman who socializes with Cowperwood.

Father Michel

minor

Also known as Father

A priest who appears briefly.

Mr. Shannon

minor

Also known as Shannon

District attorney who prosecutes Cowperwood.

Anna Adelaide Cowperwood

minor

Also known as Anna, Anna Adelaide, Cowperwood

Frank's sister, a minor family member.

Charles Ackerman

minor

Also known as Ackerman

A minor clerk in Cowperwood's office.

Mrs. Semple

minor

Also known as Semple

Lillian Cowperwood's sister.

Jonas Alderson

minor

Also known as Alderson

A minor political figure and ally of Cowperwood.

Mrs. Stener

minor

Also known as Stener

George Stener's wife.

Eddie Zanders

minor

Also known as Zanders, Edward, Ed

A prison guard who torments Cowperwood.

Sister Sempronia

minor

A nun who appears briefly in the narrative.

Mr. Martinson

minor

Also known as Martinson

A minor business associate of Cowperwood.

Hibbs

minor

A minor clerk in the city treasurer's office.

Avery Stone

minor

Also known as Jay Cooke, Cooke

A prominent banker and rival of Cowperwood.

Mr. Ellsworth

minor

Also known as Ellsworth

A minor character involved in Cowperwood's affairs.

Seneca Davis

minor

Also known as Seneca, Mrs. Seneca Davis

A relative of the Cowperwood family.

Francis J. Grund

minor

Also known as Grund, Frank

A minor political figure.

Abner Sengstack

minor

Also known as Sengstack, Mr. Sengstack

A minor business associate.

Mr. Simpson

minor

Also known as Simpson

A minor political figure, possibly related to Mark Simpson.

Mrs. Katharine Calligan

minor

Also known as Mrs. Calligan, Katy

A servant in the Cowperwood household.

Joseph Zimmerman

minor

Also known as Joe, Joseph, Zimmerman

A minor business figure.

Richard Pethick

minor

Also known as Pethick

A minor character in the legal world.

Jacob Harmon

minor

Also known as Harmon

A minor business figure.

Henry Waterman Jr.

minor

Also known as Mr. Henry Waterman, Mr. Waterman, Waterman

Son of Henry Waterman Sr., a business associate.

Mrs. Mollenhauer

minor

Also known as Mollenhauer

Henry Mollenhauer's wife.

Roger Kendall

minor

Also known as Kendall

A minor character in the financial world.

Thomas Kuby

minor

Also known as Kuby

A minor character in the prison setting.

Adlai Jaspers

minor

Also known as Jaspers

A minor character, possibly related to Sheriff Jaspers.

Skelton C. Wheat

minor

Also known as Wheat, Mr. Wheat

A minor business figure.

Mr. Dalrymple

minor

Also known as Dalrymple

A minor character involved in a business transaction.

Philip Moultrie

minor

A minor character in the legal world.

John Brown

minor

Also known as John

A minor character, possibly a servant.

Judge Kitchen

minor

Also known as Kitchen

A judge who presides over a minor legal matter.

Frewen Kasson

minor

Also known as Kasson

A minor political figure.

Mr. Pinkerton

minor

Also known as This Mr. Pinkerton

A minor character in the business world.

Wash Sims

minor

Also known as Wash, Wash Sims

A minor character in the prison setting.

John Sparkheaver

minor

Also known as John, old John

A minor character, possibly a servant.

Wilton Ellsworth

minor

Also known as Ellsworth, young Ellsworth

A minor character, possibly related to Mr. Ellsworth.

Thomas Wycroft

minor

Also known as Wycroft, Councilmen Wycroft

A corrupt city councilman.

David Pettie

minor

Also known as Mr. David Pettie, Mr. Pettie, Pettie

A minor business figure.

Edward Clark

minor

Also known as Clark, Edward

A minor character in the legal world.

Julian Bode

minor

Also known as Van Nostrand, Bode

A minor character in the business world.

Jacob Borchardt

minor

Also known as Mr. Jacob Borchardt, Borchardt

A minor business figure.

Judge Rafalsky

minor

Also known as Rafalsky

A judge who presides over a minor legal matter.