Legacy
A Biography of Moses and Walter Annenberg
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- ¥1,600
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- ¥1,600
発行者による作品情報
An enthralling account of the storied lives of the father and son media moguls—publishers, philanthropists, and founder of TV Guide and Seventeen.
From the bestselling author of Life of the Party: The Biography of Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman comes a multi-generational saga of one of America's wealthiest and most controversial families—the Annenbergs. "In this engaging double biography, Ogden recounts in rich detail how immigrant Moses Annenberg enacted a rags-to-riches ascent worthy of a Horatio Alger novel . . . in chronicling Walter's rise to the top, Ogden does more than reveal a curious melding of financial shrewdness and aesthetic sensitivity: he also limns the contours of power and privilege in late-twentieth-century America" (Booklist).
"Like medieval princes, media moguls Moses (Moe) and son Walter Annenberg achieved great victories, suffered crushing losses, and exhibited astonishing generosity and vindictiveness . . . Walter's life has been an attempt to erase the stigma left by his father, a charismatic yet bruising publisher of conservative instincts who made his fortune primarily through the Daily Racing Form and the General News Bureau . . . An enthralling account of how one American family mixed pride, power, and politics in often startling ways."—Kirkus Reviews
"How elegantly Christopher Ogden has told the fascinating tale of the billionaire philanthropist
Walter Annenberg's love for his father, Moses Annenberg, whose prison sentence brought shame and embarrassment to his family. I found myself deeply moved by Annenberg's lifelong devotion to overcoming that black mark. It is a story of enormous success. What a great pleasure to read about the good rich, who understand the obligations of being rich."—Dominick Dunne
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A Jewish immigrant fleeing pogroms in East Prussia, Moses Annenberg (1877- 1942) arrived at Ellis Island with his family in 1885. In this gripping dual biography, Ogden (The Life of the Party) charts Annenberg's rise from poverty to the top of a media dynasty that under his son, Walter--a billionaire philanthropist, art collector and U.S. ambassador to Britain--would include the Philadelphia Inquirer, Seventeen and TV Guide. In 1899, Moses signed on with the circulation department of William Randolph Hearst's Chicago American, organizing gun- and bat-wielding gangs of neighborhood toughs to fight the local newspaper distribution wars. In 1922, he bought the racetrack bible, Daily Racing Form; in 1927, he took over a telegraph wire service providing sports and racing data to legitimate news agencies--and to the nation's illegal bookies--tarring himself with gangland associations that he tried to expunge in 1936 by buying the Inquirer, a bastion of Republican conservatism. Moses's campaign against FDR's New Deal, according to Ogden, led to a vindictive federal prosecution for income tax evasion that resulted in two years in prison. Released in 1942, he turned over the Inquirer to his spoiled, callow 33-year-old only son, Walter, a playboy with a bad stutter, entrusting him to redeem the family's honor. How Walter accomplished this while mellowing from hard-charging, partisan publisher to avuncular public figure is the theme of a robust narrative rife with appearances by characters like Ethel Merman, Damon Runyon, Huey Long, Harry Cohn and Katharine Graham. While Ogden had the full cooperation of Walter and his second wife, Lee, for this unauthorized bio, it yields a revealing, warts-and-all portrait of father and son. Photos. Author tour.
