LEGACY - A Biography of Moses and Walter Annenberg

Ogden, Christopher ; [SIGNED] ; [Rowland Evans]

ISBN 10: 0316633798 / ISBN 13: 9780316633796

Published by Little, Brown & Company, Boston, 1999

About this Item

Autograph; viii, 615 pages; Clean and secure in original binding. Inscribed and Signed on the halftitle "For Kay and Rowly, / Dear friends / wonderful neighbors, / and very talented reporters / and writers. / With affection and / respect, / Christopher Ogden / June 1999" a multi-generational saga of one of America's wealthiest and most controversial families--the Annenbergs. Derived from a review posed on-line. Few biographers convey their subjects' business abilities and personalities with equal acuity, but Washington-based journalist Christopher Ogden has done just that in this accomplished portrait of Moses Annenberg (1877-1942) and his son, Walter. Depicting Prussian-born Moe's rise in American publishing, Ogden captures the innovative circulation gimmicks and bare-knuckled competitive tactics that fueled the success of newspapers like the The Inquirer in Philadelphia and the Daily Racing Form (the Annenbergs' cash cow). He also unsparingly but sympathetically depicts Moe's terrible temper and willed blindness to the shadiness of some of his business practices and associates, which led to a two-year jail stint for tax evasion before he came home to die. Spoiled only son Walter, born in 1908, didn't really grow up until his father's conviction shocked him into finally focusing on the family assets, which he further enhanced by creating such pioneering niche publications as Seventeen and TV Guide. Ogden nails Walter's complex character as well, doing particularly well in evaluating the younger Annenberg's famous philanthropy--partly the result of his mother's nurturing and partly a burning desire to justify his father's choices and remove any taint from his legacy. A combination of colorful history and father-son drama. PROVENANCE: Rowland Evans was a provocative newspaper columnist, commentator and author who antagonized liberal politicians and championed conservative causes. He left Yale and enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1942 during World War II and was discharged in 1944 because of malaria. In 1963, Mr. Evans and Mr. Novak began writing ''Inside Report,'' an insider's view of politics that was published four times a week until Mr. Evans retired in 1993. Mr. Evans and Robert Novak began their work as columnists in the early 1960's, a time when newspaper columnists wielded outsize influence in national politics. The pair pioneered in transferring that influence to the medium of cable television with the political discussion program ''Evans & Novak'' -- carried on CNN from that cable network's beginning. Rowland Evans and his wife Kay (Katherine Winton Evans), also a respected writer and editor, were mainstays on the Washington social scene, hosting many memorable gatherings in their handsome Georgetown house -- to which flocked influential and remarkable people drawn from journalism, politics and general society over the decades from the 1960s to the 2000s. Both Evans and Novak became more predictably conservative over the years, particularly during the Reagan years. Reportedly, both columnists voted for JFK in 1960 and for Lyndon Johnson in 1964. Evans earned a place on Richard Nixon's infamous "Enemies List." Novak reported that Evans had JFK as a guest for the first dinner party the latter attended as President Elect. Kay and Rowland Evans has a particularly close friendship with Robert F. Kennedy, his wife Ethel and their family.; Signed by Author.

Seller Inventory # 43425

Bibliographic Details

• Title: LEGACY - A Biography of Moses and Walter Annenberg
• Publisher: Little, Brown & Company, Boston
• Publication Date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0316633798
• ISBN 13: 9780316633796
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition.
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

Legacy is a sweeping epic of the creation, loss, and redemption of a family's name and reputation. Moses Annenberg was a shoeless immigrant who became the king of horse-racing news and a Hearst-trained newspaper publisher. His only son, Walter, now one of this country's most generous philanthropists, was a stuttering playboy who rescued the family empire for his mother and seven sisters. He launched Seventeen and TV Guide, and ultimately amassed one of the nation's greatest fortunes and private art collections. Unauthorized, but with unprecedented access to the Annenberg family, their private papers, and financial records, Legacy follows the family from turn-of-the-century circulation wars in Chicago through political battles with President Franklin Roosevelt. Ogden examines Walter's reign at the Philadelphia Inquirer, the suicide of his only son, his friendships with presidents Nixon and Reagan, and his controversial tenure as ambassador to Britain. Finally, he discusses the financial strategies of this true business genius.

Review

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. What a great pleasure to read about the good rich, who understand the obligations of being rich. (Dominick Dunne)

If business interests you, or politics, or mass culture, or a good gossip about Hollywood and Washington, you will like this book... The same goes for Philidelphia, WASP versus Jew, big-city newspapering of searing family heartache. It's like a great novel (NEW YORK OBSERVER)

A meticulous and fascinating account... well-researched, well-written, excellent reporting... rigorous scrutiny... a riveting story of the lifetime legacy that Moe left Walter and what Walter made of it. (BALTIMORE SUN)

Gripping... robust narrative... a revealing warts and all portrait. (PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY)