The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst

Biography & Autobiography. History. Politics. Nonfiction. HTML: The definitive and "utterly absorbing" biography of America's first news media baron based on newly released private and business documents (Vanity Fair). William Randolph Hearst, known to his staff as the Chief, was a brilliant business strategist and a man of prodigious appetites. By the 1930s, he controlled the largest publishing empire in the United States, including twenty-eight newspapers, the Cosmopolitan Picture Studio, radio stations, and thirteen magazines. He quickly learned how to use this media stronghold to achieve unprecedented political power. The son of a gold miner, Hearst underwent a public metamorphosis from Harvard dropout to political kingmaker; from outspoken populist to opponent of the New Deal; and from citizen to congressman. In The Chief, David Nasaw presents an intimate portrait of the man famously characterized in the classic film Citizen Kane. With unprecedented access to Hearst's personal and business papers, Nasaw details Heart's relationship with his wife Millicent and his romance with Marion Davies; his interactions with Hitler, Mussolini, Churchill, and every American president from Grover Cleveland to Franklin Roosevelt; and his acquaintance with movie giants such as Louis B. Mayer, Jack Warner, and Irving Thalberg. An "absorbing, sympathetic portrait of an American original," The Chief sheds light on the private life of a very public man (Chicago Tribune)..… (more)

Media reviews

The New York Times Book Review

Nasaw... is a meticulous researcher and a cool analyst. His Hearst is altogether a larger, more sympathetic figure than the vindictive, humorless crypto-fascist seen by the left. He does not exculpate Hearst, the propagandist who signed up Hitler and Mussolini and flayed Franklin D. Roosevelt as a

Communist dupe. He explains him and makes him human.

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The New York Times

Mr. Nasaw has given his biography an immediacy that almost makes the reader forget that the author himself was not there as the story unfolded.

User reviews

LibraryThing member Schmerguls

Because on 23 Mar 1986 I read W. A. Swanberg's biography of Hearst when this biography came out in 2000 I figured I need not read it. But recently as I thought about Hearst's political effort culminating in seeking the Democratic nomination for President in 1904, I thought I would find this book of

interest--and I was right. Some of my reaction was the same as when I read Swanberg's book--revulsion at his hopelessly extravagant spending and rejoicing at his near bankruptcy in 1937--but it was good to read the book and while reading about his acquisitions of art and such was not interest-holding much of the account as to his political activity and how he dictatorily ran his publishing empire was of high interest. And there were times when I laughed out loud, such as when I read that he returned to the USA from abroad on Nov. 2, 1936, and predicted publicly that Landon would be elected President. I was appalled at his living openly with his mistress, while holding himself out as a defender of morality. One can be glad that no other publisher was ever so dominant and it was indeed satisfying to read about his near financial collapse in 1937. The book was awarded a Bancroft Prize in 2000 and is the 36th such winner I have read. But since two Bancroft prizes have been awarded each year since 1948 one can see that there are lots of such winners which I have not (yet) read.

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LibraryThing member EricCostello

On balance, just about the best and most balanced biography of Hearst of the many that are out there. Nasaw has the advantage of time, which has allowed the animosity directed against Hearst in his lifetime to die down, and offer a somewhat more objective view of the subject. I prefer this to

Swanberg's biography. This particular biography has been liberally cribbed for other bios, as well.

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