Pulitzer: A Life Review

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(More customer reviews)It is only upon reaching the very last page of this 395 page biography that the reader comes to understand why this portrait of Pulitzer is so disappointing and, frankly, uncomfortable to read. There, the author cites as one of his sources, a PhD thesis from the 1940s which drew upon an interview with Mr. Pulitzer's aging valet. This interview. pursued at the urging of Pulitzer's son, revealed, apparently for the first time, Pulitzer's virtually disabling depression, the havoc it wreaked on the management of his papers and the misery it brought to his family. If one strips away the "eccentricities" catalogued in exhaustive detail by the author one is left with a narrative that is hardly insightful or illuminating. Like Mr. Pulitzer's beleaguered hirelings and pathetic and emotionally abused family members, the author seems to struggle to divine brilliance in every move of this isolated and miserable man. That Pulitzer and his "World" transformed and empowered the newspaper business at the turn of the last century is without question and the author provides a somewhat lively and entertaining picture of that business in those days. However, by asking the us to bear with Pulitzer through page after page of troubling and, often, psychotic behavior, the author imparts no more than the conventional appreciation of the proverbial "thin line between genius and madness." The reader comes to suspect that the key to the success of the "World" may actually have derived from the triumph of the genius of others over Pulitzer's madness; a test of this hypothesis requires more richly researched characterizations of the editors and reporters who labored beneath the Dome than the author has produced. In fact, the author rarely strays from Pulitzer's side such that what must have been a vibrant publishing world remains unidimensional and sketchy. By the end of this work, the nature of Pulitzer's genius remains obscure and relatively bereft of insight; it is his madness that is most appreciated as the reader emerges from an exhausting virtual immersion in the psychodrama that dominates this biography.

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Front-Page Pittsburgh: Two Hundred Years Of The Post-Gazette Review

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(More customer reviews)I'm not from Pittsburgh so some of this matter went over my head but I must say that Clarke Thomas is a smooth journalist of the old fashioned kind who believes that language's transparency can be used to convey information directly to the reader, without bias, without slanting. His history of The Pittsburgh Gazette is interesting because it parallels American history. Why, the Gazette was founded before the US Constitution was signed! It's hard to believe but people loved the news even back then, so much so that horses would deliver the paper on broadsides and it would be read on the village square and in pubs in the tiny hamlets of western Pennsylvania. Reading the progress of the paper over the years of the nineteenth century made me think of that movie THE VILLAGE, the recent film for which an old time village was fabricated in the woods outside Pittsburgh or wherever. The most intriguing characters were the Block family. For me, they were examples of courage because they dared press for integration, both subtly and openly, as the calendar moved from the 1930s through the 1940s and 1950s. Just as Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson and other enlightened figures in baseball gave us a glimpse into an integrated USA, Pittsburgh had its own quiet heroes.
Paul Block, the one who engineered the merger of the POST and the GAZETTE, had an intriguing career too! I have read many books on Hearst and Marion Davies, and never ran into the story which Mr. Thomas reports in this book--that Block and Davies were an item before she met Hearst, and that the three of them palled around together even after she took up with Hearst (one newsman after another for our favorite comedienne, Marion Davies)! It is an eye-opener for sure and presents an interesting sidelight on a much-discussed liaison. I hope that this book will soon produce a related sequel, perhaps one that will reprint the texts of the articles Thomas discusses. It would be great if we had the entire run of the Post-Gazette's coverage on, say, for example, favorite son Andy Warhol, and watch the paper deal with social and artistic changes over the decades.

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Covering Iowa: The History of the Des Moines Register and Tribune Company, 1849-1985 Review

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(More customer reviews)I thought this would be a dull read but was pleasantly surprised to find it anything but boring. The history spans a time of great changes in Iowa and the midwest and the newspaper industry. The exemplary index is a wonderful aid to this book.

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The New York Times The Complete Civil War 1861-1865 Review

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(More customer reviews)This splendid reference will be valuable to all Americans.
It will be particularly opportune for the Civil War history buffs as they track, celebrate or commemorate the events which occurred in our country's Civil War 150 years ago.
Keep it handy to read accounts as they occurred and were recorded for our nation's readers, and thereby bring new life to your study of the war as it "progressed" over the four years.
It includes a DVD as well as a great 42 page chronology of the four years.

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The Civil War as you've never experienced it before, through original, first-hand reportage of The New York Times, the country's newspaper of record. Available for the first time in a unique book/DVD packageThe New York Times, established in 1851, was one of the few newspapers with correspondents on the front lines throughout the Civil War. The Complete Civil War collects every article written about the war from 1861 to 1865, plus select pieces before and after the war and is filled with the action, politics, and personal stories of this monumental event. From the first shot fired at Fort Sumter to the surrender at Appomattox, and from the Battle of Antietam to the Battle of Atlanta, as well as articles on slavery, states rights, the role of women, and profiles of noted heroes such as Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, the era comes alive through these daily first-hand accounts.' More than 600 of the most crucial and interesting articles in the book-typeset and designed for easy reading' Commentary by Editors and Civil War scholars Harold Holzer and Craig Symonds' More than 104,000 additional articles on the DVD-ROM- every article the Times published during the war.' A detailed chronology highlights articles and events of interest that can be found on the disk. Strikingly designed and illustrated with hundreds of maps, historical photographs, and engravings, this book is a treasure for Civil War and history buffs everywhere."This is a fascinating and riveting look at the most important event in American history as seen through the eyes of an institution that was emerging as the most important newspaper in American history. In these pages, the Civil War seems new and fresh, unfolding day after anxious day, as the fate of the republic hangs in the balance." Ken Burns"Serious historians and casual readers alike will find this extraordinary collection of 600 articles and editorials about the Civil War published in The New York Times before and during the war of great value and interest...enough to keep the most assiduous student busy for the next four years of the war's sesquicentennial observations." James McPherson"This fascinating work catapults readers back in time, allowing us to live through the Civil War as daily readers of The New York Times, worrying about the outcome of battles, wondering about our generals, debating what to do about slavery, hearing the words that Lincoln spoke, feeling passionate about our politics. Symonds and Holzer have found an ingenious new way to experience the most dramatic event in our nation's history."Doris Kearns Goodwin"Harold Holzer and Craig Symonds have included not only every pertinent article from the pages of The Times, but enhanced and illuminated them with editorial commentary that adds context and perspective, making the articles more informative and useful here than they were in the original issues. Nowhere else can readers of today get such an understanding of how readers of 1861-1865 learned of and understood their war." William C DavisThe DVD runs on Windows 2000/XP or Mac OS X 10.3 or later.

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