Lewella T. (lewella) reviewed Legacy: A Biography of Moses and Walter Annenberg on + 55 more book reviews
From the dustjacket:
The father fled East Prussia to escape the 1880's pogoms and, as a penniless immigrant boy, hawked newspapers on the streets of Chicago. The son, who lives on Philadelphia's Main Line and on a palatial California estate, is a multibillionaire and American's most generous living philanthropist. Legacy is an epic saga of how Moses and Walter Annenberg built the vast publishing empire and one of the nation's greatest family fortunes. Sweeping through the century, the story encompasses brutal circulations wars, bookie parlors and racetracks, a lethal presidential vendetta, the glory days of Hollywood and television, diplomatic drawing rooms, White House intrigues, tangled romances, a tragic suicide, extravagant social climbing, Britain's royal family, a fabled art collection, and astonishing generosity.
Two complex, driven business geniuses are the focus of this fascinating psycological portait. Moses, the king of racing information, was the quintessential self-made millionair, rough man of action with enormous charm and a harsh temper who alternately indulged and brutally bullied his stuttering playboy son into becoming a man worthy of taking over his business. But when Moses used his Philadelphia Inquirer to battle Franklin D. Roosevelt and lost, landing in jail for income tax evasion, it was left to Waler--displaying talent no one knew he had--to prove himself and redeem the family honor and fortune for his mother and seven sisters.
Succeeding beyond anyone's wildest dreams, Walter founded "Seventeen", "TV Guide", and "American Bandstand". After a failed first marriage that produced two children, he married Lenore Rosenstiel, his perfect partner and soul mate; became Richard Nixon's ambassador to Britain, the only U.S. envoy knighted by Queen Elizabeth; made billions investing; sold his publishing empire to Rupert Murdoch and began giving away the proceeds to improve U.S. education.
Unauthorized, but wirtten with unprecedented access to the Anneberg family and their private papers, Legacy is a t one a moving story of a family's triumph, a rich cultural history, an dan irresistible reading experience.
The father fled East Prussia to escape the 1880's pogoms and, as a penniless immigrant boy, hawked newspapers on the streets of Chicago. The son, who lives on Philadelphia's Main Line and on a palatial California estate, is a multibillionaire and American's most generous living philanthropist. Legacy is an epic saga of how Moses and Walter Annenberg built the vast publishing empire and one of the nation's greatest family fortunes. Sweeping through the century, the story encompasses brutal circulations wars, bookie parlors and racetracks, a lethal presidential vendetta, the glory days of Hollywood and television, diplomatic drawing rooms, White House intrigues, tangled romances, a tragic suicide, extravagant social climbing, Britain's royal family, a fabled art collection, and astonishing generosity.
Two complex, driven business geniuses are the focus of this fascinating psycological portait. Moses, the king of racing information, was the quintessential self-made millionair, rough man of action with enormous charm and a harsh temper who alternately indulged and brutally bullied his stuttering playboy son into becoming a man worthy of taking over his business. But when Moses used his Philadelphia Inquirer to battle Franklin D. Roosevelt and lost, landing in jail for income tax evasion, it was left to Waler--displaying talent no one knew he had--to prove himself and redeem the family honor and fortune for his mother and seven sisters.
Succeeding beyond anyone's wildest dreams, Walter founded "Seventeen", "TV Guide", and "American Bandstand". After a failed first marriage that produced two children, he married Lenore Rosenstiel, his perfect partner and soul mate; became Richard Nixon's ambassador to Britain, the only U.S. envoy knighted by Queen Elizabeth; made billions investing; sold his publishing empire to Rupert Murdoch and began giving away the proceeds to improve U.S. education.
Unauthorized, but wirtten with unprecedented access to the Anneberg family and their private papers, Legacy is a t one a moving story of a family's triumph, a rich cultural history, an dan irresistible reading experience.
