Legacy: A Biography of Moses and Walter Annenberg FROM THE PUBLISHER
The father fled East Prussia to escape the 1880s pogroms 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 America's most generous living philanthropist. Legacy is an epic saga of how Moses and Walter Annenberg built a vast publishing empire and one of the nation's greatest family fortunes. Sweeping through the century, the story encompasses brutal circulation wars, bookie parlors and racetracks, a lethal presidential vendetta, the glory days of Hollywood and of 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 psychological portrait. Moses, the king of racing information, was the quintessential self-made millionaire, a 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 Walter-- displaying talents 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 dreams, Walter founded Seventeen, TV Guide, and American Bandstand. After a failed first marriage that produced two children, he married Leonore 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 written with unprecedented access to the Annenberg family and their private papers, Legacy is at once a moving story of a family's triumph, a rich cultural history, and an irresistible reading experience.
FROM THE CRITICS
Philadelphia Inquirer
Rich characterization....Walter Annenberg emerges here as a wonderfully complex character.
Wall Street Journal
A family saga of wealthcorruptionphilanthropyand redemption — and vengeance reversed....Mr. Ogden has evoked the two Annenbergswarts and all.
Baltimore Sun
Meticulous and fascinating...well-researchedwell-writtenexcellent reporting.
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. (June)
Matthew Cooper - The Washington Monthly
Christopher Ogden is right up there with Dominick Dunne as one of our best chroniclers of the rich....This is a great read.Read all 9 "From The Critics" >
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
Legacy: A Biography Of Moses And Walter Annenberg tells how the son's business smarts, social climbing, and multibillion philanthropy cleaned the Annenberg reputation. — Jessica Seigel, Brill's Content
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 embarassment to his family. I found myself deeply moved to 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
A remarkable biography...A first-rate American saga (David McCullough is Author of Truman). — David McCullough
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