The Uncrowned King

Starred review from November 10, 2008
The conventional understanding of newspaper magnate Hearst as haunted megalomaniac, cynical purveyor of prurience and jingoistic instigator of the Spanish-American War gets a major challenge in this scintillating biographical study. Maclean’s
editor Whyte covers the years from 1895 to 1898, when Hearst took a revamped New York Journal
to the top of the newspaper market by way of a bitter circulation war with Joseph Pulitzer’s rival New York World
. Whyte styles Hearst a brilliant and creative media entrepreneur with a gift for managing high-strung (and often drunken) subordinates, progressive politics and a sincere social conscience that animated his paper’s crusading journalism. Even Hearst’s agitation for war with Spain, Whyte contends, was more justifiable and journalistically responsible than is thought—and may have helped forestall a “genocide” in Cuba. Whyte considers the “yellow journalism” slur often hurled at Hearst a compliment; he finds the Journal
to be “a demanding, sophisticated read” that used emotion and drama to draw readers into reporting of real significance. No slouch himself when it comes to colorful profiles and engrossing narrative, Whyte makes Hearst’s rise an entertaining saga of newspapering’s heroic age, when the popular press became an unofficial pillar of democracy. Photos.

December 15, 2008
The negative public perception of the life and professional career of William Randolph Hearst is duein large part to the film Citizen Kane and several biographies that dwell on his quirky personal life from his middle years onward. As this superbly written and revealing biography illustrates, Hearst was a gifted and dynamic entrepreneur who was a true giant of the newspaper business. The son of a distant father and ademanding, socially ambitious mother, Hearst was an indifferent student at Harvard but displayed undisciplined but creative energy, which he put to great use when he turned around the near-defunct San Francisco-Examiner, owned by his father. Hearst then plunged into the cutthroat competition of newspaper publishing in New York City, which in 1895 had 19 daily newspapers. Whyte eloquently describes Hearsts epic battles with rival publisher Joseph Pulitzer. Before he reached the age of 40, Hearst had become the most powerful newspaper publisher in the nation, using innovative methods to improve content and generate advertising revenue. Whyte does soft-pedal the less-attractive aspects of Hearsts success, including his use of sensational yellow journalism and his willingness to play fast and loose with the truth regarding political issues. A very worthwhile reexamination of the rise of a flawed but accomplished man.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)