LEGACY - A Biography of Moses and Walter Annenberg

Boston: Little, Brown & Company. Near Fine in Near Fine dust jacket. 1999. First Edition. Hardcover. Autograph; viii, 615 pages; Clean and secure in original binding. Inscribed and Signed on the halftitle "For Kay and Rowly, / Dear friends / wonderful neighbors, / and very talented reporters / and writers. / With affection and / respect, / Christopher Ogden / June 1999" a multi-generational saga of one of America's wealthiest and most controversial families--the Annenbergs. Derived from a review posed on-line. Few biographers convey their subjects' business abilities and personalities with equal acuity, but Washington-based journalist Christopher Ogden has done just that in this accomplished portrait of Moses Annenberg (1877-1942) and his son, Walter. Depicting Prussian-born Moe's rise in American publishing, Ogden captures the innovative circulation gimmicks and bare-knuckled competitive tactics that fueled the success of newspapers like the The Inquirer in Philadelphia and the Daily Racing Form (the Annenbergs' cash cow). He also unsparingly but sympathetically depicts Moe's terrible temper and willed blindness to the shadiness of some of his business practices and associates, which led to a two-year jail stint for tax evasion before he came home to die. Spoiled only son Walter, born in 1908, didn't really grow up until his father's conviction shocked him into finally focusing on the family assets, which he further enhanced by creating such pioneering niche publications as Seventeen and TV Guide. Ogden nails Walter's complex character as well, doing particularly well in evaluating the younger Annenberg's famous philanthropy--partly the result of his mother's nurturing and partly a burning desire to justify his father's choices and remove any taint from his legacy. A combination of colorful history and father-son drama. PROVENANCE: Rowland Evans was a provocative newspaper columnist, commentator and author who antagonized liberal politicians and championed conservative causes. He left Yale and enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1942 during World War II and was discharged in 1944 because of malaria. In 1963, Mr. Evans and Mr. Novak began writing ''Inside Report,'' an insider's view of politics that was published four times a week until Mr. Evans retired in 1993. Mr. Evans and Robert Novak began their work as columnists in the early 1960's, a time when newspaper columnists wielded outsize influence in national politics. The pair pioneered in transferring that influence to the medium of cable television with the political discussion program ''Evans & Novak'' -- carried on CNN from that cable network's beginning. Rowland Evans and his wife Kay (Katherine Winton Evans), also a respected writer and editor, were mainstays on the Washington social scene, hosting many memorable gatherings in their handsome Georgetown house -- to which flocked influential and remarkable people drawn from journalism, politics and general society over the decades from the 1960s to the 2000s. Both Evans and Novak became more predictably conservative over the years, particularly during the Reagan years. Reportedly, both columnists voted for JFK in 1960 and for Lyndon Johnson in 1964. Evans earned a place on Richard Nixon's infamous "Enemies List." Novak reported that Evans had JFK as a guest for the first dinner party the latter attended as President Elect. Kay and Rowland Evans has a particularly close friendship with Robert F. Kennedy, his wife Ethel and their family.; Signed by Author .