Rippingly effective life of the founder of the Scripps news empire, Edward Wyllis Scripps, by Pulitzer-winning journalist Trimble, author of 1990's inoffensive Sam Walton. Where Trimble's Sam Walton had little to offer dramatically, Scripps bursts with story. Born in Ohio in 1854, Scripps was the 13th child of a failed London bookseller who tried time and again to break loose from Ohio farm life and failed at that as well. Scripps's half-brother James went off to Detroit and by age 34 was editing a Detroit newspaper. Scripps, a redheaded weakling heckled by schoolmates, spent half his waking hours in books, becoming steeped in the Bible and Shakespeare. As a youth, he showed a massive head for entrepreneurial skills and evaded farm work by hiring dumber kids to work for him. Lusting to be a reporter and put his reading to work for him, he joined his brother in Detroit. James thought little of him at first, but Scripps quickly sprouted news routes and kids to work for him, moving up from gofer to paragraph writer and finally to assistant managing editor by age 19. Then he got James to back his idea of a penny tabloid that undersold Detroit's nickel papers. Success here led Scripps to start up another penny paper in Cleveland. His papers broke with the stodgy news style of the day and sizzled with racy items and short takes, appealing to the blue-collar workers he sought as his main audience. Scripps's first downfall, while still in his 20s, came when he tried to take on the wily Hungarian tycoon of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Joseph Pulitzer, who bought out Scripps's newsboys and stole their routes. An alcoholic, Scripps later built a castle in California rattlesnake country and died in hiding aboard his yacht off Liberia. His heirs will come into $1 billion- plus when their living trust expires early next century. Swift, very big, and overflowing with color. (Illustrations.)
Pub Date: March 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-8138-0679-8
Page Count: 552
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1992
BOOK REVIEW
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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