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    Magnificent Medills: America's Royal Family of Journalism During a Century of Turbulent Splendor
    Unavailable
    Magnificent Medills: America's Royal Family of Journalism During a Century of Turbulent Splendor
    Unavailable
    Magnificent Medills: America's Royal Family of Journalism During a Century of Turbulent Splendor
    Ebook645 pages24 hours

    Magnificent Medills: America's Royal Family of Journalism During a Century of Turbulent Splendor

    By Megan McKinney

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    The riveting story of the country’s first media dynasty, the Medills of Chicago, whose power and influence shaped the story of America and American journalism for four generations

    When thirty-two-year-old former lawyer Joseph Medill bought a controlling stake in the bankrupt Chicago Daily Tribune in 1855, he had no way of foreseeing the unparalleled influence he and his progeny would have on the world of journalism and on American society at large.

    Medill personally influenced the political tide that transformed America during the midnineteenth century by fostering the Republican Party, engineering the election of Abraham Lincoln and serving as a catalyst for the outbreak of the Civil War. The dynasty he established, filled with colorful characters, went on to take American journalism by storm. His grandson, Colonel Robert R. McCormick, personified Chicago, as well as its great newspaper, the Chicago Tribune, throughout much of the twentieth century. Robert’s cousin, Joseph Medill Patterson, started the New York Daily News, and Joe’s sister, Cissy Patterson, was the innovative editor of the Washington Times-Herald. In the fourth generation, Alicia Patterson founded Long Island’s Newsday, the most stunning journalistic accomplishment of post–World War II America.

    Printer’s ink raged in the veins of the Medills, the McCormicks and the Pattersons throughout a century, and their legacy prevailed for another five decades—always in the forefront of events, shaping the intellectual and social pulse of America. At the same time, the dark side of the intellectual stardom driving the dynasty was a destructive compulsion that left clan members crippled by their personal demons of chronic depression, alcoholism, drug abuse and even madness and suicide.

    Rife with authentic conversations and riveting quotes, The Magnificent Medills is the premiere cultural history of America’s first media empire. This dynamic family and their brilliance, eccentricities and ultimate self-destruction are explored in a sweeping narrative that interweaves the family’s personal activities and public achievements against a larger historical background. Authoritative, compelling and thoroughly engaging, The Magnificent Medills brings the pages of history that the Medills wrote vividly to life.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 11, 2011
    ISBN9780062097750
    Unavailable
    Magnificent Medills: America's Royal Family of Journalism During a Century of Turbulent Splendor
    Author

    Megan McKinney

    Megan McKinney is an expert on historic Chicago families. She has written for Town & Country, TV Guide, Opera News and the Philadelphia Inquirer. She lives in Chicago.

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    Reviews for Magnificent Medills

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    • 4/5
      The author tells the tale of the Medill clan, a wealthy family that played a huge role in the establishment of modern-day journalism. What I think you’ll enjoy about the book:•An entertaining perspective on US history from the Civil War through the mad early 1900s to modern day, including episodes that have been largely forgotten but that were famous/infamous in their day: the Great Chicago fire, the bloody Chicago circulation wars, the curious history of the Hope Diamond. •Vignettes about America’s intellectual and social elite; through history, the fates/fortunes of the Medill clan intertwined with such notable figures as Abraham Lincoln, various Roosevelts (including FDR’s infamously wild daughter Alice), Vandebilts, Guggenheims, Hearsts, Fields, and other American luminaries from the world of politics, literature, entertainment, and “society”. •The Medills themselves, as eccentric and dysfunctional a family as you’re likely to encounter in non-fiction. In addition to dabbling in journalism, various Medills wrote best-selling books and plays, won glory in WWI, rubbed shoulders with Russian royalty, dabbled in socialism, gained renown as big game hunters and aviators, hosted extravagant Gatsby-ish entertainments, built even more extravagant estates, became entangled in any number of scandals (usually sexual), and rarely missed an opportunity to destroy each other and themselves. What you might find a little more taxing:•So many Medills! All with them with more than one nickname and any number of marriages. Even though the author provides a genealogy, I had to take notes on the back pages of the book to keep all the personalities straight. •McKinney faces the problem so many biographers face: the tension between maintaining thoroughness/accuracy while simultaneously spinning an interesting tale. For the most part she succeeds, but sometimes the details take over her overarching narrative. Alternating with the more interesting bits are long sections of decidedly less riveting information, including business maneuvers and buyouts, so many whirlwind trips overseas that I lost track, innumerable family spats, long paragraphs describing countless houses/estates/weddings, and dozens of friendships/love affairs that confuse rather than enlighten. This wasn't the easiest read - partly because of the uneven pace of the book, partly because I had a hard time liking any of the main characters. Even so, I don't regret the time I spent getting to know the Medills, if only because it exposed me to chapters of US history I hadn't encountered before and deepened my understanding of a social class in the U.S. about which I knew little.
    • 4/5
      The old saying that if you're rich, you're eccentric and if you're poor, you're insane, certainly applies to this large family. Joseph Medill, of Chicago Tribune famed spawned a magnificent family alright but nearly all of them were definitely eccentric. The fact that most of them died of cirrhosis of the liver from a lifetime of heavy drinking is just the beginning of their story. Since this family was high society in Chicago, New York, and Washington, the reader learns interesting facts about other well known people of their time as well as tidbits that I would classify as gossip. One married Drew Pearson, for instance, so we get an entirely different look at his life than in other works. Arguably the most influential in politics was Joseph Medill who was a founder of the Republican Party and was close to Abraham Lincoln. So close in fact that when Medill walked into his own office and found Lincoln sitting with his feet up on the desk, he yelled at him to get his feet off of it. The Tribune was located in a "fireproof" building at the time of the great Chicago fire, and of course burned down. Afterward, Medill was mayor of that city. However, his two daughters were, though elegant and educated, known as "she-devils." They meddled incessantly in their children's lives until they died. Perhaps the best known person in the family was Cissy Patterson, one of Joseph's granddaughters. She was a friend of Alice Roosevelt (Teddy's flamboyant daughter), the publisher of a Washington newspaper, and mixed with presidents, artists, and other famous people. Her love life was a scandal. I could go on and on about this book and the Medill family. I found their story fascinating. I have a proof of the book so I'm anxious to see the finished product because I want to see the pictures that will be included. I highly recommend this one. (Source: Amazon Vine)