The Hearsts: Father and Son

The Hearst name has been at the forefront of American life for over a century. As founder of a media empire, William Randolph Hearst, Sr., changed the face of American journalism. He was larger than life, known for the famous San Simeon castle as well as his long affair with Marion Davies, images that were highly embellished in Orson Welles’ "Citizen Kane." In "The Hearsts: Father and Son," William Randolph Hearst, Jr., and co-author Jack Casserly tell the extraordinary story of an American family. The remarkable career of the junior Hearst includes such episodes as his Pulitzer Prize-winning interview with Nikita Khrushchev. Hearst and Casserly profile a cavalcade of journalistic stars of the Hearst newspapers, including Damon Runyon, Westbrook Pegler, Walter Winchell, Dorothy Kilgallen, and Bob Considine. The authors also portray adventures with such Hearst family friends as David Niven, Bing Crosby, Clark Gable, and a very paranoid Howard Hughes. In "The Hearsts: Father and Son," Bill Hearst answers the family’s critics: was his father the tyrant presented in "Citizen Kane"? What were the motives behind the building of San Simeon? How did the Hearst boys deal with their father’s alcoholic mistress, Marion Davies? What was the impact on the family of Patty Hearst’s kidnapping? These questions, and more, are answered in this memoir that holds a mirror up to the “American Century” and an unforgettable family who did so much to define it.