Word: driberg
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Myth. The biography is Beaverbrook, A Study in Power and Frustration. The author: Tom Driberg, ex-M.P., left-wing Laborite and onetime Beaverbrook columnist. Explained the Express: "The book is hostile and often inaccurate, but the policy of this newspaper is to suppress nothing...
...that Lord Beaverbrook's standing orders to his editors are to reprint anything uttered about him, good or bad. That is a myth which has gained credence in recent years from the Beaver's increasing appetite for reading about himself. What few Express readers knew was that Driberg's biography had turned "hostile" after Beaverbrook had lavished cooperation, money and high hopes on it. Nevertheless, the serialization once again showed how the Beaver, handed a lemon, can turn it into lemonade...
...When Driberg informed Beaverbrook in 1954 that a London publishing house had signed him up to do the biography, the Beaver was delighted. Driberg had worked for him from 1928 to 1943, and, despite political differences, they had always hit it off. The Beaver gave him material and interviews, put him in touch with friends, introduced him frequently at luncheons and dinners as "my biographer." After Driberg had completed three chapters, Beaverbrook liked them so well that he bought the British serial rights for ?5,000 ($14,000)-a whopping purchase by London standards...
Crafty Hand. But after he saw a few more chapters, Beaverbrook lost his enthusiasm and, finally, his temper. He charged inaccuracies, misinterpretations and libel. "There were threats of litigation about hundreds of passages," Driberg recalls. He modified a few passages, but substantially, he declares, the book went into print as he wrote...
What emerged in the Express, after editing by the Beaver's own crafty hand, was pretty tame stuff compared to Driberg's harsh portrait of a man who pursued power with "ruthlessness" and "want of principle," only to win widespread distrust, ridicule, disapproval and bantering affection, but no real power. Beaverbrook passed up Driberg's most damaging thrusts. Samples...