Word: hearsts
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There lay the nub. One learns to design by looking at real buildings, not pattern books, and in America models were rare. You could not bring a building across the Atlantic -- or not yet; that was within Hearst's power, not Jefferson's -- and great paintings generally did not cross because the American market for them in the 1780s was so small. But fine furniture and silverware could be imported and were, so that the work of early republican and federal craftsmen in America tends to be more sophisticated than most architecture of the day. Most of it was English...
Although Hammer has been accused of inflating his role in some events, on its own terms his is a fascinating story. There are peephole glimpses at the famous (he bargained with the Shah of Iran, visited with Jean Paul Getty and oversaw the sale of William Randolph Hearst's fabled art collection) and family tragedies, including a jail term for his Communist father, his own messy divorces, and manslaughter charges deflected by his son, who pleaded self-defense. In blunt and trenchantly funny prose, Hammer portrays himself as a bumbling breeder of prize cattle, an accidental oil millionaire -- yet, always...
...Spain, gaining sway over the Caribbean and, by way of the Philippines, a foothold in the Pacific. A lot of talk ensues about whether an American empire is a good idea. The speakers include William McKinley, McKinley's Secretary of State John Hay, Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Adams, William Randolph Hearst and Henry James, who comes onstage briefly to wonder, "How can we, who cannot honestly govern ourselves, take up the task of governing others?" James' point is valid, but the outcome of the debate is never in doubt...
...diversions to fill in the space. One involves Caroline Sanford's battle with her half brother Blaise over their late father's $15 million estate. Temporarily blocked from her share, Caroline sells four Poussin paintings, buys a money-losing Washington newspaper, and spices it up with sensationalisms a la Hearst, the man whom Blaise admires as "something new and strange and potent." Hay muses, "The contest was now between the high- minded few, led by Roosevelt, and Hearst, the true inventor of the modern world. What Hearst arbitrarily decided was news was news; and the powerful few were obliged...
...Hearst empire thrives in ways its founder would appreciate but not recognize. -- An old hand for sassy young Manhattan...