The Chief - David Nasaw

Biography of Randolph Hearst, the model for Orson Welles' Citizen Kane, with first ever access to Hearst's private papers and dealings with Hitler, Mussolini and Churchill. The epic scope of historian David Nasaw's biography matches the titanic personality and achievements of William Randolph Hearst (1862-1951), who built the world's first media conglomerate from a single San Francisco newspaper. Based on previously unavailable sources, including Hearst's personal papers, Nasaw's absorbing narrative gives a full-bodied account of the often contradictory mogul: "a huge man with a tiny voice; a shy man who was most comfortable in crowds...an autocratic boss who could not fire people; a devoted husband who lived with his mistress." Fresh insights into his dealings with Hitler and Mussolini and elegantly turned phrases abound in Nasaw's depiction of Hearst's activities as newspaper publisher, movie producer, and politician, but what's even more intriguing is the poignant personal drama of a man born "in the city of great expectations on the edge of the continent" who was buried 89 years later in San Francisco, "the place he used to know."