cover image A Good Life: Newspapering

A Good Life: Newspapering

Benjamin C. Bradlee, Ben Bradlee, Bradlee. Simon & Schuster, $27.5 (512pp) ISBN 978-0-684-80894-9

Executive editor of the Washington Post from 1965 to 1991, Bradlee helped remake the newspaper into the influential voice it is today. His fluid memoir ably recounts his rich life but offers few revelations (he claims he knew nothing of his friend JFK's promiscuity) and little deep self-criticism. Shaped more by his naval service than by Harvard, in 1951 the well-born Bostonian gave up a journalism job in Washington to become a press attache in Paris, where he buddied up with Art Buchwald and moved to Newsweek. Transferred back to Washington, he was assigned to cover his neighbor JFK, who was then a senator, and rose to power at the magazine's newly purchased Post. Bradlee's tales of Watergate, the Pentagon papers and other big stories are told well enough, and he thoughtfully ventilates in-house debates on issues of privacy and national security. Candid about his marital difficulties and affairs, Bradlee found happiness in 1978 by marrying writer Sally Quinn; he's now involved in civic projects and fatherhood. First serial to Newsweek. (Oct.)