BIOGRAPHER AS ADVERSARY

In the British House of Commons, a speaker addressing himself to a subject in which he personally is involved properly should “declare his interest.” So, too, the reviewer in this instance, author of the first volume of the Time Inc. history and of the forthcoming The World of Time-Life. In his book Swan- berg acknowledges help from the Time Inc. historians, observing that his own and mine are “not without points of conflict” and that he was “unhappily aware that [the Time Inc. staff] were likely to disagree unanimously with his appraisal.” On these two points, there is emphatic agreement.

What is perhaps even more extraordinary about this grim and unleavened indictment of a man and his magazines is the extent to which, with all of this testamentary material, Swanberg finds it necessary to resort to surmise and supposition to support his case. The pages abound in such phrases as “from the clues available,” “there was a strong suspicion,” “it is a reasonable guess,” and, as Swanberg bursts all bounds, “the gnashing of the Luce teeth must have been feral.”

RE

About the Author

Robert T. Elson

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In the British House of Commons, a speaker addressing himself to a subject in which he personally is involved properly should “declare his interest.” So, too, the reviewer in this instance, author of the first volume of the Time Inc. history and of the forthcoming The World of Time-Life. In his book Swan- berg acknowledges help from the Time Inc. historians, observing that his own and mine are “not without points of conflict” and that he was “unhappily aware that [the Time Inc. staff] were likely to disagree unanimously with his appraisal.” On these two points, there is emphatic agreement.

What is perhaps even more extraordinary about this grim and unleavened indictment of a man and his magazines is the extent to which, with all of this testamentary material, Swanberg finds it necessary to resort to surmise and supposition to support his case. The pages abound in such phrases as “from the clues available,” “there was a strong suspicion,” “it is a reasonable guess,” and, as Swanberg bursts all bounds, “the gnashing of the Luce teeth must have been feral.”