The Huntress

June 1, 2016
An account of the adventurous life of Alicia Patterson (1906-1963), founder and editor of Newsday. Before screenwriter Alice Arlen died earlier this year, she teamed with her husband, former New Yorker staff writer and TV critic Michael Arlen (Say Goodbye to Sam, 1984, etc.), to document the life and premature passing of Patterson, Alice's aunt. Descended from a wealthy, powerful Chicago newspaper family, Patterson could have lived as an idle heiress or a philanthropist or some other choice open only to the very rich. Until age 34, she seemed rather aimless, marrying twice unhappily to men chosen by her imperious father. Eventually, she became an accomplished horsewoman and learned about flying airplanes. Twice divorced, Patterson chose her third husband on her own. Harry Guggenheim had benefitted from a family fortune in the mining business and owned estates on Long Island. Although he attempted to control Alicia, she resisted, and together they purchased a tiny Long Island newspaper. She won editorial if not financial control and slowly built Newsday into a successful general circulation daily. Feeling ignored by her husband and clashing with him about politics (she was more liberal than her generally conservative husband), Patterson developed a deep friendship with Adlai Stevenson, who became the governor of Illinois and then sought the presidency as the Democratic Party candidate in 1952 and 1956. Stevenson fell deeply in love with Patterson, and she loved Stevenson as well, albeit with less ardor. Their off-again, on-again affair defined a large portion of their later lives. Unable to bear children, Patterson's health began to deteriorate during her two final decades. She hoped to outlive Guggenheim and take total control of Newsday, but she died before he did. The authors display impressive research, but the narrative is marred by an unpleasant writing style, at turns cloying, rhetorical, and packed with too many unnecessary compound-complex sentences. An uneven biography that should still find an audience with budding journalists and those interested in a significant period in the history of print journalism.

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Starred review from June 1, 2016
For Alicia Patterson, a daughter of wealth and privilege born in 1906 to a Chicago newspaper-publishing dynasty, life should have been about attending the best schools, having the best marriage, and producing heirs. But what she did was marry the suitable boy as ordered; divorce him as soon as possible thereafter (he was as agreeable to the breakup as he was to the marriage); obtain a pilot's license; hunt big game; marry again; become a reporter; divorce again; work harder; marry again (this time to a Guggenheim); purchase a small, struggling Long Island newspaper just as the suburbs began to explode; become lover and confidant to Adlai Stevenson; shepherd her reporting staff to winning a Pulitzer Prize; and, ultimately, find herself on the cover of Time magazine. Her life seems like a novel, and this biography reads like one, with names dropped, gossipy letters shared, and endless family turmoil revealed. Patterson was the antiParis Hilton, the society girl with the slightest of expectations who defied everyone, even the men who loved her, to succeed in an overwhelmingly male-dominated business. Book clubs will devour the story of this whip-smart woman's life told by screenwriter Alice Arlen and New Yorker staff writer Michael J. Arlen in the wittiest of styles. Patterson herself would thoroughly approve.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2016

Newsday founder Alicia Patterson (1906-63) was born into a family of newspaper titans. Her father, Joseph Medill Patterson, founded the New York Daily News, and her great-grandfather Joseph Medill owned the Chicago Tribune and served as mayor of Chicago. Her aunt, Cissy, was one of the first women to head a major daily newspaper, the Washington Times-Herald. National Book Award winner Michael Arlen (Passage to Ararat) and his late wife, Alice (a screenwriter and niece of Alicia), detail their subject's exceptional life and career as her family moved among the wealthiest in the nation. Patterson challenged authority from a young age, being expelled from schools and rebelling against social norms. In her 20s, she became one of the first women pilots and traveled the world to hunt game. After her third marriage in 1939 to Harry Guggenheim, the couple founded Newsday, and Patterson redirected her energy to building a successful, Pulitzer Prize-winning publication. The Arlens' writing style occasionally slips into chatty asides; a minor drawback. VERDICT Readers who enjoy biographies of compelling and powerful women will relish Patterson's story, which is nicely interwoven with the major events of the 20th century. [See Prepub Alert, 2/8/16.]--Judy Solberg, Sacramento, CA

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2016

A pampered childhood as part of the Patterson-Medill Chicago publishing dynasty and a couple of lousy marriages arranged by her father didn't keep down Alicia Patterson, who earned a transport pilot's license and hunted in Asia before finally marrying Harry Guggenheim and helping to found and direct Newsday. Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Alice Arlen is Patterson's niece, while husband Michael, a longtime staff writer at The New Yorker, authored the National Book Award-winning Passage to Ararat.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.