William Randolph Hearst was born in California in 1863 to a wealthy family. His father was a millionaire mining engineer, which afforded WRH a lot of luxury and educational opportunities. WRH took over the management of his father's newspaper in 1887, which served as the launch point for his media empire. WRH married Millicent Wilson in 1903 but carried on several extramarital affairs. His long-term mistress was Marion Davies, with whom he was linked from 1917 to 1951. They never legally married. WRH remained legally married, but separated, to Millicent Wilson until his death. WRH also had five children with Millicent. WRH was a controversial figure for his political and personal bias that infiltrated the news media he owned. WRH died in 1951, aged 88.

This book was massive. It was almost 800 pages. This was highly detailed and related a tremendous amount of facts. I have never read anything by this author but was pleased with the attention to detail and level of research that was put into this biography. I learned a lot about William Randolph Hearst and his media empire from this book, which was certainly the goal.