Posted: 13 Feb 2010 09:10 PM PST

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NEW YORK — Once again, it's Willie Mays vs. Hank Aaron.

This time, in the book world.

Long, and long-awaited, biographies of the two iconic baseball sluggers come out this year, within three months of each other: James S. Hirsch's 600-plus page "Willie Mays," just released, and Howard Bryant's 600-plus page book on Aaron, "The Last Hero," scheduled for May.

Mays, who spent much of his career with the New York/San Francisco Giants and Aaron, a longtime star for the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves, are still endlessly compared, with Mays celebrated as the more dynamic on-field presence and Aaron honored for overtaking Babe Ruth as baseball's home run king.

Both books are sympathetic accounts that cover not just Mays and Aaron but the era in which they played, especially how they responded — or didn't — to the civil rights movement. Mays and Aaron, each of whom have published autobiographies, agreed to be interviewed by their respective biographers, although the relationships differed.

Mays was involved from the start and will share in the revenues from the Scribner release, billed as "authorized." Aaron had not yet agreed to speak to Bryant when the author signed with Pantheon, in 2006. Aaron is not being paid and, Bryant said, didn't even see the book before it was finished.

"Luckily, it turned out all right," said Bryant, a senior writer for ESPN.com who has written books on steroids and the Boston Red Sox. "Had he not cooperated, it would have been a very different book."

Biographies of living people generally are either authorized — written with the subject's involvement and to the subject's taste — or "Unauthorized," written without the subject's permission and often against the subject's wishes. The most famous unauthorized biographies are Kitty Kelley's best sellers about such celebrities as Jackie Kennedy, Frank Sinatra and Nancy Reagan. A Kelley book on Oprah Winfrey is due in April.

But in between stands a category you could call "cooperative," in which the subject is available, but otherwise disengaged. "Cooperative" biographies in recent years have included Gerald Martin's "Gabriel Garcia Marquez: A Life" and Peter Biskind's "Star," about Warren Beatty. The Mays book fits partly because Hirsch says he was granted full editorial freedom and "The Last Hero" does entirely because Aaron's participation was limited to talking to Bryant.

Bryant said he had been anxious for years to write about Aaron, whom he says he first met in 1997 at a tribute for the late Jackie Robinson, major league baseball's first black player. Bryant initially was unable to contact Aaron for the book, learning later that the Hall of Famer feared the interview would center on Barry Bonds' pursuit of Aaron's career home run title.

Meanwhile, Bryant spoke to friends and acquaintances of Aaron's, including former Presidents Carter and Clinton, baseball Hall of Famers Joe Morgan and Reggie Jackson, and such former Braves teammates as Joe Torre and Dusty Baker.

"Before I got to Aaron, the best advice I got was from David Halberstam, who wrote a book on Michael Jordan without getting Jordan and a book about Bill Clinton without getting Clinton," Bryant said of the late Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist.

"He said to me, 'The strategy was very simple — for every day they didn't talk to me, make three phone calls to other people.' You have to work around obstacles. It was the best piece of advice anyone's given me."

After Bonds overtook Aaron, in 2007, Aaron opened up to Bryant.

"When Henry and I finally spoke, he was tremendous, he was unbelievably gracious," Bryant said. "He was even somewhat embarrassed someone was taking an interest. He didn't ask for any money. He didn't ask for any review copy of the book. He could have made the one phone call that every author dreads — which is to call all of his people and say, 'Hey, this guy is writing a book about me. Don't talk to him.' "

Like Bryant, Gerald Martin began working on his Garcia Marquez book before receiving any assurance that his subject would talk to him. When they first discussed the project, Garcia Marquez was reluctant, asking Martin, "Why do you want to write a biography? Biographies mean death."

But Garcia Marquez relented and set just one condition: "Don't make me do your work," Martin recalled in the book's foreword. When asked if his book was authorized, Martin likes to respond, "No, it is not an authorized biography. It's a tolerated biography."

As Bryant, Biskind and others have learned, the cooperative book can be the most rewarding and most stressful way of working. It is ideal, because the biographer has freedom and access, and stressful because there is no obligation — contractual or otherwise — to keep the subject from changing his or her mind.

Biskind, known for the Hollywood history "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls," is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair who had interviewed Beatty several times and says he first suggested a biography around 1989-90. Beatty, known for being noncommittal, initially had no answer, then implied he was writing his own book, then called Biskind a couple of years ago and told him to do it. Biskind was pleased, but suspicious.

"He's a movie star and they do what they want. He did this kind of turnaround which I learned later is characteristic of him: He pitched an idea and sort of hooked me, and then he turned around and acted like I had to sell the idea to him," Biskind says. "So, we had a series of lunches and phone calls and I became convinced he would do it."

Deirdre Bair's "Samuel Beckett," winner in 1981 of a National Book Award, is considered a model for the cooperative biography, with the Irish playwright promising that he would "neither help nor hinder," Bair explained recently. In 1971, she had finished a dissertation on Beckett and thought a book worth pursuing. She wrote to him in Paris, his longtime residence.

"He replied, 'My life is dull and without interest. The professors know more about it than I do. It is best left unchampioned,' " Bair said. "Then, he scrawled across the page, 'Any biographical information I possess is at your disposal."'

She remembered her relationship as productive and businesslike, with Bair calling him "Mr. Beckett," and Beckett addressing her as "Miss Bair." A more personal, and difficult bond was formed with a new subject, Simone de Beauvoir, who called her biographer "Deirdre" and had very different ideas about how to "cooperate."

"When we started, she said, "I'll talk. I'll tell you things and then you write them down.' And I sort of put my head in my hands in despair," Bair recalled. "And she said, 'What's wrong?' And I said, 'That's not how I worked with Beckett.' And she said, 'Well, I can't let him get ahead of me. All right, that's how I'll work you, too.' "

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9 AM update - Moultrie Observer

Posted: 14 Feb 2010 06:07 AM PST

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Published February 14, 2010 09:02 am -

9 AM update

Columnist Michael Barone writes: " In his bestseller "Inside U.S.A.," the hugely readable journalist John Gunther described America as it was in the last year of World War II. He interviewed hundreds of politicians, businessmen and journalists, but only four men rated a separate chapter -- three politicians and Henry J. Kaiser, the California construction magnate who built dams and ships and manufactured concrete and steel and aluminum.

Kaiser was, Gunther wrote, "tough, creative, packed with ideas and energy, above all a man who likes to make things." But he was also, he noted, a "link of enterprise by government, since government was on his side."

That was putting it mildly. Kaiser hired Tommy Corcoran, a brilliant former aide to Franklin Roosevelt, to open doors and got a $645 million contract to build ships and $28 million financing to manufacture magnesium. Corcoran, according to the first-rate biography by longtime Democratic staffer David McKean, got $200,000 in fees. Believe it or not, that was a lot of money in Washington in the 1940s.

Government spent a lot of money in World War II -- and mostly spent it well. Kaiser delivered on his contracts and even managed to build ships out of concrete, most of which did not sink. But, as always happens when government is shoveling out money, lobbyists thrived.

Fast forward to the present day. Lobbyists, reports the Center for Responsive Politics, had a record 2009 in Barack Obama's Washington. Despite candidate Obama's promises to shun them, they raked in $3,470,000,000. Somewhere up there, Tommy Corcoran is chuckling.

Last week, amid Washington's blizzards, Obama was asked about the $17 million bonus awarded to JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and the $9 million bonus for Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein.

"I know both these guys; they are very savvy businessmen," he said. "I, like most of the American people, don't begrudge people success or wealth." So much for campaign-trail denunciations of "fat cat" bankers and bloated bonuses." Read more commentary in Tuesday's Moultrie Observer.

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Asia's Gift - New York Times

Posted: 14 Feb 2010 05:17 AM PST

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Ms. Chung, based in New York and known as Doo-Ri, gave a strong show based on her ability to drape jersey, a skill learned from working with the late Geoffrey Beene. Mixing tailoring and fluidity in one outfit, the designer brought a fresh vibe to the masculine/feminine look.

"When I am in Korea, I feel very American, and in America, I feel Korean," said the designer. "It is the duality of being born in America and growing up with those ideals — but with Korean cultural references."

The biography of Prabal Gurung reads like a global fashion tour. Born in Singapore, raised in Katmandu, Nepal, apprenticed to Manish Arora in New Delhi and then an intern in London, he began his solo career in New York, where he ultimately became the design director of Bill Blass. Something of that bold American style showed up in Mr. Gurung's use of dashing black and red.

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D.M. titan dies at 96 - Des Moines Register

Posted: 14 Feb 2010 06:00 AM PST

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Des Moines entrepreneur and philanthropist John Ruan, whose name is forever linked with downtown Des Moines and the World Food Prize, died about 12 a.m. today.

Ruan was 96. He suffered from Parkinson's disease and had been in declining health for several years.

"Our family is grieving. We have lost our mentor and dear companion," said son John Ruan III.

"John Ruan is an Iowa icon," said businessman Bill Knapp. "Nothing was too big for him to do, or try to do; the bigger, the better. If it was a small deal, he wasn't interested."

gallery Photos: John Ruan, 1914-2010.

Ruan transformed a used dump truck into one of the state's largest fortunes - estimated by Worth magazine in March 2002 at more than $500 million.

Famous for his bow ties and hard-charging personality, Ruan "was a quintessential builder, always thinking about his next venture," said Simpson College history professor William Friedricks, who wrote a biography titled "In for the Long Haul, the Life of John Ruan" in 2003.

Ruan stretched daring into audacity and left his mark on everything he touched, using his wealth and considerable political connections to promote his hometown and Iowa, while seeking worldwide solutions to the ancient problem of hunger.

In addition to Ruan Transport Corp., one of the nation's largest privately owned trucking companies with revenues of more than $860,000 and 4,700 employees, Ruan owned Bankers Trust, which is the largest bank based in Iowa, Des Moines' downtown Marriott Hotel and the downtown Ruan Center office complex.

Ruan's downtown construction projects in the 1970s and '80s were the launchpad for the city's labyrinth skywalk system.

"John Ruan is the father of the renaissance of Des Moines," former Gov. Robert Ray said in 2000. Without Ruan, downtown Des Moines would be a much different place, Ray said.

"I'm a buyer, not a seller," Ruan once said, explaining his accumulation of property and businesses during a career that spanned eight decades.

He was also a shrewd investor and the single largest benefactor of the Republican Party in Iowa, donating tens of thousands of dollars each election cycle to local, state and national candidates.

His generosity put him on a first-name basis with presidents and world leaders.

Two former presidents, Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush, served on the advisory board of the World Food Prize, after Ruan took over funding of the prize in 1990.

John Ruan III said his father put most of his efforts during the final decades of his life into the World Food Prize and hoped to make it his most significant legacy.

Ruan was known as a workaholic with a feisty, demanding nature, always looking forward, never back.

In 2002, Ruan summed up his career by saying: "Things just happened one after another, and I just took opportunities when they came."

Sometimes he had to fight for them, like the time during the 1960s when Ruan appeared in Waterloo with Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa.

A worker at the rally approached Ruan and began heckling him, at which point Ruan decked the worker. Ruan later said that Hoffa turned to him and said: "He deserved it."

Real estate developer Knapp and Ruan were often on opposing sides on local issues.

"We'd really raise our voices at each other," Knapp said. "But we were always friends, and John always had the best interest of the community at heart."

The Des Moines Register proclaimed Ruan the most powerful man in Des Moines in a 1976 study. In 1990, at age 76, he was still considered the second-most powerful person in Des Moines behind Knapp, who was 12 years younger. The Register named Ruan the Iowa Business Leader of the Year in 1991.

Throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, Ruan pushed his plan to turn Des Moines into the agriculture capital of the world. The plan evolved over time and eventually included a proposal for an 85-story signature building capped with a rotating globe. It also involved relocating significant portions of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to Des Moines, and before President Bush lost a bid for a second term in 1992, Ruan believed he had the president's support for the move.

During the 1990s, Ruan took over sponsorship of the World Food Prize, eventually putting all his energy into the cause. It was the final and most significant in a long list of philanthropic efforts that included more than $2 million in gifts to medical research involving multiple sclerosis, a disease that afflicted his wife, Betty, and which claimed the life of their daughter, Jayne Fletcher, at the age of 44 in 1992.

Many MS patients "wouldn't be alive without the improvements the Ruans have bankrolled," David Vellinga, chief executive of Mercy Medical Center, told the Register in 2001.

Ruan was also a major contributor to Iowa State University, and the title sponsor of the Ruan Greater Des Moines Grand Prix Race that was held annually in downtown from 1989 until the 1993 flood ended the event.

In addition to his wife, Betty, Ruan is survived by sons John III (Janis) and Thomas, and by six grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

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Biographies

Sunday, February 14, 2010

“Mays, Aaron and 'cooperative' biographies - PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW” plus 3 more

“Mays, Aaron and 'cooperative' biographies - PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW” plus 3 more

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