EBOOK
About
The first and definitive biography of an audacious adventurer-the most famous journalist of his time-who more than anyone invented contemporary journalism.
Few Americans today recognize his name, but Lowell Thomas was as well known in his time as any American journalist ever has been. Raised in a Colorado gold-rush town, Thomas covered crimes and scandals for local then Chicago newspapers. He began lecturing on Alaska, after spending eight days in Alaska. Then he assigned himself to report on World War I and returned with an exclusive: the story of "Lawrence of Arabia."
In 1930, Lowell Thomas began delivering America's initial radio newscast. His was the trusted voice that kept Americans abreast of world events in turbulent decades, his face familiar, too, as the narrator of the most popular newsreels. His contemporaries were also dazzled by his life. In a prime-time special after Thomas died in 1981, Walter Cronkite said that Thomas had "crammed a couple of centuries worth of living" into his eighty-nine years. Thomas delighted in entering "forbidden" countries-Tibet, for example, where he met the teenaged Dalai Lama. The Explorers Club has named its building, its awards, and its annual dinner after him.
Journalists in the last decades of the twentieth century-including Cronkite and Tom Brokaw-acknowledged a profound debt to Thomas. Though they may not know it, journalists today too are following a path he blazed. In The Voice of America, Mitchell Stephens offers a hugely entertaining, sometimes critical portrait of this larger than life figure.
Few Americans today recognize his name, but Lowell Thomas was as well known in his time as any American journalist ever has been. Raised in a Colorado gold-rush town, Thomas covered crimes and scandals for local then Chicago newspapers. He began lecturing on Alaska, after spending eight days in Alaska. Then he assigned himself to report on World War I and returned with an exclusive: the story of "Lawrence of Arabia."
In 1930, Lowell Thomas began delivering America's initial radio newscast. His was the trusted voice that kept Americans abreast of world events in turbulent decades, his face familiar, too, as the narrator of the most popular newsreels. His contemporaries were also dazzled by his life. In a prime-time special after Thomas died in 1981, Walter Cronkite said that Thomas had "crammed a couple of centuries worth of living" into his eighty-nine years. Thomas delighted in entering "forbidden" countries-Tibet, for example, where he met the teenaged Dalai Lama. The Explorers Club has named its building, its awards, and its annual dinner after him.
Journalists in the last decades of the twentieth century-including Cronkite and Tom Brokaw-acknowledged a profound debt to Thomas. Though they may not know it, journalists today too are following a path he blazed. In The Voice of America, Mitchell Stephens offers a hugely entertaining, sometimes critical portrait of this larger than life figure.
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Reviews
"'"Thomas remained a dominant presence in the U.S. media well into the 1970s, but he might be the most famous twentieth-century media figure whom hardly anyone under 40 has heard of. Stephens has written an unusual biography; he is less interested in rescuing Thomas from oblivion than in illuminating what his rise and fall say about a changing country."
Walter Russell Mead, Foreign Affairs
"Introduces us to one of the finest journalists in the history of America...Every journalist and student of journalism must read this inspiring biography of an awesome journalist."
The Washington Book Review
"Stephens' book is purported to be the first serious book-length biography of Thomas, and that in itself would be enough to justify it's existence. That it's a lively read is a bonus."
Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette