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A Good Life: Newspapering and Other Adventures

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Easily the country's best known newspaper editor (thanks to Watergate, the movie: "All The President's Men"), Ben Bradlee retired in 1991 at age 70, having fulfilled his life's ambition - the transformation of The Washington Post from something of a mess to a paper of stature and influence to rival The New York Times.

In this memoir, Bradlee emerges unapologetically as a cheerful white male born into the power elite, not particularly reflective but aware of his abilities, particularly his aptitude for recognizing talent in others and his willingness to make decisions. Work and ambition were central to his life, even costing him two marriages - although neither marriage ended until the next wife was waiting in the wings.

Bradlee is a reporter rather than a storyteller and the first third of his memoir is guaranteed to irritate those for whom Harvard was not a given and who can't conceive of "scrounging" up $10,000 (in 1946!) to invest in a start-up for a first job in newspapering, in Manchester, N.H.

Given his family and contacts and, yes, hard work, Bradlee's jobs were all interesting but the meat and excitement of the book begin with his friendship with John F. Kennedy. The Bradlees and the Kennedys became Washington neighbors while Kennedy was a senator, Bradlee was beginning to break "out of the herd" at Newsweek magazine and Jackie and Tony Bradlee were pregnant.

As the "foursome" spent many social hours together, the line between friendship, politics, and the big scoop, blurred. Bradlee relates a number of amusing anecdotes, best among them an exclusive on the swap of U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers, "sourced from the President of the United States, [dictated] from a telephone just off a White House dance floor." Heady moments indeed.

Then came the assassination. Friendship and profession crashed head-on. And a few months later Bradlee's sister-in-law, Mary Meyer, was murdered. The CIA came looking for her diary. When Bradlee and his wife found it they were shocked to learn Meyer had been conducting a two-year love affair with Kennedy. Interestingly, Bradlee does not speculate on conspiracy theories, with regard to JFK or Mary Meyer.

But Bradlee is sparing with personal detail - incidents aplenty but not a lot of insight. His portrait of Jackie is most poignant for being so sketchy. Her deeply private nature baffled Bradlee and made him nervous. Their friendship faded after the assassination and Jackie never spoke to Bradlee again after he published Conversations With Kennedy in 1975. To this reader it seems obvious that Jackie was deeply offended by Bradlee's exploitation of their private moments but this never seems to occur to him.

However, this nonreflective quality can be valuable in a newspaperman. When the Vietnam war was raging, when his own wife was marching in protest, Bradlee's concern was good stories. "I concentrated on trying to discover what was going on in Vietnam, on trying to determine who was telling the truth about Vietnam, before it occurred to me to find out where I stood myself." New at the helm of the Post, Bradlee wanted "a new Hemingway ...who could explain the drama...in terms of the young soldiers." He found Ward Just.

In addition to assembling a maverick team of "new" journalists in the mid-60s, Bradlee was tireless in improving the production end of the newspaper. And he knew when to sink his teeth into a story and hang on. Watergate is the high point. It came at just the right time for the Post. Bradlee's position was consolidated, his ground work on talent and organization completed.

Bradlee captures the adrenaline-filled days of relentless reporters and the dogged quality the Post encouraged in them. For almost a year the paper was virtually alone in its pursuit of the story, until James McCord's damning admissions vindicated the Post. Gleefully, Bradlee includes scathing personal attacks on him and the Post by Bob Dole, Chuck Colson and prominent republicans everywhere. When a new piece of the puzzle fell into place, "Just the recollection of that discovery makes my heart beat faster, two decades later." And, of course, "People in the know, people in power, were already speaking of The New York Times and The Washington Post in the same breath...."

If this was the high, Janet Cooke's Pulitzer Prize winning story of an 8-year-old heroin adict that turned out to be fiction (1981) was the low. Bradlee explores this debacle as openly as he does the happier lessons of Watergate. Race certainly played its part.

Bradlee, running a major newspaper in a city with a 70 percent black population, had never known a black person, save a Haitian Frenchman in Paris. And he was surrounded by a similarly insulated group of connected white males. "Female Phi Beta Kappa graduates of Seven Sisters colleges who can write the King's English with style don't grown on trees...."

No kidding. But actually Cooke had never graduated from Vassar, much less with honors. The Brahmin background that propelled Bradlee's career from prep school on served him poorly when it came time to include some of the hoi poloi in the editorial mix.

Whatever his faults, Bradlee comes across as scrupulously honest. He doesn't give away any big secrets - you won't discover the identity of Deep Throat, for instance, but "The Good Life," chock full of our time's headiest moments, will fascinate anyone interested in the insider's view of current events and prominent people.

The first thing that makes A GOOD LIFE a wonderful read is that it has been written by a wonderful writer. Luxuriating in his text, it is easy to understand how author Ben Bradlee achieved the professional successes that he had. He is most famous, of course, for having edited the WASHINGTON POST during the Watergate era. The exploits of his reporters Bernstein and Woodward have been well-chronicled in ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN.

The next thing that makes A GOOD LIFE a wonderful read is that Bradlee not only has led the good life--his own definition--he's also led a fascinating one. By some quirk of fate, he was witness to many of the more exciting events in the second half of the 20th century, and he reports on these events in a way that will rivet his fans.

His description of his World War II naval career is as good as any other war memoir that I have read, and I have read quite a few.

Bradlee was lucky to lead his "good life." And reading about it makes for a fascinating experience.

A friend asked me why I would want to read a book about a retired editor of a newspaper concerned mainly about politics and government in a city far, far away. Shows what she knows. Ben Bradlee's book is not really about newspapering in Washington, but rather about living through the 60s, 70s and 80s. Yes, there is journalism throughout ­ how could there not be. But Bradlee writes history and he uses the journalism as a tool to tell stories, which is what journalists do best. Read about the Pentagon Papers, Watergate, Kennedy. It seems that all the events that shape our recent memory are covered first-hand in this book. Bradlee doesn't shy from the glare of the spotlight either. He tells his own history, blemishes and all, with the direct voice that politicians came to expect from the editor of the Washington Post. It's a fascinating read

Very terse and interesting. You'll be missing a lot if you read it, because he's a great reader. The Kennedy story is affecting, the Watergate story is actually suspenseful. One of the best audiotapes for driving.

Chatty tale of Bradlee's upbringing, early adventures in the press business, friendship with JFK, the Pentagon papers, Watergate, and the Janet Cooke scandal at the Washington Post. A pretty lightweight, but honest and entertaining, memoir from a man who is as much a raconteur as an editor. Abridged audiobook, read by Bradley.

Ben Bradlee and wife Tony lived on the same side of the same Washington, D.C. block as Senator John Kennedy, which is how they became friends with him and Jackie. After JFK's election to the Presidency, their friendship continued. He invited the Bradlees to Camp David, the family compound at Hyannis and for private dinners. At one glamorous White House function, Kennedy sat between Tony Bradlee and her sister Mary, who was also his friend. How close the two were was revealed much later.

Some time after Kennedy's death, Mary was walking along a D.C. canal when she was grabbed from behind. Her assailant stuck a gun under her chin and pulled the trigger; she died instantly. Shortly after the funeral, Mary's best friend phoned Tony Bradlee, inquiring after Mary's personal diary, which she said had been promised to her. When the Bradlees went to Mary's home to locate the book, they encountered inside it the friend's husband, a CIA operative known as "The Locksmith." He said his wife had sent him to retrieve the diary.

When they eventually found it, Ben and Tony were appalled to discover details in the diary of sister Mary's affair with JFK, one that lasted from early 1962 until his Nov. '63 death. They innocently handed the book over to their CIA friend, who promised to destroy it, and never at the time considered the implications of the two violent deaths and an interested CIA.

This is just one of many remarkable stories in Ben Bradlee's A GOOD LIFE. From his teenaged recovery from polio, Harvard graduation, service on a WWII destroyer in the hazardous South Seas off Guadalcanal, City Editorship of a New Hampshire paper, a brief stint at the Washington Post then as a Paris-based foreign correspondent who traveled all over Europe and the Middle East, to a job as assistant to the American ambassador in Paris, to Newsweek and again the Washington Post, Ben Bradlee's "good life" was a full and eventful one, as well. A most fascinating and well-written autobiography. Highest recommendation!


ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN, by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, details their investigation as Washington Post reporters under Ben Bradlee of the biggest Presidential scandal in American history, that of Watergate, which led to the resignation in disgrace of Richard Nixon.

Ben Bradlee's book, "A Good Life: Newspapering and Other Adventures", is a warm, candid and entertaining look back over a remarkable career and personal life. His writing is honest, revealing and to the point. He indeed has had an interesting life. The Watergate and the Pentagon Papers experiences are covered in detail. I became interested in reading this book after reading the book "All the President's Men" and watching the movie of the same title. I would highly recommend this book! Ben comes across as an smart, honest and decent man who worked very hard to earn his achievements.

Bradlee's life story is fascinating. Although he admits he was lucky, he knew how to capitalize on every opportunity. He also had tremendous integrity which is frequently not present in journalism today. The book also offers insight into two important historical events of the late 20th century: Viet Nam and Watergate. The style is easy to read.

How did I miss this book? It's almost 15 years old, but my library was featuring it, so it must have just gotten some book donations.

I'm a news hound for whom Watergate was a defining moment, just as JFK's assassination and the 9/11 terrorist attacks similarly colored the way we view the world. I jumped right to the Watergate section of Ben Bradlee's book. It's fascinating to relive that time in our nation's history from the inside, from the smallest to the most momentous editorial decisions the Washington Post made in pursuing that story. For movie buffs, there's even a chapter on the making of the Watergate movie, All the President's Men.

After devouring that section of the book, I went on to the story that tarnished the Washington Post's reputation, that of reporter Janet Cooke, who fabricated an entire series centered around a nonexistent child heroin addict that won a Pulitzer Prize. Interesting to see how that could ever have happened, particularly in light now of ensuing scandals in which journalists (like Jayson Blair) have been sacked for fabricating and plagiarizing.

After that, I went back to the beginning to see what I'd missed. Because of Bradlee's friendship with and reporting about JFK, a lot of space is given over to the iconic president. It's far more than I really wanted to know, but Bradlee's a great storyteller, so you get sucked in. The stories about Bradlee's personal life didn't interest me: superstar newspaperman makes a lousy husband and burns through marriages. Nothing new there!

All in all, this is a great read, especially for journalists. It chronicles the golden age of reporting and makes me wistful for a profession that essentially no longer exists. Just the mention of lead type gets me all misty eyed!

i first heard of ben bradlee's book from an editor, who told me that its a must read especially if i want to be a serious journalist. i did, and i couldnt put it down for three nights. ben's story is truly an inspiration...i would be happy to achieve even half of what he has. plus, for the first time in my life, i finally understood what watergate was all about.