A Good Life: Newspapering and Other Adventures

by Ben Bradlee

Tracing his journey from Harvard, through the Pacific war, to postwar Paris, to the height of success as editor of The Washington Post, the nation's most famous newspaperman reveals how he changed American journalism and politics. 100,000 first printing. Tour.

Genres: Biography, Journalism, Nonfiction, Memoir, History, Autobiography, Biography Memoir

512 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Father of Ben Bradlee Jr.
Benjamin Crowninshield "Ben" Bradlee is vice-president at large of the Washington Post. Born in Boston, Bradlee attended Harvard College. In 1942, he became a communications officer for the Office of Naval Intelligence and fought in thirteen battles during World War II. Bradlee became executive editor of the Washington Post in 1968, a position he held until 1991. During this time, Bradlee oversaw the Post’s award-winning coverage of the Watergate affair and the publication of the Pentagon Papers. In 2013, Bradlee was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Bradlee and his wife, journalist Sally Quinn, live in Washington, DC.

also publishes under the name Benjamin C. Bradlee

Reviews

[Lobstergirl · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first 8 chapters of this, up to about p. 200, are super boring. This includes Bradlee's Waspy upbringing amongst the Boston (Brahmin) Crowninshields, his years at Harvard, the months in the Navy during World War II, the first marriage to Jean Saltonstall of the Boston Brahmin Saltonstalls, the years in Paris working for Newsweek. The boredom abates a little as Bradlee, married and with a young son, and resembling Jon Hamm, falls for the married mother of four Antoinette Pinchot Pittman, of the wealthy and storied Pinchots. Sex between the Hamm-resembling Bradlee and the married mother of four is revelatory, eye-opening, probably leg-opening too, happening as it does in the French countryside, where passion is unavoidable. Bradlee's tallywhacker is busy once again. The two continue their affair but it turns out Tony can't marry Ben until she has undergone a year of psychoanalysis. It won't be the last time Tony springs some counterculture, hippie action on Ben.

Though Bradlee is not a strong writer (his strength is editing, managing reporters, and running a newspaper), the book did actually become fairly absorbing, scattered with interesting little snippets.

- After the murder of Mary Pinchot Meyer (Tony's sister, married to CIA spook Cord Meyer) on the C & O Canal towpath in 1964 (still unsolved), a friend of Mary's tells Ben and Tony that Mary had a diary, and if anything ever happened to her the diary must be found and destroyed. Ben and Tony break into Mary's house, where oddly enough they find James Jesus Angleton, longtime CIA super spook, who is also looking for the diary, apparently. The next day Ben and Tony realize they haven't searched Mary's art studio, so they break in there. Again, oddly, they find James Jesus Angleton, lock-picker extraordinaire, still searching for the diary. Eventually Ben and Tony find the diary, which contains art sketches and also recounts her love affair with JFK, who is not actually named. Ben and Tony are hurt; they never realized their buddy JFK was such a pantychaser and that Mary too had been deluding them. The strangest part of this story is that they give James Jesus Angleton the diary and ask him to destroy it, because they figure the CIA has special document-destroying abilities. Apparently they've never heard of fireplaces. Some years later, Tony asks Angleton how he destroyed the diary and he admits he never did. She asks for the diary back, and he gives it to her, whereupon she remembers that things can be burned, and burns it.

- At some point, the Bradlee-Tony marriage becomes loveless, or sexless. What helped break up the Bradlee-Tony Pinchot marriage? The violent deaths of JFK and Mary Meyer. (Did JFK's death break up your marriage too? I didn't know this was a cause of marital problems.)

- I'll gloss over the Pentagon Papers and Watergate except for a brief mention of jewelry. After Attorney General John Mitchell threatened Katherine Graham would "get her tit caught in a big fat wringer" if she published a story about a secret fund he had controlled, a tiny clothes wringer was made for her, which she put on a chain and wore around her neck. Art Buchwald had a tiny silver breast crafted, which she wore along with the wringer.

- Janet Cooke was a young black reporter hired by the Post in the late 70s or early 80s. She wrote a widely-read story about an 8-year old heroin addict which won a Pulitzer Prize. Unfortunately, once it had won a prize, people looked at Janet Cooke's resume more closely and discovered that in fact she hadn't graduated from Vassar, didn't have a master's degree (the Post never checked), and that the whole heroin-boy story was faked. (Though Mayor Marion Barry claimed the city knew about the boy.) Like every other major newspaper, the Post had been starved for black talent in the newsroom, and she fit the bill. If they hadn't snatched her up, a competitor would have. So they didn't look at her too closely.

- Bradlee cites David Broder as one of the best political reporters ever to walk the earth (an opinion shared by many msm'ers). Is this the same Broder who created the myth of Edmund Muskie's tears, which destroyed his presidential campaign, then admitted decades later that Muskie had never really cried? (Yes.) Oh well. Consequences are for the little people.

The memoir ends in 1991, with Bradlee's retirement from the Post.

Error: p. 477, Robert Pelton should read Ronald Pelton.

[Vicki · Rating 2 out of 5]

I tried to read this one because I so loved Katherine Graham's Personal History and wanted to read about some of the events she went through from the perspective of another who was there. But whereas I came away from Graham's book wishing I could add her to my list of lunch buddies, I bailed out on this one because my palms just itched to slap Bradlee every four or five pages, I found him to be so insufferable. And life is too short to read a whole memoir of someone you want to drop-kick.

[Printable Tire]

Listened to the abridged audiobook version, which was long enough, and probably is the best medium for any memoir, for who doesn't like having some crusty old man yak about his sex life in your ear?

I'm a bit ashamed I never heard of Ben Bradlee before picking this up at the discard pile of the Redwood Library, but not too ashamed, for there are a lot of people to know and I can't know all of them.

Bradlee speaks with mostly candor about his personal problems and the triumphs and tribulations of the newspaper business, so much more glorious in his day. Did you also know he bought the Gray Gardens of Gray Gardens fame?

Bradlee certainly lived a rich, good life, one that certainly puts mine to shame. So fuck him! If he's so smart, how come he's dead?

A good pairing with the Nixon autobiography I listened to recently.

[Nicholas Lefevre · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently went to Ben Bradlee's funeral at the National Cathedral here in Washington. The stories told by his friends, family, and colleagues made this a must read for me. It was out of print and I wanted hard copy so I had to buy a used copy online. It is now in reprint so it should become more available soon.

I absolutely loved my week with Ben Bradlee! It's rare that I read an autobiography where I really like being with that person. So many are self-congratulatory or the author is just not a person I would want to be with.

We struggled with growing up in a Boston Brahmin household while not having the great wealth of others. We went to prep school together at St. Marks, suffered polio and overcame it (but without claiming superhuman willpower). The most important stage of recovery was when we learned it didn't interfere with our favorite activity, masturbation. We went to war in the Pacific together. We spent the 50's in Paris hanging out with Art Buchwald. We did a startup together (a small town paper). On returning to Washington at the end of the 50's, our new neighbors moved in, the Kennedys, and they became our friends. We were close to the key events of the 60's. Then, of course, there was Watergate.

All the while we worked hard, played hard, and screwed around. My friend Ben was profane, funny, honest, brave and determined to get to the bottom of the story. Our circle of friends and colleagues were likewise. We didn't suffer fools lightly.

Of particular fun for me was the story of Mary Pichot Meyer. I had learned of these events before they were public and my teller of the tale had left out the role of the Bradlees, presumable because they were still very much public figures. It was great some 40 years later to get the whole story.

Anyone who wants a great story about extraordinary times told by a wonderfully engaging and likable witness needs to read this book.

[Washington Post · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Post’s former executive editor looks back at Watergate and other events that shaped modern Washington.

“But for politicians who rode the wave into Washington after Watergate, the lessons they seem to have learned have boiled down to this: Don’t get caught. And they haven’t learned that lesson all that well.”

[Yehudit Reishtein · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you didn't live through the Kennedy, Viet Nam, and Watergate eras, read this book to learn the inside story. If you remember these events, read this book to find out what you didn't know then.

Bradlee, better known as newspaper editor than a writer, has an engaging style. It's an interesting and fun read.

[Margie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bradlee, unfortunately, comes across as a bit of an ass. It's interesting background for looking at the Pentagon Papers/Watergate era, but isn't as content-rich as one might want.

[Christy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finishing this book was like saying goodbye to an old friend... a must-read for anyone interested in Watergate, JFK (a close friend of Bradlee’s), or the excitement of journalism.

[Pearl · Rating 4 out of 5]

A couple of weeks ago I watched “The Post,” Stephen Spielberg’s new movie about the publishing of the Pentagon Papers. I thought it was very good, and I remembered I had Bradlee’s memoirs sitting unread on some shelf. Sitting there unread for almost twenty years. I’m not sure why I didn’t read it soon after I bought it in 1999, the same year it was published. (The sales slip was still in the book.) It’s rather lengthy, 499 pages, but Katherine Graham’s memoirs, published two years earlier, is even longer and I read it almost immediately.

I really loved Kay Graham after reading her book, and I loved her after reading Bradlee’s book. Bradlee himself, not as much.* His image for me forever is Jason Robards’ portrayal of him as salty, brash, and hard-charging in “All the President’s Men.” Tom Hanks’ Bradlee also is very good in “The Post,” but his Bradlee is tamer. Which is the true Bradlee? I suppose they both are true to different aspects of him (don’t we all have more than one side) but, after reading Bradlee’s own memoir, I come down on the side of Robards.

Bradlee was born into a lot of privilege (pedigreed especially on his mother’s side) and took most of it for granted as he was growing up and, by his own admission, time and time again luck came his way. He also worked hard, overcame adversities (polio for one), took advantage of opportunities and connections, seemed to be good at making and keeping friends and, perhaps best of all, loved what he was doing. It’s why he had “a good life.”

His memoir takes us through his proper Bostonian upbringing, his years at Harvard (only got in because of connections and barely graduated), his stint in the Navy in the South Pacific during WW II (where he grew up and learned to swear like a trooper and discovered that he was a leader who could get things done), to his various newspaper jobs, beginning at very low levels and gradually working his way up to become arguably the most famous newspaper editor in the world. And his three marriages and four children, not counting his step children, and his several beautiful houses.

I found a lot of the detail in the chapters of his early years and Harvard years quite tedious. If you are interested in the navy and in life on a destroyer you probably would find the detail more interesting than I did. The same goes for much of the detail on newspapering but when he gets to his time at “Newsweek,” “The Washington Post,” his neighborliness with the Kennedys, his story gets more interesting. In fact, often fascinating. I enjoyed the final half of his book quite a bit more than the first half.

He has separate chapters on the Pentagon Papers and on Watergate, as well they deserve. By now, I don’t know how much new information is revealed but it’s interesting to read all about it from an insider’s view, indeed from someone who was formative in the fallout of these events and who put his name and the “Washington Post’s” name on the map as a result, albeit not single handedly; and he is generous in his credit to others.

To me, he seems to have written a pretty honest recounting of his life. He is unabashed about his love for the acclaim he often received, especially in the final years of his career, he’s quite often self-critical, he appears to be straightforward in talking about how his devotion to his job was detrimental to his marriages (at least two of them) but that he probably wouldn’t do it differently and, once again, how lucky he had been. His relationships with Kay Graham, Woodward and Bernstein are well known. Not as well known are his friendships with Art Buchwald, David Broder, Meg Greenfield and scores of other newspaper luminaries. He seems to have had a real talent for hiring the best and they liked working for him. And then there was the friendship with the Kennedys. They began their friendship as neighbors in Georgetown when Kennedy was still in the U.S. Senate and continued it when Kennedy was President. Bradlee insists that they weren’t as close as many thought and that he did not know about the President’s reckless affairs. He was taken aback and somewhat shaken when he discovered Kennedy and his sister-in-law had an affair. He feels betrayed by both. He tries to think through the loyalties of friendship when they seem to clash with the job of being a newspaper reporter, not only vis-à-vis his friendship with Kennedy but with other leading political figures. He writes about how he came to admire Robert Kennedy as a true, impassioned believer as opposed to the very urbane, cool Jack Kennedy. Kennedy, he writes, could get mad at him and could cut-off relations with him for a while when he thought that he (Bradlee) violated some trust in a story he had written; but he’d always get over being angry. Jackie, on the other hand, never forgave him when she thought he’d betrayed a trust.

Betraying a trust or failing to write a story that most assuredly is newsworthy is one of the difficult things that a news reporter/editor wrestles with. Going ahead with a story that comes with the warning if you publish this, you are endangering national security is another. Jimmy Carter never forgave Bradlee for one such incident. Bradlee claims that the one thing he learned from publishing the Pentagon Papers and then pursuing the Watergate scandal is that when the powers that be claim “national security,” as a reason not to publish, it almost never is. He has an entire chapter on this dilemma.

He also includes a chapter on his biggest mistake, Janet Cooke. “The Post” won a Pulitzer for publishing her story on an eight-year-old heroin addict. It turned out to be fake.

I’m glad “The Washington Post” is still a great newspaper, a newspaper that Bradlee helped to make great. I don’t have to wonder how he’d cover the Trump administration. It’s obvious. In reading about “The Post’s” coverage of Watergate, I couldn’t help being struck by how the attempted cover up, the blaming of the press and attacking its coverage as fake and biased, the making of an enemies list, the shifting blame on everyone else is so much like what we see going on today. The one big difference is then there were a few good Republicans willing to put country before party. A few, well, enough to make up a majority.

*I’m not sure why I didn’t like Bradlee more. Not that it matters. He seemed too brash – almost rude or crude at times, too foul-mouthed, too high flying, too obsessed with sex, not that he himself was more promiscuous than the crowd he hung out with, perhaps even less so. But my reaction to him personally is different from my admiration for him as a great, courageous newspaper man. He made a difference.

[Laura Henderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ben Bradlee wrote an entertaining memoir without much depth. The Pentagon Papers, Watergate, Janet Cooke all quicken the pace and are fun to relive through the eyes of a newspaper editor. I was unaware of Bradlee's relationship with JFK and Jackie Kennedy, which made interesting reading. Bradlee was of my father's generation and I recognized in Bradlee many of the attitudes and proclivities I knew in my father.

3.5 stars

[Patricia N. McLaughlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Nothing can compare with the thrill of a good story, yours alone, slowly developing, slowly leaving its mark on history. Nothing.” —Ben Bradlee (p. 198)

[Ken Tingley · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a newspaper editor at a much smaller newspaper, Bed Bradlee was held in high esteem, alright awe. While attending an American Society of Newspaper Editors meeting in D.C. on the 30th anniversary of Watergate, I got Bradlee, Woodward and Bernstein to sign a program. For those of us in journalism, they were our idols. My favorite stories was of his friendship with Sen. John Kennedy and how they went out on the town with their wives together. Washington was another world then.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why the heck did I read this book anyway? It's loaded with roughandtumble masculine activities-- war, politics, infidelity-- that usually have scant interest for me. Nevertheless, I read it, liked it, and have read it in its entirety a second time. How come?

Now I recall that I picked it up because Katharine Graham mentioned it favorably in her own bio, and I really respect that woman. I've come to be quite intrigued with the Watergate story, so there was that...

And then, once I'd started reading i simply discovered that Bradlee has had a very interesting, wide-ranging life and he tells his story well. His willingness to present himself "warts and all" is engaging: I came to like the guy so much!

(Besides the episodes of his life that put him smack in the middle of history, I liked him for saying that he still bears a bit of a grudge against his parents for that Christmas when they gave him his brother's used bicycle, and gave the new bike to his bro. Well who wouldn't, even if they did have opportunities to hang out with JFK and Jackie?!)

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and it was great to read on the heels of "Personal History" by Kathrine Graham. His voice is so vivid and I felt like I got to know the complexity of Bradlee. He didn't shy away from admitting his mistakes and seemed rather self-deprecating and at times almost in awe of the fact that he was in the position he was in. But while in awe of the position, he owned it, it didn't own him. I'm sure I could put more thought into a more coherent review, but I'm hungry and want to go eat my dinner. Which somehow seems like a sentiment Bradlee would approve of. It was an informative, entertaining and at times quite thought provoking book. I'm glad to have read it, as this book + "Personal History", have reminded me about the noble work of solid journalism and the importance of the 1st amendment.

[Arnold · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ben Bradlee is considered one of the great American journalists. A Harvard graduate who rose to become Managing Editor of the Washington Post, one of the most influentual newspapers in the USA. He was in charge of the paper during its heyday of Watergate, Deep Throat, Pentagon Papers and the fall of Nixon. This is his very candid and wonderfully written biography

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

reminded me of Forrest Gump. Here's a guy who's led a fantastic and amazing life. Next door neighbors and good friends with JFK, editor in charge of breaking the Watergate scandal, trips to Vietnam, Isreal, and Libya at all the right (journalistic) times. Written like an editor from the Washington Post. Somewhat devoid of information, but well written.

[Grindy Stone · Rating 2 out of 5]

Worth reading only because Bradlee had a privileged vantage point for much of the latter half of the 20th century. That said, Bradlee comes off as insufferable and smug. There's also lots more crude, potty humor than one would expect from the elite.

[Bill Flavin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book very much. A good story about a man who was at the middle of media and their rise to importance in the last half of the 20th century

[John Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you removed the ego and name dropping from this book, you would still have a book of substance, more impactful and interesting.

Bradlee enjoys sharing how smart he is, who he knows, and his many marriages from his perspective. Yet, his sharing of Watergate alone makes this book worth reading. His description of his marriages was interesting. His involvement in the buying of the Post was fascinating. His admission of his lack of understanding of labor unions then blasting the union for their stands.

Bradlee reviews the early part of his life – Harvard, his military work, buying into a newspaper, his early beat reporting days, his days in Paris – with his first wife – his time with Newsweek, a friendship with President Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy that started simply as an accident, and his time at the Post, especially his Watergate years.

An interesting backdrop of this story is the role that racism and sexism played in the newspaper industry. In the 1960’s, the newspaper was serving a city that was 70% African American but only 25% readers. Not only did the paper have no African American reporters for years, but Bradlee admitted that he knew no blacks “at all.” That’s an amazing – and sad – reflection of a leader of a newspaper in a majority Black city. He also speaks about how the newspaper turned to women during WWII but “the majority had to leave because of the law that guaranteed returning veterans the same jobs as they held when they went to war.” He complained that news magazines, and later television, “siphoning off good young talent.” Bradlee doesn’t take any responsibility for his role in taking so long to add women and people of color to the news operation. Repeatedly he drops the names of those he selected for key positions – white males. He does admit that “I was not sensitive to racism of sexism, to understate the matter. The newsroom was racist.” That’s a nice reflection but he didn’t go far enough. It’s clear by his choices, Bradlee was racist.

While I found Bradlee’s sharing of newsroom operations and journalism lacking, especially considering his role, the chapter on Watergate made the entire book worth reading; it would be instructional for every journalist and those studying journalism and every political operative or those studying pollical science read this chapter. Bradlee speaks about the process – news and political journey – to President Nixon’s resignation. It was fascinating to read an October 10, 1972 Post story – prior to Nixon’s landslide election – clearly connecting the White House with the break in.
The chapter of the book explained so much about Watergate including all the characters involved: Nixon, Agnew, Liddy, Segretti, Clawson, Halderman, McCord, Ervine, Dean, Colson, Hunt, Clifford, Mitchell, Graham [one of the few women who had a direct role], Dole [who, as chair of the RNC was a “pit bull” for the disgraced president], McGovern, Eagleton, Berger, Sirica, Ervin, Kleindienst, Ziegler, Richardson, Bork, Butterfield, Haig, Cox, Ford, Ruckelshaus, Jaworski, Rehnquist, Woods [one of the few women connected in a big way to Watergate when she was unfairly tossed out as the one responsible for the 18 ½ minute gap of the presidential tapes] Shorr, Kissinger, Goldwater, and of course, Woodward and Bernstein.

Bradlee’s Watergate chapter also provided a fairly quick review of the timeline involved, the risks the paper took in supporting good reporting, the role of the courts, and the backroom movement of Republicans who ended up pushing out the shamed president.

Bradlee best summed up the importance and understanding of journalist with Watergate with this passage of his book: It is hard to describe how much energy is involved in asking hundreds of people thousands of questions – over and over again – in search of a single unknown piece of information that might shed light on other bits of information which we felt fit into the puzzle, but didn’t know where.”

The author shared his experience of having his more interesting days in the rear mirror after his role in Watergate and taking down a president. He wrote that his ���professional future would probably not include anything as exciting as Watergate,” adding, “Stories like that show up once in a career.” And, the book was downhill from that point, although sharing his encounters with Hollywood (while egocentric) was amusing and his discussion about the well-known strike was interesting, although one-sided by a guy who admitted he as never “comfortable in or with the labor movement.”

For someone who shared cheating on his two wives, leading to divorce, who spoke about having a child when he was in his 60’s, using his connection with President Kennedy to write a book that led to the president’s widow (someone who used to be a dear friend) not even exchanging a greeting on the street, and who was responsible for hiring but largely continued associating and hiring white males, Bradlee’s ego far surpassed his ability to also share his inspection of how his decisions impacted covering the news – and treating people.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ben Bradlee used the right title - it's hard to imagine Ben Bradlee's life being any better than the life he led. Ambitious, talented, born on at least second base, and lucky as all get out, Bradlee was able to carve out a pivotal role in American culture and politics in the second half of the 20th century. "A Good Life" serves as Bradlee's assessment.

Bradlee, born into a prosperous if not Wealthy Boston family, followed the Establishment route to Harvard. Getting into Harvard before World War II wasn't the impossibly difficult achievement that it is today, but it was still no given - Bradlee had game. But while he also had drive, he had no focus. And while that jeopardized his Harvard experience, he was able to get through Harvard in time to spend several years fighting World War II from the deck of a destroyer in the Pacific. Returning to the U.S. without a clear plan, Bradlee eventually ends up in journalism. In that field, he became a titan, eventually serving as the editor of the Washington Post for arguably the largest journalistic stories of the 20th century - the Pentagon Papers and, of course, Watergate.

Told in an incisive first-person, "A Good Life" reads like a page-turner. Bradlee's prose is lean and mean, and Bradlee has great lines for both his heroes and those he holds in contempt. Some of the greatest sections of "A Good Life" come when Bradlee pays tribute to his mentors, and to Bradlee's great credit, he has many. He does not spare anyone in this book, including himself. He writes about his three marriages, why two of them fell apart, and he does not spare himself any blame. But he also does not protest too much, and "A Good Life" is not an example of a man wearing a hairshirt of shame.

Dedicated to the truth, rigorous in documenting it, and eager to hold the powerful to account, Bradlee was a born journalist and a terrific editor. Perhaps the only time "A Good Life" rings a little hollow is when Bradlee claims that he had no idea that JFK was a womanizer. While Bradlee has the good defense that when Bradlee hung out with JFK, both Jackie Kennedy and Bradlee's second wife Antoinette were invariably present, which meant that the topic of other women didn't come up often. But that means that Bradlee also didn't act on the rumors of womanizing he would have heard from others, and also it strains credibility to think that JFK and Bradlee never had time away from their spouses for a frank man-to-man talk. Bradlee was a journalist, after all.

But this is a minor quibble in one of the best autobiographies I've ever read. Bradlee may have been born with a lot of advantages, but he used all of them to live an amazing life.

Highest recommendation.

[Lindsay Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

The memoir of Ben Bradlee, former editor of the Washington Post in its heyday. This covers his life from birth into a well-heeled Boston family fallen on challenging (for them, not the rest of us) times during the depression, through bording school and Harvard, the Navy in WWII, a starter job on a small paper to Newsweek, to the Post, until his retirement from the Post in 1991.
He had a sort of crazy wealthy childhood, followed by a year out of commission with polio. It was hard work for him to get over polio and give up some athletic dreams, but he says he was never afraid and never really doubted things would work out. I guess some people just have that type of constitution. He went to Harvard, as members of his family were supposed to, and did OK there after some false starts. Wanting to get in on the war, he buckled down and graduated early. He graduated, enlisted, and got married on the same day.
Returning from the War, he got a job in a small startup newspaper in New Hampshire. When that went under, he headed south in search of a job. It was raining in Baltimore, so he continued on to DC - the Sun's loss and the Post's gain. After a stint as a press attaché in Europe, he caught on as European correspondent for Newsweek. His first marriage fell apart and he married his second wife, Toni Pinchot Pittman, after they had both left their spouses. He eventually transferring to Newsweek's Washington Bureau. He happened to move to Georgetown where he ended up living just down the street from the Kennedys and becoming part of their social circle. Also nearby were Joe Alsopp and Phil and Katharine Graham, among others.
He details his time as a Kennedy friend, seemingly naive to Kennedy's womanizing as he and Toni mainly socialized as a couple. He was taken by surprise to find that Kennedy had been seeing Mary Pinchot Meyer, Toni's divorced sister who was using the Bradlee's garage as her Georgetown art studio when she was murdered on the C & O towpath in 1964.
In 1965, Katherine Graham, having taken over as publisher of the Post after her husband's suicide, asked him to return to the Post as editor. The rest, as they say, is history.
Having lived in DC at the time as well as having read numerous books about the 70s and 80s, I am familiar with the Pentagon Papers, Watergate, the newspaper strike, the Janet Cooke scandal, etc. It was still nice to get Bradlee's take on it all. He's not quite the writer that Kay Graham was, but if you like that era and have a fondness for print journalism, you'll like this.
I wish I could end on a happy note, but while not perfect, the downfall of print media has left us all poorer and Jeff Bezos and the current management are a far cry from Graham and Bradlee.

[Murray · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book many, many years ago and it just sat on my shelf, collecting dust. With the recent release of "The Post", I was finally motivated to tackle this 500-page memoir.

As a young person with aspirations toward journalism, Ben Bradlee was always a personal hero of mine. While the first half of the book is a little slow, the second half kicks it up about three notches. And while Bradlee was one of the focal points in both "All The President's Men" and "The Post", this memoir is filled with enough larger-than-life stories to serve as inspiration for three or four more films.

Most fascinating is his recollection of the unsolved murder of Mary Meyer. I don't want to give anything away other than to say that this part of the book blew my socks off.

From Bradlee's close friendship with JFK (and later estrangement with Jackie) to his challenges as the editor of the Washington Post, "A Good Life" is 'a great read'. Bradlee is more candid than most people writing their memoirs, but that candor and cantankerousness is what made him the icon that he became. Born in Boston, with a rich family heritage, Bradlee reveals much about the many loves of his life (yes, he was a womanizer), and even provides details on some of the nasty letters he received over the years (and his combative responses).

Given the current state of events in politics vs. journalism, it would be very interesting to see how Bradlee would have positioned himself against the Trump White House By the time you finish reading this book, you'll probably have a pretty good idea.

[Brian Page · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ben Bradlee (1921 – 2014) achieved fame as Editor in Chief of WaPo under Katharine Graham during the Pentagon Papers and Watergate era. In A Good Life, Bradlee is largely self-depreciating, not so much about his abilities, but about the incredible opportunities that just happened to fall into his lap due to his back bay blue blood Boston family connections, everything from foreign service work to sleeping with another man’s wife while on a family ski holiday. To me the modesty runs a bit thin and between the lines, to me, he comes off as a schemer and manipulator. Consider that Bradlee and JFK were literally neighbors and good friends; yet Bradlee kept notes of every conversation he had with Kennedy (which he later turned into a book). I think Jackie sized him up correctly. I realize at this point that I’m reviewing the man and not the book. So it may be surprising for me to say that this is a really good book and that I recommend it to anyone interested in these times. The Pentagon Papers episode is, of course, amazing; but Janet Cooke and the “Jimmy’s World” account is revealing. I had never come across the backstory to this case of Pulitzer Prize fraud. It’s a cautionary tale about how so many people who should have known better were taken in.

[Sheris225 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This writer exemplifies the word “urbane”. While working as a reporter in Paris he fell in love with his second wife. Bradlee created an independent paper in New Hampshire in the 1950’s. Later he was a war correspondent for a major magazine and finally he jet-setted with the Kennedys. He was also instrumental in redefining how Americans understand their government as the managing editor of the Washington Post during the Watergate break-in and the Pentagon Papers publication.
Bradlee mentions important names of his contemporaries as if they were his neighbors having tea. But the world leaders and leading reporters were having tea in his parlor with his second wife during part of his life. To read his book is to get a lesson in American history, learn new vocabulary and experience a life far from ordinary.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book at the library because we had seen The Post recently so I was curious about Ben Bradlee and his perspective on the Pentagon Papers--and other events in the life of the Washington Post. This is a pretty forthright and honest book. His childhood was abruptly changed from very privileged to just getting by during the Depression. He tells of his adventures during WWII after leaving Harvard early. Bradlee was married three times and he is not shy about mentioning relationships--even if brief--with other women. It's always interesting to read about Watergate again and to relive those events. I remember the Janet Cooke fiasco and appreciated that he was not defensive about his errors in handling that situation.

[Emmet Sullivan · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a terrible book. There is precisely one chapter about Watergate, and the rest of the book contains only tangential mentions of anything journalism related. The great majority of the book is about Bradlee’s relationship misfortunes, sexual rants & remembrances, and the oddest braggadocio I’ve ever read. To use a generous analogy, imagine Thomas Jefferson writing an autobiography and focusing 80% of it on his time as governor of Virginia: while you may have done that, and thought it was important, nobody is picking up that biography to read about those years. This Bradlee book is similarly galactically out of touch which why a reader would pick it up. He’s trying so hard to pump himself up that you end up feeling bad for him in light of his obviously-fragile-but-inflated ego.

[Steve Bera · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a best seller 25 years ago. I thought with the release of 'The Post" movie now it might seem more relevant, but it didn't seem that way. The book devoted only a few pages to that subject. It was interesting to learn about Ben Bradlee, his three wives, and children from each marriage. He sounds like a smart and likeable person. The news business sounds brutal. I thought the news business would be fun in my next life, but I have changed my mind after reading this book and a couple of others from noted journalists.

[David Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well-told memoir with few flourishes, and read by Arthur Morey with a gusto that reflects Bradlee's directness, confidence and enthusiasm. (It was easy to forget it wasn't Bradlee's voice.) At 500 pages, and 20 hours for the audiobook, it's arguably about 10% too long. Still, his accounts of having polio, serving in WWII, being a foreign correspondent and knowing JFK were unexpected, and then comes the Pentagon Papers, Watergate and Janet Cooke.

[Owen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very compelling read if you work in the media (like I do), or if you care about good journalism. The Washington Post was my hometown newspaper growing up, so this book has special meaning to me.

Bradley was certainly one of the best at his craft, not much of a husband or father to his kids though.

If the politics of the 60s-80s interests you, this is a good read.

[Audrey Lim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bradley is part of a cohort of men who lead extraordinary lives (no doubt as a result of privilege and sheer luck) who go on to become of legends of their generation. His life story, coupled with a signature, biting wit, makes this a more than worthwhile read. I haven’t encountered an autobiography filled with such humorous reflection and levity since that of Peggy Noonan’s.