Book Description

Noel Griese has written the definitive biography of public relations pioneer Arthur W. Page, whose father Walter H. Page with Frank N. Doubleday in 1900 created the publishing house of Doubleday, Page & Co. Arthur Page joined the firm as a reporter on the World's Work magazine after graduating from Harvard in 1905. In 1913, when his father was named U.S. ambassador to Great Britain, Arthur Page became editor of the World's Work. He remained with Doubleday until 1926 except for one break during World War I during which he served on the propaganda staff of Gen. John J. "Black Jack" Pershing. In 1927, he left Doubelday to become the public relations vice president of AT&T, then America's largest corporation. A close friend of Henry L. Stimson, Page during World War II headed the Joint Army and Navy Committee on Welfare and Recreation, which oversaw such morale activities as the American Red Cross, USO, Yank magazine, the Stars & Stripes newspaper, Army films and other activities. He went to England in 1944 to oversee troop information for the Normandy Invasion. In 1945, he wrote the news release announcing the first use of the atom bomb at Hiroshima. Page retired from AT&T at the end of 1946. From then until his death in 1960, he was an eminent public relations consultant and a founder of Radio Free Europe. Noel Griese's biography has been selected to the Knowledge Is Power short list of the best books ever written on the subject of public relations.