Description

The captivating inside story of the man who helmed National Geographic for six decades is a frontrow seat to audacious feats of exploration from the successful hunt for the Titanic to Jane Goodalls field studies Offering a rare portrait of one of the worlds most iconic media empires this revealing autobiography makes an impassioned argument to knowand care forour planet Though his career path had been paved by four generations of his family before him Gilbert M Grosvenor left his own mark on the National Geographic Society founded in 1888 and recognized the world over by its ubiquitous yellow border In an unflinchingly honest memoir as big as the world and all that is in it Grosvenor shows us what it was like to grow up Geographic in a family home where explorers like Robert Peary Louis Leakey and Jane Goodall regularly crossed the threshold As staff photographer editor in chief and then president of the organization Grosvenor oversaw the diversification into television film books as well as its flagship magazine which under his tenure reached a peak circulation of nearly 11 million He also narrates the shift from a nonprofit familyfocused enterprise to the more corporate bottomline focused world of publishing today For Grosvenor running National Geographic wasnt just a job It was a legacy motivated by a passion not just to leave the world a better place but to motivate others to do so too Filled with world travel charismatic explorers and the complexities of running a publishing empire A MAN OF THE WORLD is the story of one man a singular family business and the changing face of American media