George Hearst - by Matthew Bernstein

About the Book

In George Hearst: Silver King of the Gilded Age, Matthew Bernstein captures Hearst's ascent, casting light on his actions during the Civil War, his tempestuous marriage to his cousin Phoebe, his role as disciplinarian and doting father to future media magnate William Randolph Hearst, and his devious methods of building the greatest mining empire in the West.

Book Synopsis

Rising from a Missouri boyhood and meager prospecting success to owning the most productive copper, silver, and gold mines in the world and being elected a United States senator, George Hearst (1820-91) spent decades veering between the heights of prosperity and the depths of financial ruin. In George Hearst: Silver King of the Gilded Age, Matthew Bernstein captures Hearst's ascent, casting light on his actions during the Civil War, his tempestuous marriage to his cousin Phoebe, his role as disciplinarian and doting father to future media magnate William Randolph Hearst, and his devious methods of building the greatest mining empire in the West.

Whether driving a pack of mules laden with silver from the Comstock Lode to San Francisco, bribing jurors in Pioche and Deadwood, or unearthing bonanzas in Utah and Montana Territories, Hearst's cunning, energy, and industry were always evident, along with occasional glimmers of the villainy ascribed to him in the television series Deadwood.

In this first full-length biography, George Hearst emerges in all his human dimensions and historical significance--an ambitious, complex, flawed, and quintessentially American character.

Review Quotes

"...Mr. Bernstein, a professor of English at Los Angeles City College, keeps it sprightly and engaging. Hearst's tireless questing has a fascination to it..."
--The Wall Street Journal


"As author Matthew Bernstein writes so eloquently, 'Hearst was the most famous miner in American history' ... And with Bernstein's biography, Hearst will be remembered again as one of America's greatest 19th-century entrepreneurs..."--True West


"...a first-rate biography...Bernstein does his research and writes well..." - Historynet.com


"A great telling of a rags to riches story." -- A Book with Legs Podcast


"In George Hearst, Silver King of the Gilded Age, Matthew Bernstein provides a folksy romp through the mining, cattle, political, and newspaper worlds of nineteenth-century America. This well-researched biography is guaranteed to inform and entertain."-- Nancy J. Taniguchi, author of Dirty Deeds: Land, Violence, and the 1856 San Francisco Vigilance Committee


"Matthew Bernstein's lively biography of George Hearst will ignite the interest of multitudes of readers. This is narrative western biography at its best." -- Richard W. Etulain, author of Thunder in the West: The Life and Legends of Billy the Kid