Robert Worth Bingham and the Southern mystique
Subtitle: from the Old South to the New South and beyond
By: William E. Ellis.
Publisher: Kent State University Press
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Kent, Ohio
Language: eng
Number of pages: 258
Subjects: Bingham, Robert Worth, 1871-1937.; Bingham family.; Publishers and publishing -- Kentucky -- Biography.; Newspaper publishing -- Kentucky -- History.; Louisville (Ky.) -- Biography.; Southern States -- Social life and customs -- 1865-
Other titles: Robert Worth Bingham & the Southern mystique
Description: Robert Worth Bingham (1871-1937) rose to great heights as a newspaper publisher, political leader, and ambassador, but his life is surrounded by controversy to this day. Charges that he contributed to the death of his second wife, an heiress whose bequest of five million dollars helped purchase the Louisville Courier-Journal and Times, followed him to the grave.

For three quarters of a century the history of the Bingham family of Louisville, Kentucky, has been one of tragedy and controversy as well as wealth, power, and prestige. The breakup of the Bingham dynasty in 1986, vividly chronicled on CBS television's "Sixty Minutes" generated a flurry of books and articles on Bingham and his family, much of it portraying Bingham as a villain.

In some accounts, Bingham drove his first wife to suicide and gave syphilis to the second before murdering her to gain control of her inheritance. William E. Ellis's Robert Worth Bingham and the Southern Mystique is an evenhanded, well-researched, and comprehensive biography of a controversial man. Ellis reveals Bingham's strengths as well as his frailties, and he specifically refutes some of the charges made against Bingham.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 243-246) and index.