The Many Lives of Kenneth Myer - Softcover

Ebury, Sue

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0522855466 ISBN 13: 9780522855463

Verlag: The Miegunyah Press, 2009

Inhaltsangabe

When Kenneth Baillieu Myer's father fell dead on the footpath in 1934, Ken's life changed in an instant. As the eldest son of the Jewish immigrant retailing genius, Sidney Baevski Myer, who went from pedlar to philanthropist millionaire in fifteen years, 13-year-old Ken was immediately acknowledged as head of the family.

Despite a conventional education at Geelong Grammar and a year at Princeton University, Ken was an unconventional man. He had hit headlines when he was born and continued to make news throughout his life-as the powerful Executive Chairman of Myer; in his refusal to be Governor-General of Australia; with his separation and divorce from his wife Prue and remarriage to a Japanese woman half his age, Yasuko Hiraoka; as Chairman of the Victorian Arts Centre and the National Library of Australia; and during his disastrous years as Chairman of the ABC-a reward for signing the 'Myer It's time' letter, acknowledged by Whitlam as influential in bringing the Labor Party to power in 1972.

Ken Myer introduced Australia to the first regional shopping centres, with Chadstone changing the face of the Australian landscape. Parking meters, state of the art information systems at the National Library of Australia, ground-breaking medical research at The Howard Florey Institute and genetic engineering at CSIRO were all facilitated by him.

Visionary and romantic, he was depressive and driven, charming one moment, icy the next. Unpretentious and a passionate conservationist, he was generous both publicly and anonymously, giving away his fortune and in doing so founding modern philanthropy in Australia. Happiest when finally free of the Store, he died with his wife Yasuko in a light plane crash in Alaska in 1992.

With unprecedented access to family documents, Sue Ebury paints a vivid portrait of the many aspects of Ken Myer's life, and the man himself.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Sue Ebury was born and educated in New Zealand. After nineteen years as an editor and publishing director at an international publishing house, she moved to Hong Kong, where she edited The War Diaries of Weary Dunlop and wrote the bestselling biography Weary: The Life of Sir Edward Dunlop.

Ken Myer's children commissioned the biography of their father, and Sue's research of Ken's life took her to the United Kingdon, Italy, Japan, Canada and the United States, where she interviewed friends and business associates.

Sue returned to Australia in 1994, where she lives in Mount Macedon, Victoria.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: The Miegunyah Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2009
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0522855466
• ISBN 13: 9780522855463
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 621
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar