Ellen Browning Scripps: New Money and American Philanthropy

De: Molly McClain

Narrado por: Mary Ann Jacobs

Molly McClain tells the remarkable story of Ellen Browning Scripps (1836-1932), an American newspaperwoman, feminist, suffragist, abolitionist, and social reformer who used her fortune to support women’s education, the labor movement, and public access to science, the arts, and education.

Born in London, Scripps grew up in rural poverty on the Illinois prairie. She went from rags to riches, living out that cherished American story in which people pull themselves up by their bootstraps with audacity, hard work, and luck. She and her brother E.W. Scripps built America’s largest chain of newspapers, linking Midwestern industrial cities with booming towns in the West. Less well known today than the papers started by Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, Scripps newspapers transformed their owners into millionaires almost overnight.

By the 1920s Scripps was worth an estimated $30 million, most of which she gave away. She established the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, and founded Scripps College in Claremont, California. She also provided major financial support to organizations worldwide that promised to advance democratic principles and public education. In Ellen Browning Scripps McClain brings to life an extraordinary woman who played a vital role in the history of women, California, and the American West.

The book is published by University of Nebraska Press.

©2017 Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska (P)2018 Redwood Audiobooks

Reseñas de la Crítica

“This fine book gives Scripps her due.” (William Deverell, director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West)

“McClain's biography of this remarkable philanthropist and journalist is a gift to all readers." (Hannah S. Cohen, coauthor of Women Trailblazers of California)

“A skillful and loving tribute....” (William Lawrence, executive director of the San Diego History Center)