Bob Keeler wrote the book on Newsday, a candid history detailing the origin story of Long Island’s original tabloid. Started in 1940 as the “toy” of Alicia Patterson, the paper went on to influence the growth of Nassau and Suffolk counties in subtle and not-so-subtle ways.

Harry Guggenheim had his own views on how the paper should be run. Not a problem if he was just Alicia’s husband. He was also, however, Newsday‘s majority shareholder. Their relationship unfolded in a strange duet from the newsroom to their Sands Point estate: his gentleman’s conservatism matched against her shoot-for-the-knees liberalism.

Bob explains it all in a fascinating walk through Long Island’s growth in the second half of the 20th century.

Further Research

• Newsday: A Candid History of the Respectable Tabloid by Robert Keeler (find in a library)
• The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert Caro (find in a library)
• Falaise: Sands Point Preserve
• Interview with journalist Karl Grossman on the Shoreham nuclear power plant
• Interview with the Barbash family on the Fire Island road