A Man of the World

June 13, 2022
Grosvenor, former president of the National Geographic Society, presents an enthralling look at his consequential time “searching out and celebrating the planet.” The son of Melville Bell Grosvenor, editor-in-chief of National Geographic Magazine, Grosvenor had his career laid out for him, though it didn’t make itself evident immediately. While an undergraduate at Yale in the early 1950s, where he majored in psychology, Gilbert volunteered to help clean up the destruction left by devastating flooding in the Netherlands. After documenting the tragedy and the region’s recovery in an article published in National Geographic, Grosvenor writes, “I was hooked, a convert to journalism.” By 1954, Grosvenor was working for the magazine’s illustrations division. As he details his ascent through the magazine—from becoming editor in 1970 to later heading the society as its president in 1980—Gilbert passionately recounts his effort to spearhead the society’s Geography Education Outreach program, an endeavor that put millions of dollars behind his belief that education about the world’s landscapes was key to tackling climate change. Just as captivating as Grosvenor’s accomplishments are humorous moments that cast the phenom in an endearing light, including when he was nearly trampled by a horse-drawn carriage after falling off a truck in Pakistan. The magazine’s many devotees will be riveted.

July 15, 2022
The former CEO of the National Geographic Society recounts his life and career. For a century, National Geographic magazine, wrapped in its familiar bright-yellow cover, has been a journal of the world, "a trove of some 1,500 issues with more than 7,000 articles on subjects from anthropology to zoology." Granted, writes Grosvenor--a descendant of Alexander Graham Bell as well as of the line of Grosvenors associated for generations with the magazine--some of its older content was racist, but that "was a product of a culture that has, thankfully, evolved." Of particular interest to armchair adventurers are Grosvenor's own adventures in the world. Working as a photographer and traveler, he took part in expeditions that included an exploration of the Arctic Sea and accompanying then-President Dwight Eisenhower on a journey to Afghanistan and Iran, a trip that yielded a fine image of the president "looking down from Air Force One at the storied Khyber Pass." Less interesting are the author's long disquisitions on office politics and personality clashes, as with a legal counsel who "lobbed the vast majority" of intimations that Grosvenor was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. (As Grosvenor reveals through accounts of vacations at the family mansion in Cape Breton and such, it's clear he grew up with considerable privilege.) Still, students of publishing history will find a few gems here: an in-house controversy over whether Robert Peary ever reached the North Pole on a trip funded by the parent National Geographical Society or the decision to sell the ailing magazine, which had "become a global media company," to Rupert Murdoch. The magazine, "part of the package of media assets Fox jettisoned in 2019," was subsequently acquired by Disney, which Grosvenor reckons a better fit. A middling memoir but with bright spots from venues scattered across the globe.

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Starred review from June 1, 2022
With the help of Mark Collins Jenkins, former chief historian of the National Geographic Society's archives, Grosvenor, now 91, relates his long association with that society's celebrated magazine. National Geographic's first full-time editor was Grosvenor's grandfather (1899-1954), followed by Grosvenor's father (1957-67), followed by Grosvenor himself (1970-80), who would leave that position to become president of the society (1980-96). Steeped in the spirit of exploration, dating back to the author's adventures as a boy on Cape Breton Island and along the inlets of Chesapeake Bay, Grosvenor's anecdotal account belies its importance as a history of the society and its magazine, as it details landmarks in the magazine's history, from its critical financial support of North Pole explorer Robert Peary, the Leakeys, Jacques-Yves Cousteau, and Jane Goodall, among others, to its shift to environmental issues, its support of geography education, and its expansion into other media. Great stories abound, such as Richard Leakey's utter disbelief as he stares at the pet-food aisle of an American supermarket. "How else do you feed your dog," Grosvenor asks him. "I just open the back door," Leakey replies. "Ben finds his own food. In the bush."

COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.