Short description
This book, by John McDonald, Sloan's ghostwriter, tells the behind-the-scenes story of "My Years with General Motors", it's attempted suppression, and the lawsuit that eventually led to its publication.
Long description
Published in 1964, "My Years with General Motors" is the ghostwritten memoir of Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. (1875-1966), whose business and management strategies enabled General Motors to overtake Ford as the dominant American automobile manufacturer in the 1920s and 1930s. What has been largely unknown until is that "My Years with General Motors" was almost not published. Although it was written with the permission of General Motors - and slated for publication in October 1959 - at the last minute General Motors tried to suppress the book out of fears that some of the material in it could become evidence in an antitrust action against the company. This book, by John McDonald, Sloan's ghostwriter, tells the behind-the-scenes story of the book's writing, its attempted suppression, and the lawsuit that eventually led to its publication. McDonald's narrative is partly the David-and-Goliath story of a lone journalist taking on the world's then-largest corporation and partly a study of strategy in its own right. McDonald's struggle to publish the book led him to navigate a complicated course among the competing interests of General Motors, Fortune magazine (his employer), and Time, Inc. (Fortune's owner).
Review
McDonald has given us what may be the best book about business, and about book publishing, to appear this year. -- John Maxwell Hamilton, Marketplace (American Public Radio)