The Beaver at Work

PERPLEXING, SINISTER, headlined London's Daily Express (circ. 4,097,106) last week to describe the subject of a new biography that it was excerpting in four installments. "Sometimes a devil seems to enter into him," ran one extract, "[and he exposes] his own raw resentment against the hollow parody of power that his life has become." Many a perplexed reader wondered what the devil had got into the Express. This unflattering portrait was none other than that of the Express' own boss and Britain's foxiest old (75) press lord, William Maxwell ("Max") Aitken, the first Baron Beaverbrook.

Myth. The biography is Beaverbrook, A Study in Power and Frustration. The author: Tom Driberg, ex-M.P., left-wing Laborite and onetime Beaverbrook columnist. Explained the Express: "The book is hostile and often inaccurate, but the policy of this newspaper is to suppress nothing."

The explanation seemed to fit the widespread belief that Lord Beaverbrook's standing orders to his editors are to reprint anything uttered about him, good or bad. That is a myth which has gained credence in recent years from the Beaver's increasing appetite for reading about himself. What few Express readers knew was that Driberg's biography had turned "hostile" after Beaverbrook had lavished cooperation, money and high hopes on it. Nevertheless, the serialization once again showed how the Beaver, handed a lemon, can turn it into lemonade.

When Driberg informed Beaverbrook in 1954 that a London publishing house had signed him up to do the biography, the Beaver was delighted. Driberg had worked for him from 1928 to 1943, and, despite political differences, they had always hit it off. The Beaver gave him material and interviews, put him in touch with friends, introduced him frequently at luncheons and dinners as "my biographer." After Driberg had completed three chapters, Beaverbrook liked them so well that he bought the British serial rights for -L-5,000 ($14,000)--a whopping purchase by London standards.

Crafty Hand. But after he saw a few more chapters, Beaverbrook lost his enthusiasm and, finally, his temper. He charged inaccuracies, misinterpretations and libel. "There were threats of litigation about hundreds of passages," Driberg recalls. He modified a few passages, but substantially, he declares, the book went into print as he wrote it.

What emerged in the Express, after editing by the Beaver's own crafty hand, was pretty tame stuff compared to Driberg's harsh portrait of a man who pursued power with "ruthlessness" and "want of principle," only to win widespread distrust, ridicule, disapproval and bantering affection, but no real power. Beaverbrook passed up Driberg's most damaging thrusts. Samples:

P: King George V protested and balked when Lloyd George nominated Beaverbrook for his peerage in 1916. In accepting it, Beaverbrook naively blundered away the main chance for a political career, which lies in the House of Commons.

P: After the outbreak of World War II (in which Driberg applauds the Beaver's work as Minister of Aircraft Production), Beaverbrook urged the British public to "revolt" against proposed food rationing and scorned the need for a larger army.

P: Beaverbrook hankered to succeed Winston Churchill in Britain's dark days of 1941 and 1942, says Driberg, and suffered such intense inner conflict between the "canker of ambition" and his genuine friendship for Churchill that, racked with psychosomatic asthma, he quit the Cabinet in the "supreme nervous crisis of his life."

Perhaps the most cutting passages that Beaverbrook allowed into the Express were those reminding readers of his support of Chamberlain's appeasement policy. As late as Aug. 14, 1939, Driberg noted, the Express predicted that "Hitler will keep the peace this year." Beaverbrook, recalling that Driberg then worked for him, was able to drop the footnote--"Mr. Driberg in the Daily Express, Aug. 26, 1939: 'My tip: no war this crisis.' "

But Beaverbrook reserved his most telling comeback for the section Driberg devoted to some of the old man's endearing qualities. One of the Beaver's newsmen urgently needed -L-1,000, the biographer recounted. He asked Beaverbrook if he could borrow the sum and repay it out of salary. Next day the general manager summoned the journalist and told him that there was a strict office rule against such advances. "But," he added, "Lord Beaverbrook has instructed me to make you a free gift of -L-1,000. Here is a check." Biographer Driberg praised this act of kindness for the unidentified newsman. Footnoted the Beaver dryly: "Mr. Driberg was the employee concerned."

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