Lone Star: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Dan Rather

"Alan Weisman has come as close as anyone to unraveling one of the big mysteries of the television age: who is the real Dan Rather? Weisman has devoted much time, energy, and talent to that question, and this book is a fascinating read." --Robert Pierpoint, former CBS News correspondent

"Alan Weisman's lively account of this remarkable life explains why the quest to understand Rather has remained so vital and important." --Verne Gay, television critic, Newsday

Lone Star is the first biography to bring Dan Rather to life while examining the full scope and breadth of his impact on the world. In this book, longtime CBS News writer and producer Alan Weisman presents a fresh, balanced look at the controversial newsman who defeated overwhelming odds when he succeeded Walter Cronkite as CBS News anchorman. Also, whose newscast was #1 for almost a decade but whose fall from grace was the swiftest and steepest in the history of television. 

The author draws upon scored of revealing interviews with Rather's colleagues, including former CBS News presidents and current 60 minutes correspondents as well as producers, writers, and television critics. He sheds new light on Rather's exchanges with President Nixon that forever branded him as anti-Establishment and anti-Republican; Rather's reports from Soviet-occupied Afghanistan and war-torn Somalia; his heated live interview with Vice President Bush on the Iran-Contra affair; the strange episodes in his personal life that seems to happen only to Rather; his disastrous on-air pairing with co-anchor Connie Chung; and the full story of the scandal that became know as Memogate and its impact on CBS News and broadcast journalism at large.