Dorothy Stimson Bullitt: An Uncommon Life

by Delphine Haley

Release Date: November, 1995

Edition: Hardcover

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Northwest Women

As a native of Western Washington I enjoyed this book. Not only for the local history, but for the story of a woman. She was a woman who could have played cards and held tea parties, but she chose to use her brains, and money, to bring quality television to the Northwest. I, and many other baby boomer children, benefited from the efforts. Dorothy reinvented herself after the deaths of her father, brother and husband. It's a profile in courage, to borrow a JFK book title.

Dorothy Stimson Bullitt: An Uncommon Life

For anyone interested in the early "movers and shakers" of Seattle and particularly in the woman who built the first broadcasting empire between San Francisco and Minneapolis, this book will prove useful. Dorothy Stimson Bullitit's successful competition--without any previous business training--against the broadcast giants, her striving for higher standards in TV programming and her support of educational television and classical music radio all make her worthy of a biography. While the minutae of domestic details about her early life in Seattle's high society may interest some, to devote almost half the book to the period before her love affair with broadcasting began does slow the pace. Although it is obvious that the writer knew and admired her subject, the biography would have benefited from the writer being more selective in her details and aiming for a more objective interpretation.