In the annals of business families, there are a few classic examples of father-to-son letters that contain wise advice on preparing for careers in the family company. There are also letters that probably shouldn't have been written, that only incite the young to rebellion.
A new biography of Ted Turner contains a superb example of how not to do it. Porter Bibb's It Ain't As Easy As It Looks (Crown, $25) recalls a letter written by Ed Turner to his son, Ted, in the late 1950s, when Ted was in college at Brown University. Ed Turner was a flamboyant entrepreneur who went into the billboard advertising business after World War II. He was an alcoholic given to severe mood swings and beat his young son for the slightest infractionâsometimes with a wire coat hanger. Bibb's interviews suggest Ed Turner dearly loved the boy and beat him to toughen him and provoke him to greatness.