Sam Chamberlain was a brilliant but erratic newspaperman who spent most of his career as an executive with the William Randolph Hearst publishing empire. For two years, he was the secretary of another towering but enigmatic figure of American journalism, James Gordon Bennett, Jr. Chamberlain played a key role in revitalizing two newspapers, the San Francisco Examiner and the New York Morning Journal, while an employee of Hearst. He helped Bennett start the Paris Herald, and with the backing of tycoon John Mackay he founded Le Matin in Paris. Chamberlain, however, was best remembered by some of his contemporaries for his sartorial splendor and his drinking escapades.

Samuel Selwyn Chamberlain was born 25 September 1851 in Walworth, New York, the son of Ivory C. and Mary Ingalls Chamberlain. He came by his journalistic talents naturally: his father was an editorial writer for the New York World before its purchase by...