The American Pope: The Life and Times of Francis Cardinal Spellman

In muckraking fashion, Cooney, author of The Annenberg Legacy and a former writer for the Wall Street Journal, portrays an ambitious, aggressive Cardinal Spellman who from 1939 until his death in 1967 wielded tremendous power from his base in New York City. What will titillate readers are Cooney's allegations that Spellman was gay and that he fell into bouts of drinking and depression as his secular power waned. PW called this biography ""debunking, controversial, startling.'' January