Harry and Teddy traces the careers of Luce (1898-1967), Griffith's former boss, and White (1915-1986), his former colleague, concentrating on the relationship between the two unequal men who shared a love of China but were divided in the 1940s by a sharp disagreement about China's future. The book also tells an insider's story what it was like to work for Henry Luce, and presents character and biographic sketches of other Time and Life reporters and editors like John Hersey, T. S. Matthews, and Whittaker Chambers. (The author portrays Chambers as a brilliant, arrogant, paranoid man.)
A longtime writer and editor of Time, Life and Fortune magazines who knew the protagonists personally, Griffith bases his narrative on interviews with Luce's and White's family members, friends and business associates, the Time Inc. archives, and the protagonists' personal papers. The list of selected secondary sources is rather short; an index is provided.
Unfortunately the author does not supply notes or indicate sources for quotations. Rather than a scholarly work, Harry and Teddy is an entertaining although at times redundant chronicle which furnishes interesting background information.