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Best known for his Border Trilogy, hailed in the San Francisco Chronicle as "an American classic to stand with the finest literary achievements of the century," Cormac McCarthy has written ten rich and often brutal novels, including the bestselling No Country for Old Men, and The Road. Profoundly dark, told in spare, searing prose, The Road is a post-apocalyptic masterpiece, one of the best books we've read this year, but in case you need a second (and expert) opinion, we asked Dennis Lehane, author of equally rich, occasionally bleak and brutal novels, to read it and give us his take. Read his glowing review below. --Daphne Durham
Guest Reviewer: Dennis Lehane
Dennis Lehane, master of the hard-boiled thriller, generated a cult following with his series about private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro, wowed readers with the intense and gut-wrenching Mystic River, blew fans all away with the mind-bending Shutter Island, and switches gears with Coronado, his new collection of gritty short stories (and one play).
Cormac McCarthy sets his new novel, The Road, in a post-apocalyptic blight of gray skies that drizzle ash, a world in which all matter of wildlife is extinct, starvation is not only prevalent but nearly all-encompassing, and marauding bands of cannibals roam the environment with pieces of human flesh stuck between their teeth. If this sounds oppressive and dispiriting, it is. McCarthy may have just set to paper the definitive vision of the world after nuclear war, and in this recent age of relentless saber-rattling by the global powers, it's not much of a leap to feel his vision could be not far off the mark nor, sadly, right around the corner. Stealing across this horrific (and that's the only word for it) landscape are an unnamed man and his emaciated son, a boy probably around the age of ten. It is the love the father feels for his son, a love as deep and acute as his grief, that could surprise readers of McCarthy's previous work. McCarthy's Gnostic impressions of mankind have left very little place for love. In fact that greatest love affair in any of his novels, I would argue, occurs between the Billy Parham and the wolf in The Crossing. But here the love of a desperate father for his sickly son transcends all else. McCarthy has always written about the battle between light and darkness; the darkness usually comprises 99.9% of the world, while any illumination is the weak shaft thrown by a penlight running low on batteries. In The Road, those batteries are almost out--the entire world is, quite literally, dying--so the final affirmation of hope in the novel's closing pages is all the more shocking and maybe all the more enduring as the boy takes all of his father's (and McCarthy's) rage at the hopeless folly of man and lays it down, lifting up, in its place, the oddest of all things: faith. --Dennis Lehane
Book Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
PULITZER PRIZE WINNER
National Book Critic's Circle Award Finalist
A New York Times Notable Book
One of the Best Books of the Year
The Boston Globe, The Christian Science Monitor, The Denver Post, The Kansas City Star, Los Angeles Times, New York, People, Rocky Mountain News, Time, The Village Voice, The Washington Post
The searing, postapocalyptic novel destined to become Cormac McCarthy's masterpiece.
A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food-—and each other.
The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, "each the other's world entire," are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation.
Customer Reviews:
Carrying the Fire.......2007-10-22
At first, I thought it was just the winter season but in the end I knew the gray ash eclipsed the sun and prevented its resusitating warmth from reaching the Earth. At first, I imagined they were traveling west toward the Pacific but in the end I knew it could just as easily have been the Atlantic. At first, I thought it was the end of the world but at last I knew it was a new beginning.
Disturbingly beautiful story written as sparsely as the landcape upon which it was set. The simple syntax and endless vignettes recreate for the reader what remains, and perhaps what matters, in this post-Apocalyptic setting between the man and his son. The fire they carried was faith, hope and love each to his own end and for his own reasons.
Future? What Future?.......2007-10-22
Well - Where to begin.
I've read Cormac's Border Triology, in particular Blood Meridian. I've listened to No Country for Old Men and just completed The Road. Twice.
As pointed out in other reviews, this book is a dystopic view of our earth, or at least our nation. A man and his son are attempting to move to a more favorable place - South. Their hope is that the new digs will have what they need in a landscape scoured of anything alive and completely lacking in food.
The man is ill (tuberculosis). He is just, Papa. The boy isn't named. I assume he's around 10. The boy was born shortly after the cataclysmic event, which I would assume occured 10 years earlier. Again my assumption is that what ever pulled down civilization, it wasn't a nuclear exchange. But that is not important to the story.
In fact I think that is one of the features of the story. It is not weighed down with scientific fact or background. All that's needed is right there. What ever caused this dystopia is not important. What is important is the result.
The result is a day without the sun, and a cave-like night. Ash is pervasive. Ash covers every thing. And always - nothing living except for a few, "lucky" groups of humans or individuals in a frantic hunt for food and warmth. It is always cold and wet. With no sun, nothing grows. There goes the food chain.
Cormac's style is almost reportorial. Paragraphs are short. Conversations between the father and son are laconic, usually ending with, "okay".
From my first reading of Blood Meridian (read that twice also) I was impressed with Cormac's ability to describe his place. I could almost taste this place. I could feel the dirty rags, the piercing cold. What a miserable and bleak existence.
However, in spite of the fact that The Road by-passes the science, it is not bibical. i.e., God is angry, so. . .
Too bad that the cachet of Pulitzer Prize has been displaced by Oprah's Book Club. However, anything that gets books read is a good thing.
Nothing prepares you.......2007-10-21
...for how much you will love this book. It leaves you yearning for more information and another chapter. It is both an intriguing and surprising bit of literature that is timeless and thought provoking.
Disappointing.......2007-10-21
Great idea for story - badly written. Consists of short paragraphs of repetitious, simple and boring dialogue between the father and son. The two characters have no 'personality' other than trying to survive. In the end, the father dies, leaving the son to be immediately rescued by others who surprisingly appear to be friendly, after a journey where they are encountering others intent on stealing and killing/eating them. Author could have developed the story and characters so much better.
Probably worst book I ever read.......2007-10-19
Repetitive child-like dialog without an exact explanation of what put this father and son in a position to roam endlessly to a place called "the south" without any reasonable purpose to read it to the end, which was as disappointing as the beginning and middle of one of the worst books I've ever suffered through.
Customer Reviews:
Start here for world war one history.......2007-08-20
I've picked up quite a few books on the first and second world war, and this is definitely one of the must reads. It is a great read (no worries this is history written at its finest). The book's focus makes it a great read to get into this period. To get some more context I would also recommand Dreadnought by Robert K Massie. It focusses on the entire complex history of the coming of the great war. But in any case, start with the guns of August!!
A must read for the student of political-military history.......2007-03-21
Few of us have any real understanding of the events and personalities which pushed 1914 Europe into a war that should have been over in less than 6 weeks with a resultant German victory, but would instead grind on for years. In this her 3rd novel, Tuchman has done a monumental job of research and interpretation of the facts for the novice reader of military-political histories. She provides us a clear understanding of how the Kaiser and the Imperial German General Staff, contrived to build a case for war, developed a brilliant strategy to execute and win that war on two fronts [against the French and the Russians] and then to ultimately dominate the European continent. She introduces us to reluctant heroes like King Albert of Belgium and to weaker characters like Czar Nicholas of Russia. We are exposed to the brilliant German strategist Count Alfred Von Schlieffen who was the visionary for the incredibly bold and complex blueprint of military actions during the first 35-40 days of the Great War. Then she exposes flawed generals such as the indecisive Joffre of France and then the incompetent warriors like General Sir John French, of the British Expeditionary Forces. All in all... 'The Guns of August' [like Tuchman's 'Stillwell and the American Experience in China'] is a great read and a must have for the library of serious students of military-political history. One serious flaw however, is that this particular edition as produced by Tess Press, is overflowing with errors that even a novice proof-reader would have caught. They are so numerous as to be distracting and I would strongly recommend buying this great book only as published by a different printing house.
Very detailed........2007-01-10
This book is probably the best I have read this year. The author's presentation of the story behind the first world war is absolutely fantastic. I could not put it down and finished it in less than three days.
Book Description
The most arresting photographic images in our history-all the way up to the World Trade Center tragedy and the 2002 war in Afghanistan-come to life in this complete compilation of Pulitzer Prize-winning news and feature photos, along with the stories behind them.
More than 235 prize-winning photographs offer a year-by-year, dramatically visual chronicle of our times. Each beautifully reproduced image is accompanied by key information on how the shot was taken and the stunning story behind it, as told to author Hal Buell by the photographers. An accompanying timeline, placing each photo in its historical context, features yet another 265 photographs.
This unique and moving volume is completely up to date, including the 2000-2001 winners. Recent photos include images of students fleeing Columbine High School and the striking shot of federal agents taking Elian Gonzales from the arms of his relatives at gunpoint.
Customer Reviews:
Intense, Insightful, and True.......2006-01-11
Thankfully, in its range of events, nations, and issues covered, the pictures inside go way beyond the front page. Many pictures convey a reality that people like to forget. How about a white man 'stabbing' a person of color with a flag pole -the US flag proudly flying? How about an undernourished Sudanese toddler collapsed on the desert sand with a vulture waiting for its chance in the background? The pictures depict many unanswered questions in a very intense and beautiful way. A very powerful book.
Heart-rendering depictions by devoted photojournalists.......2002-11-16
This book contains the best Pulitzer awarded pictures from its inception since 1942. Most of the photos are in B&W and you begin to realise how much more powerful and appropriate it is to be shot in this medium, as it strips away the epidermi of the scene and reveals the emotional flesh of the moment. Every photo is accompanied with a commentary about how it was made and the situation that exposed the determination, patience and grit of the photographer. And for each year that is chronicled, four thumbnail pics of other events in that year is depicted, to give a sense of the timeline of the situation.
This book makes you want to be a photojournalist.
Book Description
As Garlock relates in the preface, "The quality of the research, reporting and writing of these unique features is stunning. No two are written exactly the same way. But they all hold to one constant: strong emotions and content -powerful, touching, frightening, harrowing journalism. "The rules for winning a Pulitzer Prize in feature writing are simple, yet demanding: the prize is awarded for "a distinguished example of feature writing giving prime consideration to high literary quality and originality. " For over two decades, the Pulitzer has been given annually to journalists whose work best exemplifies those high ideals.The second edition of Pulitzer Prize Feature Stories: America 's Best Writing is an unabridged collection of this award-winning work, now covering 25 years. Editor David Garlock analyzes each story, and readers are given a glimpse at the circumstances surrounding the narrative. Each feature is followed by an insightful analysis by Garlock that probes the tactics the feature writer used in both writing and reporting the work. Journalism students and experienced professional writers will find Pulitzer Prize Feature Stories an essential compendium of the best feature writing of the last quarter century.
Book Description
In this Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Rhys Isaac describes and analyzes the dramatic confrontations—primarily religious and political—that transformed Virginia in the second half of the eighteenth century. Making use of the observational techniques of the cultural anthropologist, Isaac vividly recreates and painstakingly dissects a society in the turmoil of profound inner change.
Customer Reviews:
A riveting account of a double revolution in early America.......2007-08-14
Eighteenth-century Virginian gentry had established a society, complete with imported styles and articles of British dress and life, which set them a part from commoners, but, which never quite equaled life in England. Within 50 years, more egalitarian religious upsurges and a political revolution challenged the great-family society and altered its social functioning. Rhys Isaac's The Transformation of Virginia ,1740-1790, chronicles and analyzes the legal, religious, and cultural battles for societal control between members of the Virginian plantation elites and those popularizing forces that, in the end, dislodged many of the institutions--minus slavery--that reinforced exclusive dominance within in eighteenth-century Virginia.
The indispensable contribution of The Transformation of Virginia is its suggestion of a "double revolution in religious and political thought and feeling" (5). The work begins with a discussion of the gentry dominating all levels of society. Middlings and members of the lower class deferred to more elite members of society. The first part of the book introduces the reader to natural and physical structures of the elites' dominance. The great house, the county courthouse, and the church, served as emblems of plantation power. The great men conducted business at each of these brick structures that endorsed their control.
The Anglican Church reinforced for the deferential system and provided a hallowed venue to display the social hierarchy. Isaac calls upon the physical construction and layout of church structures as evidence of their support for the gentry's control. The rich talked business before church; they processed into and recessed out of church while others gazed from their seats; and they sat in special seating, while the Anglican liturgy "asserted the hierarchical nature of things" (64). The Anglican system gave local vestrymen power over clergy, who came from outside, and it empowered them to regulate parish life. Clashes between clergy and vestries and confrontations between Anglicans and Presbyterians over preachers' licenses led to legislatives battles and anticlericism in the 1740s and 1750s.
The New Light Separatist Baptists descended upon Virginia in the 1760s from New England. They brought with them an austere lifestyle, and offered commoners "a close, supportive, and orderly community" (164). When describing the beginnings of Baptist life in Virginia, Isaac employs terms like "respect," "equality," "fellowship," and "faith," in contrast to descriptions of Anglican Virginia with words like with "formal distance," "hierarchy," and "ranked". Not only were Baptist members "poor and unlearned," and in some cases slaves, but the ministers who started these groups were often "men of little learning". The Virginia Baptists and their leadership possessed similarities in class and education levels with post-Revolutionary Baptists and other denominations who would later use what Nathan O. Hatch's The Democratization of American Christianity terms "religious populism" to spread Christianity across America. Despite the gentry's attacks of being "poor and illiterate," the Baptists' effectiveness to draw to themselves all sections of society, including some gentry, threatened the traditional community structure. Isaac underscores that "the cohesive brotherhood of the Baptists must be understood as an explicit rejection of the formalism of traditional community organization" (166).
The rise of the Baptist popularity in Virginia coincided with a general crisis of British authority throughout the American colonies, particularly highlighted by colonial responses to the Stamp Act of 1765. The Methodist movement took hold in Virginia during the 1770s at the climax of patriot fervor. The religious and political movements shared similarities in gaining support: "the use of popular assemblies for arousing collective emotions and for intensifying the involvement of plain folk" (264). A major distinction, however, existed. "Where evangelism began as a rejection and inversion of customary practices, the patriot movement initially tended toward a revitalization of ancient forms of community" (265). During this revolutionary period, Virginian gentry, who had long viewed themselves as models of England, found themselves impelled to defy British authority by popular forces from within communities they once dominated.
Isaac's book is a brilliant account of how religious dissenters and political patriots changed the social landscape and structures within eighteenth-century colony Virginia. However, these promoters of religious equality and political liberty could not break the bonds Virginian slavery. Antislavery movements increased following the Revolution; yet, "republicanism worked to formalize a deep division by excluding the slaves to whom its membership and its promises did not extend" (321).
Despite the book's at times awkward and disjointed flow--the result of tying together collected essays published as a monograph--The Transformation of Virginia provides the scholar, undergraduate, and general reader a riveting display of changes that occurred during fifty crucial years in the life of the Commonwealth--and the nation.
Excellent Book.......2004-12-30
Rhys Isaac richly deserved his Pulitzer Prize for this excellent history of Colonial Virginia society. He shows how the coming of non-Anglican Protestant faiths (namely, Presbyterians and Baptists) to Virginia helped transform the society from one of deference to superiors to a society that began to see all white men as social equals (women, American Indians, and slaves would not receive this until much later). The book also provides excellent insight into the conditions that would lead some of the Founding Fathers to champion the doctrine of religious freedom.
Transformation of Virginia.......2002-02-12
I first encountered this book in graduate school, where it was assigned to our class. Many of us debated the merits of the book and concluded it really failed to deliver any type of lasting impression. Yet it won a Pulitzer Prize.
All through the book I kept waiting for Virginia to "transform" as the title indicates it did. While Isaac presnts a lot of detailed information, it never really deliverd a convincing argument. "Stillborn" is one term that comes to mind. In comparison to Edmund S. Morgan's "American Freedom American Slavery" (or vise versa) Isaac book misses the mark. Morgan's work shows a definite transformation in how Virginia became a principal player in the establishment of slavery.
Isaac's book is not a total waste, as it does cover a shorter period of time in greater detail than Morgan, but Morgan remains a master historian while Isaac has more work to do.
What I thought of this book.......2000-10-20
I read this book because it won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1983. It is, I believe, the least intersting and most esoteric book I have ever read. It reminded me of my reading of Fin-de-Siecle Vienna, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1981, and which I long wanted to read and then when I read it I found it a chore to read, and greatly welcomed the last page. The last chapter of Transformation made no sense for me at all, and reading this book's only significance is that I have read another Pulitzer Prize winner in history. I thought I should warn persons who might be overly influenced by the other 3 reviews and might think this would be a great book to read.
Tremendous.......2000-08-06
As you would expect from a book that captured the Pulitzer Prize in History, this is an outstanding book. The writing is clear and cogent. As the other reviewers stated, it brings Colonial Virginia to life for the reader. It's going a bit far to suggest that it explains Colonial "America," though, since each colony was disparate. The New England experience does not parallel that of Virginia at all, for example. The book's best contribution is the use of non-written sources to bring to life the world of the unliterate, both free and slave.
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Humbolt's Gift
Manufacturer: Viking
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000AYFYWA |
Product Description
1st ed. SIGNED by Saul Bellow on a tipped in page. Book won the Pulitzer Prize in 1976. Author won the Nobel prize in the same year. Quarter cloth and yellow boards. Near fine, board edges slightly foxed, in a near fine, yellow dust jacket, some spot foxing to top edge of front panel. Scarce signed.
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The Winston-Salem Journal: Maagnolia Trees and Pulitzer Prizes
Frank Tursi
Manufacturer: John F. Blair Publisher
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- To win a Pulitzer;it's got to be the best.
- jogging down the memory lane
- At last...an updated edition!
- A great book, and there are others, too
- Life at the extremes
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Moments: The Pulitzer Prize Photographs
Hal Buell
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100 Photographs That Changed the World
ASIN: 1579120784 |
Book Description
This book offers readers a dramatic visual chronicle of our times.
These are unforgettable moments in history-five Marines raising the US flag in
Iwo Jima in 1945, Babe Ruth's final salute to Yankee stadium in 1949,
Lee Harvey Oswald wincing in pain as he is shot in 1964, President Ronald Reagan
being tackled into his limousine after the 1982 assassination attempt. Captured by
the lenses of top photographers, these 98 Pulitzer Prize winning photographs-combined with photo-timelines-paint a dramatic and memorable montage of each year, from World War II to the last days of the 20th Century.
Etched with emotion, fury and passion, each photograph transports the reader back in time to cry with the victims or cheer with the heroes. A detailed narrative along with the timeline that pictures and notes the most significant events of each year fills in the historical background, the photographer's thoughts, the events leading up to the captured moment as well as the aperture opening and shutter speed.
All photographs are rendered in duotone or full color, producing
clear and crisp images.
Customer Reviews:
To win a Pulitzer;it's got to be the best........2007-07-22
This wonderful book will be appreciated by anyone who has enjoyed the photography that has been such an important element of the news.This book covers each year between 1942 and 1999,so while it is good for the period covered;it's starting to get a little long in the tooth--6 years to be exact.
When one thinks of the humongous number of photographs taken on such an endless number of subjects,it is a major job to decide what is the best.One thing certain is, with so much to choose from,the winner should be a photograph that,no matter who looks at it,one should feel that it is undisputably great. Maybe it should also be such a photograph that is unrepeatable.
I have to admit, that is how I felt when I finished the book.
Since a main criteria seems to be that it is a newsworthy or timely photo; It would seem to me taat the photograph must catch such a moment.Many of the winners do just that.The Iwo Jima Flag on page 21,The Babe Bows Out on page 29,Oswald Shot,Live to the World on page 61,Saigon Execution on page 79,and others are great photographs of momentous importance;that had to be captured at the time. Many of the photographs in the second part of the book are not as momentous.A picture to win a Pulitzer should be immediately recognized by all, and one should have instant recall of it. As the years went on ,it seems the judges have altered their criteria and have chosen photographs that one doesn't recall at the time;and more importantly are not one-of a-kind momentous photographs.In other words they have chosen human interest,third world poverty and such things that can be found all over the world,and it matters little whether the photograph was taken at one time or another ,or in one place or another. This has increased in later years and the winners for the 90's are anything but exceptional. In 1979, the award went to photographs of a storm in Boston.There was nothing so unusual about such a storm or the photographs.There must have been thousands of similar ones taken.Then, when one looks at what won in 1986,scenes that exist by the thousands in any city;the award overlooks one of the greatest photographs,even though so disasterous,in the century. The January 1986 ,explosion of the space shuttle Challenger,73 seconds after takeoff,killing all astronauts on board.The pictures chosen for 1987 and 1986 pale by comparison.
However,the book does an excellent job of covering the Pulitzer awards for photographs;and in ith end whether I concur with their choices is a mute point.
jogging down the memory lane.......2001-11-09
This book captured all those essential moments in time, & the title said it all, really. It started from year 1942 & ended in 1999. Just like the movie, Pleasantville, it started with B&W pictures but as the technology gets better & more viable, colour pictures took over but still, never underestimated the raw drama & power of B&W pictures, though. The editing of this splendid coffee table book is quite clever by segregating it into various eras describing the technology & techniques available during that time (involving taking, printing, transmitting the pictures) & then, drawing a parellel with what's going on in this world right there, right then. I didn't appreciate the intensity of the pictures when I was younger but as I'm older now & sitting through reading thru this book, it brought back many memories, some good, some bad. And this book is also clever enough to provide time graph with more pertinent pictures to run us through the time passed. It's quite emotionally draining & disturbing at times to read that some photographers risked it all including their lives just to share the moments with the rest of the world, & how much the pictures affected some photographers here that they took away their own lives. All & all, this is a book that celebrates humanity, abhors at evil that humans would do to one another, reminds us all of the vulnerability against Mother Nature, the appreciation of simple things in life, & so forth. A very engaging book & worth reading. Highly recommended.
At last...an updated edition!.......2001-05-08
Considering the last edition of Moments: The Pulitzer Prize Photographs came out nearly 20 years ago, it's great that somebody saw fit to update this book to include the stupendous photos that have won the Pulitzer in the last 20 years, like Kevin Carter's photo of the starving Sudanese girl and Charles Porter's photograph from Oklahoma City. And the narratives about each photo, coupled with the technical details in the back, make this book still a cut above a mere exhibition of the winners.
But apparently they must have had some trouble tracking down copies of the older Pulitzer winners for this edition, because the reproduction on some of them is, well, kind of crappy. For a few of them, it looks like they literally took flatbed scans from the pages of the old book and used them in this one; in some of them, like the 1955 winner, you can actually see the pixel lines!
It's still a fantastic book on the whole...I guess I'm just a little disappointed that a book cataloging some of the most important news photographs of the 20th century has such mediocre reproduction in places.
A great book, and there are others, too.......2000-08-13
Hal's done a great job of behind-the-scenes reporting for this book. The photos are good, too. But if you want a look at a museum-quality catalogue of these photos, try going to Newseum.org and looking at the online store for their book, The Pulitzer Prize photos...
Life at the extremes.......2000-07-29
The Pulitzer Prize is one of the most well known, respected, and coveted awards. It is no doubt that the photos chosen to receive the Pulitzer recognize human nature at its most extreme- compassion and brutality. This book is a collection of the most famed and heartwrenching photographs over a spanning several decades. Included in the collection are pictures from the Vietnam War, Oklahoma City bombing, famine, rites of passage, parents standing next to the ocean which swept their son to sea, election of U.S. President Clinton, and other events of various magnitude. The pictures (both black/white and color) are printed on large heavy paper, which allows the true nature of the picture to project their true nature.
One of the best aspects of this book is the short narratives that accompany each picture. The narratives answer many questions about the picture, such as what the photographer was thinking, his intention with the photo, how he came across the situation, his feelings, and so forth. I found the narratives to be one of the most gratifying aspects of this book.
This is a wonderful collection of photographs that will make you think about life at its extremes, and therefore appreciate everyday life.
Book Description
The Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper stories that shook the nation-collected for the first time since their original publication in 1948.
Until the mid-twentieth century, organized crime ruled New York's waterfront. With the threat of communism in the air, the inhumane treatment of longshoremen implicitly condoned by the unions, and the suspicious disappearance of anyone who spoke out against the system, it seemed things would never change. Then Malcolm Johnson's groundbreaking series "Crime on the Water Front" appeared in The New York Sun, revealing a violent underworld that influenced all levels of New York politics, society, and industry. Johnson's extensive investigation finally forced the public and the government to take action, leading to changes in labor laws that influenced the entire nation. Now, collected for the first time in book form, these Pulitzer Prize-winning articles tell a riveting story of mobsters, murder, faith, and the ultimate victory of fair play and American values. Included is a foreword by Malcolm Johnson's son, Haynes Johnson, also a Pulitzer Prize winner, who discusses the tremendous impact the series had upon his family, and an introduction and additional reporting by Budd Schulberg, author of the Academy Award-winning screenplay On the Waterfront.
Introduction and additional articles by Budd Schulberg.
Foreword by Haynes Johnson
Customer Reviews:
The Classic 'On The Waterfront' Account........2005-08-31
This book contains the twenty-six front page articles of Malcolm Johnson printed in 'The New York Sun' in 1947 and '48. Budd Schulberg wrote the introduction and added some articles of his own. He had previously written THE DISENCHANTED.
Mainly, though, it is almost totally Malcolm Johnson, a reporter who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1949 for these articles which shook the United States as he exposed organized crime on the New York waterfront. This was the basis of the movie 'On The Watrefront' starring Marlon Brando. This exposure led to the Tennessee Senator Kefauver hearings and changed labor laws which influenced America. D. A. Thomas Dewey led the charge and Budd Schulberg followed through by producing the award-winning movie directed by Elia Kazan. It won five Oscars including best picture, best director and best actor. It is one of the Top Ten films of the century.
The articles and resulting movie reveals to the world how organized crime had infiltrated the New York Harbor, the world's busiest port. The '40s photo looking down on New York City shows hundreds of piers at the height of the waterfront's extent and power. The interconnnected piers were the richest in the world.
This book shows America and New York at the pivotal time when shipping ruled the world. Back then, "money was more important than life itself." It still is sometimes and some places. Corruption and violence on the waterfront were commonplace, as they were on the street of New York ('The West Side Story'). Pictures are interspersed throughout the book; one of them is of the Hudson River, showing the West Side piers at their peak in the '30s.
Haynes Johnson also won a Pulitzer Prize for his journalism. He wrote THE BEST OF TIMES: AMERICA IN THE CLINTON YEARS, which I already reviewed.
Handsomely Reproduced Time Capsule.......2005-08-12
Reading this book is like stepping into another era, and the shocks are everywhere. First of all, the material is from an olf time New York daily newspaper, the SUN, a paper long vanished into the annals of journalism. Thank goodness someone kept some old copies of this scandal-making series of articles by SUN reporter Malcolm Johnson, many of which took up the first page of the old SUN, and filled the paper with an expose on union activities along the piers and docks of old New York. Johnson's son, nonfiction specialist Haynes Johnson, contributes context for his father's Pulitzer-Prize winning scoop.
Budd Schulberg, who read these articles and worked with Elia Kazan on the screenplay of the film, pays tribute to Malcolm Johnson like one craftsman to another. But he's no dummy, Schulberg. The first thing you realize when reading these articles is what a great job Schulberg did bringing life to what is essentially a pretty dry tale of graft, without any real heroes or plot. In presenting this old journalism, Schulberg insures that we appreciate his artistry. There aren't any Terry Malloys in the pages of the SUN, and there are definitely no Eva Marie Saints looking on wistfully.
What you'll take away from what was once the expose of the decade is now merely a case of mutatis mutandis. I'm sure things along the docks have not changed an iota. Prices have, though! Johnson presented as a shocker the annual salary of the corrupt union head--$20,000! That wouldn't get you very far in today's New York. You might be able to buy a life buoy but I doubt it. And yet to his readers, that salary must have repesented the equivalent of a million bucks today, and been instantly a suspicious red flag as though to scream out in 24 pt type, RYAN'S A CROOK.
And what a prescient picture of the Mafia! It was an organization only dimly visible through the underground fog, yet one that extended its tentacles into every arena of modern urban life. Johnson must have been one of the first reporters to dig into it with any depth or understanding. It's a surprise he lived! I would have thought after three or four days of this serial, the boys would have put his shoes into concrete and sunk him under the pier. Instead he lived for another 30 years, with the Pulitzer on his mantel and a grin across his face.
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- The Writing Life: Writers on How They Think and Work : A Collection from the Washington Post Book World
- Tomorrow Now: Envisioning the Next Fifty Years
- Up from Slavery (Dover Thrift Editions)
- Walter: The Story of a Rat
- Way of Aikido, The: Life Lessons from an American Sensei: Life Lessons from an American Sensei
- What Jesus Meant
- When God Winks at You: How God Speaks Directly to You Through the Power of Coincidence
- Where Have All the Leaders Gone?
- Why Didn't I Learn This in College?
Books Index
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