Scotty: James B. Reston and the Rise and Fall of American Journalism - Hardcover

Stacks, John F.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0316809853 ISBN 13: 9780316809856

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, 2002

Synopsis

An in-depth portrait of one of the twentieth century's finest and most influential journalists describes the role of James B. Reston in shaping and transforming American journalism and sheds new light on Reston's impact on U.S. politics and the corruption of power on a man who helped make The New York Times the most important newspaper in the world. 25,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Author

John F. Stacks reported for "Time" for three decades. He supervised the magazine's coverage of Watergate as Washington news editor and later served as chief of correspondents and deputy managing editor. He lives in New York.

Reviews

James "Scotty" Reston ranks among the most important print journalists of the 20th century. During his 59 years of work as a reporter, bureau chief, editor, columnist and newspaper executive, he won two Pulitzers, helped build and shape the New York Times and served as a mentor to two generations of American journalists. He wrote six books, including a memoir, Deadline, four years before he died in 1995, and many thousands of news stories and columns. This fawning biography covers much of the same territory as Deadline, adding Stacks's diligent research. The author, a reporter for Time magazine, interviewed Reston's surviving colleagues and relatives and obtained the notes to a 1960 Time cover story on Reston. It's a tribute to Reston's skill and candor that Stacks's additional work turns up only mild discrepancies, such as Deadline's claim that Chen Yi, not Joseph Ku, provided Reston with the Dumbarton Oaks papers that led to his first Pulitzer. Although this book's subtitle implies tragedy, and the galley copy promises surprising scandal ("a secret history, a tale of what went on behind closed doors"), the book delivers neither. Still, this is a straightforward biography, well researched and competently written. 8 pages of b&w photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Reston's rise to power and prestige as a New York Times reporter, columnist, and shaper of public opinion mirrors the changes in American journalism and politics since World War II. Stacks traces Reston's background as a Scottish immigrant and his slow start as a reporter. His intelligence, charm, and ambition helped him to cultivate personal relationships with Times publisher Arthur Hays Sulzberger and his wife, Iphigene, whose family owned the paper. Stacks recalls the strong egos and personality clashes that sometimes aided and sometimes thwarted Reston's rise, but as he cultivated friendships among Washington power brokers, he gained favor and recognition. His close connections gave him a scoop about the negotiations to create the United Nations, for which he won his first Pulitzer Prize in 1945. He was well positioned for every scandal, catastrophe, policy debate, and international contretemps from the Eisenhower through the Ford administrations. Ironically, Reston, comfortable with the clubbiness of Washington in the 1940s and 1950s, was later roundly criticized for his close connections to the powerful. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

The biography of a great journalist by another great journalist, who wrote for Time for three decades.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0316809853
• ISBN 13: 9780316809856
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384