Coming Apart: A Memoir of the Harvard Wars of 1969

by Roger Rosenblatt

A professor at Harvard in the late 1960s gives a compelling, firsthand account of the riots that occurred when some students took over the administration building on campus and demanded reform, and the changes that took place over the following months. 30,000 first printing. Tour.

Genres: History, Education

234 pages, Hardcover

First published March 31, 1997

About the author

ROGER ROSENBLATT, whose work has been published in 14 languages, is the author of five New York Times Notable Books of the Year, and three Times bestsellers, including the memoirs KAYAK MORNING, THE BOY DETECTIVE, and MAKING TOAST, originally an essay in the New Yorker. His newest book is THE STORY I AM, a collection on writing and the writing life.

Rosenblatt has also written seven off-Broadway plays, notably the one-person Free Speech in America, that he performed at the American Place Theater, named one of the Times's "Ten Best Plays of 1991." Last spring at the Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor, he performed and played piano in his play, Lives in the Basement, Does Nothing, which will go to the Staller Center for the Arts at Stony Brook, and the Flea Theater in New York in 2021. He also wrote the screenplay for his bestselling novel LAPHAM RISING, to star Frank Langella, Stockard Channing, and Bobby Cannavale, currently in production.

The Distinguished Professor of English and Writing at SUNY Stony Brook/Southampton, he formerly held the Briggs-Copeland appointment in creative writing at Harvard, where he earned his Ph.D. Among his honors are two George Polk Awards; the Peabody, and the Emmy, for his essays at Time magazine and on PBS; a Fulbright to Ireland, where he played on the Irish International Basketball Team; seven honorary doctorates; the Kenyon Review Award for Lifetime Literary Achievement; and the President's Medal from the Chautauqua Institution for his body of work.

Reviews

[Marc Efron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting read for somebody who was at Harvard during the 1969 student strike. The self-importance of Harvard, it students and faculty are apparent in this book, which makes it both annoying and accurate.