The Lede: Dispatches from a Life in the Press

by Calvin Trillin

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A fascinating portrait of journalism and the people who make it, told through pieces collected from the incomparable six-decade career of bestselling author and longtime New Yorker writer Calvin Trillin“The Lede contains profiles . . . that are acknowledged classics of the form and will be studied until A.I. makes hash out of all of us.”—Dwight Garner, The New York TimesI’ve been writing about the press almost as long as I’ve been in the game. At some point, it occurred to me that disparate pieces from various places in various styles amounted to a picture from multiple angles of what the press has been like over the years since I became a practitioner and an observer.Calvin Trillin has reported serious pieces across America for The New Yorker, covered the civil rights movement in the South for Time, and written comic verse for The Nation. But one of his favorite subjects over the years—a superb fit for his unique combination of reportage and humor—has been his own professional the American press.In The Lede, Trillin gathers his incisive, often hilarious writing on reporting, reporters, and their world. There are pieces on a legendary crime reporter in Miami and on an erudite film critic in Dallas who once a week transformed himself from a connoisseur of the French nouvelle vague into a fan of movies like Mother Riley Meets the Vampire. Trillin writes about the paucity of gossip columns in Russia, the icebreaker he'd use if he met one of his subjects socially ( “You must be wondering why I referred to you in Time as a dork robot”), and the origins of a publication called Beautiful A Magazine of Parking.Uniting all of this is Trillin’s signature combination of empathy, humor, and graceful prose. The Lede is an invaluable portrait of one our fundamental American institutions from a master journalist.

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, Journalism, Memoir, History, Humor, Audiobook

314 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 13, 2024

About the author

Calvin (Bud) Marshall Trillin is an American journalist, humorist, and novelist. He is best known for his humorous writings about food and eating, but he has also written much serious journalism, comic verse, and several books of fiction.

Trillin attended public schools in Kansas City and went on to Yale University, where he served as chairman of the Yale Daily News and became a member of Scroll and Key before graduating in 1957; he later served as a trustee of the university. After a stint in the U.S. Army, he worked as a reporter for Time magazine before joining the staff of The New Yorker in 1963. His reporting for The New Yorker on the racial integration of the University of Georgia was published in his first book, An Education in Georgia. He wrote the magazine's "U.S. Journal" series from 1967 to 1982, covering local events both serious and quirky throughout the United States.

Reviews

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Calvin Trillin is an American journalist and humorist who's written for The New Yorker, Time Magazine, The Nation, and other publications.


Calvin Trillin

Trillin's journalistic career may have begun when his father decided Calvin and his sister should learn typing. Over the years, most of Trillin's writing has been for magazines, and his work includes serious reporting pieces, short pieces that are meant to amuse (casuals), and pieces that are somewhere in between.

I'll give a few examples.


📓 The Lede (2021)

The first paragraph of a story, meant to engage the reader, is called the lede. Calvin collects ledes, and here's one he especially likes: "A veterinarian prescribed antibiotics Monday for a camel that lives behind an Iberville Parish truck stop after a Florida woman told law officers she bit a 600-pound animal's genitalia after it sat on her when she and her husband entered its enclosure to retrieve their deaf dog."



Calvin goes on to provide a vivid portrait of what this lede brought to mind.

*****

📓 This Story Just Won't Write (2013)

In this piece, Calvin explains that he was a 'floater' in the early days of Time Magazine, when Time was designed 'to present the week's news succinctly to busy men.' A floater was essentially a pinch-hitter brought in when, say, the Sports writer was home with the flu, or the World writer was away on vacation. So Calvin felt he could puff up his reputation by calling himself "the former Art editor of Time, or the former Medicine editor, or the former Education editor, etc."


Calvin Trillin

Trillin goes on to explain how he had to edit pieces ad infinitum to fit Time's space restraints when 70 lines was the goal.

*****

📓 Show and Tell All (2000)

When a memoir about the New Yorker was written, Trillin (and all other staff members) would go to the bookstore, and without buying the book, look in the index for their name. Memoirists had no boundaries, and Calvin writes, "Even if your name in the index turned out to be unconnected to an indictable offense, it usually meant in the author's memory you had said something stupid or embarassing and he had come back with a wickedly apt rejoinder."



Trillin himself didn't write a memoir about the New Yorker, and his speculations about the skeptical comments from his (fictional) grandchildren are hilarious.

*****

📓 Covering the Cops (1986)

In this piece Trillin lauds Edna Buchanon, the renowned crime reporter for the Miami Herald. Calvin describes how Edna, who was relentless, got her stories. Crime journalism was especially difficult for a woman in a 'man's field,' and Trillin's admiration for Edna comes through loud and clear.


Edna Buchanon

*****

📓 Newshound (2003)

In this portrait of R.W. Apple, Jr. (Johnny Apple) of the New York Times, Trillin notes that Apple was a political reporter; a war reporter; a foreign correspondent; and a wide-ranging writer on culture, travel, and food.


R.W. Apple, Jr.

Apple was famous for his cultural interests and his high-flying lifestyle, largely paid for by the New York Times. Trillin observes that, while out on a story, Apple checked into "a hotel so staggeringly expensive that no other reporter would dare mention it on his expense account." Trillin also notes that Johnny was known as "Three Lunches Apple" and observes, "In an effort to find the perfect dining spot [Apple] had eaten in sixty French restaurants in London within a few months"....which was reflected in his girth.

Apple was a true character, and Trillin writes about Johnny'a life and his gifts as a reporter. In a half-compliment, a Times editor said Apple had "the best mind and the worst body in American journalism."

*****

📓 Molly Ivins (2007)

Molly Ivins was a columnist who wrote about Texas politics, and Trillin notes, "Those of us who adored her adored her not for her formidable talents but for the sort of person she was." Trillin goes on to say, "Her interest in helping the powerless was as genuine as her contempt for the public officials who concentrated on helping the powerful."


Molly Ivins

Molly was also funny, and it was she who wrote "if a certain congressman's IQ dropped any further he'd have to be watered twice a day." (Some things never change, right? 🙂)

*****

📓 The Life and Times of Joe Bob Briggs, So Far (1986)

When the Dallas Times Herald faced the dilemma of reviewing trashy drive-in movies like 'Mother Riley Meets the Vampire', movie reviewer John Bloom had a solution. Bloom would review these exploitation movies in the persona of a young redneck named Joe Bob Briggs.


John Bloom

In his column called 'Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In', the reviewer would summarize movies with comments like: "Sixty-four dead bodies. Bimbos in cages. Bimbos in chains. Arms roll. Thirty-nine breasts. Two beasts (giant lizard, octopus). Leprosy. Kung fu. Bimbo fu. Sword fu. Lizard fu. Knife fu. Seven battles. Three quarts of blood. A 39 on the vomit meter....Joe Bob says check it out."


John Bloom as Joe Bob Briggs

Joe Bob's column became a cultural phenomenon and Trillin tells the tale of Joe Bob's rise and fall and rise again.

*****

📓 The Truth Will Out (1978)

Trillin writes, "As a lover of truth, I am naturally pleased to see the facts emerging about H.L. Mencken's prediction concerning the first president from the Deep South." Mencken's forecast seemed prescient about the Carter First Family: "The President's brother, a prime specimen of Boobus Collunus Rubericus, will gather his loutish companions on the porch of the White House to swill beer from the bottle and snigger over whispered barnyard jokes....."


President Jimmy Carter (right) with his brother Billy


Billy Carter

There's some controversy about whether Mencken actually said this (and other things) about the first Southern president, and Trillin covers the topic in his article.

*****

📓 Sabbath Gasbags, Speak Up (2013)

Newscaster Tom Brokaw created the expression "the greatest generation" when speaking about WWII veterans. Afterwards, the phrase became part of the English lexicon.


Tom Brokaw

Trillin also hoped to slip a phrase into the language, and tried the following:

'Sabbath Gasbags' for people who pontificate on Sunday morning talk shows.

'R.N.A.' (Reply Not Anticipated) at the end of letters.

'Rubaphobia' for fear of being thought a rube.

'D.T.S.' (Disappearing Tush Syndrome) for the tendency of older men's butts to flatten out.

None of them worked.

*****

📓 Back on the Bus (2011)

Trillin's last piece is about the year he spent in the Atlanta bureau of Time, from 1960 to 1961. Calvin observes that a lot happened in that twelve month span, including desegregation of public schools in New Orleans and Atlanta; sit-in movements at lunch counters; Freedom Riders heading South to protest segregated bus terminals; etc.



To prepare for the assignment in Atlanta Trillin did some reading, and he writes, 'I knew that the picture of the antebellum south where a plantation owner composes poetry at his desk while his slaves sing in the cotton fields was drawn from Hollywood rather than from history, even if most white Southerners accepted it as gospel.'

Calvin goes on to describe observations he made during his stint in Atlanta, where white folks thought Yankee reporters were unwelcome meddlers....and where the press was targeted with violence.

Of course, things have changed since then, as evidenced by the commemorations of the Freedom Rides on their 50th anniversary.

*****

Trillin's writing ventures high and wide, and the book also includes articles about LGBTQ issues in journalism; male chauvinism in journalism; BBQ restaurants; tributes to deceased journalists; Al Gore's weight; alternative newspapers; out-of-the-way eateries; and more.


Chinese Street Food

*****

For the most part, Calvin Trillin's writing is new to me, but I enjoyed the book for the historical perspective; the people Calvin profiles; and the laughs.

Thanks to Netgalley, Calvin Trillin, and Random House for a copy of the book.

You can follow my blog at http://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot.com/

[Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Lede.
For those who are not familiar with the term lede, it is an introductory sentence or paragraph of a news story that is intended to encourage readers to read the full story. Ledes range all the way from short sentences to fairly long paragraphs.

Trillin writes that he is a collector of ledes and that is probably the reason that a friend who lives in Louisiana sent him an article from The Advocate, which is a Baton Rouge newspaper.

Here is that article’s lede:

A veterinarian prescribed antibiotics Monday for a camel that lives behind an Iberville Parish truck stop after a Florida woman told law officers she bit the 600-pound animal’s genitalia after it sat on her when she and her husband entered its enclosure to retrieve their deaf dog.

If I read that lede I’m fairly certain that I would have read the entire article. Wouldn’t you?

Among the profiles that Trillin includes in the book is one of Edna Buchanan, a crime reporter for the Miami Herald. In the profile he includes his favorite Buchanan lede, which he refers to as the fried chicken lede.

The story was about a drunken and boisterous ex-con named Gary Robinson, who late one Sunday evening stumbled into a Church’s chicken outlet, rudely crowded to the front of the line, and ordered a three-piece box of fried chicken. A worker was able to persuade him to go to the end of the line and wait his turn. He finally made his way to the counter again, only to be told that Church’s had run out of fried chicken. The young woman at the counter asked him if he might like chicken nuggets instead; apparently not, for Robinson responded by slugging her. That set off a confrontation that resulted in a security guard shooting Robinson.

Edna Buchanan began her story with what is considered to be her classic lede: “Gary Robinson died hungry.”

R.I.P.
In this section Trillin profiled some of the deceased journalists that he admires. One of them is the sassy with a capital S, Texas lady, Molly Ivins.

Trillin begins the profile this way:

“In her columns Molly could, of course, make you laugh out loud, but that gift for humor may have masked some of her other talents. Occasionally – for instance – in her column about a visit to the Vietnam War memorial that brought back memories of a young man whose name is etched on that wall – she could make you cry."

(Ironically, I read that very column in Ivins’ book, Molly Ivins Can’t Say That, Can She?, this very morning – and I agree with Trillin.)

In October 2003 [after the American invasion of Iraq] Ivins wrote:

“I’ve got an even money bet out that says more Americans will be killed in the peace than in the war and more Iraqis will be killed by Americans in the peace than in the war. Not the first time I’ve had a bet out that I hoped I lose.”

Sadly, she won her bet. It wasn’t even close.

Her favorite subject, however, was Texas politics. She had a great grasp of the vernacular, and she called Texas politics the greatest free show in the world. She once wrote that “if a certain Texas congressman’s IQ dropped any further he’d have to be watered twice a day.”

What a field day she would now have in writing about the state’s current governor and lt. governor as well as a certain senator who prefers to spend his winters in Cancun while his constituents shiver during a state electrical power grid failure.

Wry Humorist.
In the introduction Trillin writes that “[a]s someone who has often been referred to as wry by reviewers who are trying to be kind, I long ago decided that 'wry' means 'almost funny.'”

Here are some quotes from the book, and elsewhere, that prove that Calvin Trillin’s wry humor is much more than “almost funny”:

“Did you know that five out of three people have trouble with fractions?”

“If law school is so hard to get through . . . how come there are so many lawyers?”

“I never did well in math – I could never seem to persuade the teacher that many of my answers were meant ironically.”

“When someone reaches middle age, people he knows begin to get put in charge of things. And knowing what he knows about the people who are being put in charge of things scares the hell out of him.”

“The margin of error in astrology is plus or minus one hundred percent.”

[Barbara K · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve always enjoyed Calvin Trillin’s writing. Well, honestly, what’s not to like? He brings a casual grace to everything from short humorous pieces to loving obituaries to long form journalism to non-fiction books. (I haven’t read any of his fiction so I can’t speak to that.)

So when I saw this newly issued collection of his writings on journalism and journalists, culled from over the past 50-60 years, I decided to see how well his stuff has aged.

The answer, for the most part, is “very well, indeed”. Some of the shorter pieces felt a bit dated, since their humor was tied to eras gone by, but those are the exceptions.

Most of the longer pieces retain the freshness, insight and wit that has always distinguished Trillin’s work. His profiles of Edna Buchanan and R. W. Apple are admiring and affectionate; enough so to remind me that one of these days I really need to try one of the crime fiction novels that Buchanan turned to after ending her career as the crime reporter for the Miami Herald.

Two other figures from the world of journalism receive thoughtful treatments, written from more of a distance. His portrait of John Irving Bloom, the reporter who developed the alter-ego Joe Bob Briggs (redneck horror movie critic), was written before Joe Bob’s TV career and is focused entirely on Bloom’s time at the Dallas Times Herald. Trillin’s description of the initial development of the Joe Bob character and the ultimate impact on the Times Herald of the negative reaction to Joe Bob’s most outlandish pronouncements, is a poignant observation on the struggle between the journalist and the publication.

In another piece Trillin reviews with wry dispassion the early career of Conrad Black, the Canadian newspaper mogul, focusing on how Black’s desire for a British peerage ultimately meant forgoing his Canadian citizenship. It’s fascinating, even though it stops well before Black’s multiple fraud convictions in the US (for which he received pardons by Donald Trump).

For me, the best piece is the one that closes the book. In it, Trillin reflects on his year as a reporter in the American South. That was in 1961, the year of the Freedom Riders, and Trillin was in the thick of the action, doing his best to observe and not take sides however painful that might be. 50 years later, he ponders the validity of that journalistic line in the sand.

By the way, that “lede” business? It’s the first sentence of a news article, meant to grab the reader’s attention. Trillin shares some doozies.

[Diane Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always enjoyed Calvin Trillin's books about food, his humor, and his subtle wit. This book is a compilation of his reporting in other fields throughout the years, although there is a very funny piece on Texas barbecue. I particularly enjoyed his pieces on Edna Buchanan and Molly Ivins and his last offering in the book, his memories of being on the Freedom Riders bus in the early 60's during their ride through the south. All along, he makes fun and takes pot-shots at other reporters and their methods, while at the same time appreciating their skill. All in all, an interesting and informative book to poke through.

[Peter Tillman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dwight Garner's rave:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/22/bo...
Sample:
"this book is buoyant and crunchy from end to end."

Unsurprisingly, some pieces are better than others. The best are wonderful. I'm reading them a few at a time.

Finished! Good, but not as good overall as I had hoped. My favorites were the humorous pieces, and for me the very best was his visit to the "Best BBQ Joint in Texas", as selected by the editors (one a vegan!) of Texas Monthly magazine. This place is open just one day a week (Saturday), and as you can imagine, after the award you had to get there pretty early to get fed. Calvin and a group arrive at 9AM for a full plate of brisket. He liked it, and the piece was fully up to his best food essays. Great stuff.

The political essays were the least successful, for me. Your reaction will depend on your own politics, and your interest in Trump and Shrub (etc.) jokes. Plus there were some pieces that seemed to go on forever!

So. If you like Calvin Trillin, and particularly if you like left-liberal political jokes, you won't want to miss this one. For me it was a weakish 3-star read overall. Works better to read a few at a time, I think. If I counted right, there are about 45 essays, ranging from one page to too many. Have fun!

[Kasa Cotugno · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's always fun reading about lives of newspeople, and Calvin Trillin is fun to read even if it's a novel about parking in New York. And reading behind the scenes at the New Yorker can always be as much fun as reading the magazine itself.

[Stuart Rosen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Calvin Trillin’s writing so much, I almost don’t care what he writes about; his spare, deadpan, incisive voice hits my pleasure center every time.

So The Lede is a no-brainer for me. That said, some pieces work better than others. His profiles of crime writer Edna Buchanan, or drive-in aficionado Joe Bob Briggs (the alter ego of John Bloom) or his insider’s pieces focusing on the world of journalism, shine, while his poetry and short humor pieces are less compelling.

If you have any affection at all for Trillin, you will not be disappointed. But feel free to skip to the next story if the one you’re reading doesn’t grab you.

Many thanks to Random House and NetGalley for the advance review copy.

[Colleen Rodgers · Rating 4 out of 5]

had a lot of laugh out loud moments with this one! so cool to see people with "serious" jobs be funny!

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Drawing upon his long journalistic career, Calvin Trillin has selected more than forty pieces of his writing representative not only of his career, but of the history of journalism. His selections range from the laugh-aloud opening piece, “The Lede,” in which he quotes another journalist’s nearly fifty-word opening sentence involving a camel behind a Louisiana gas station, a Florida tourist, and a blind dog, followed by his own six-paragraph analysis of why that was a perfect opening sentence to his final piece, “On the Bus Again,” about his time reporting Civil Rights protests in the South in the early 1960s through his participation in the fiftieth anniversary commemoration of the Freedom Riders in 2011. The selections also run the gamut from humorous poems and satirical pieces to biographical sketches and obituaries, from a single page to dozens of pages.

Trillin divides the book into six sections: Part 1, “The Trade”; Part II, “Reporters and Reporting”; Part III, “Big Shots”; Part IV, “R. I. P.”; Part V, “Controversies”; Part VI, “Niches”, and Part VII, “Closings”, each section containing appropriate selections. Readers will laugh. They will learn. They will be touched.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for an advance reader copy of Calvin Trillin’s overview of his long career and f American journalists and journalism. Although some selections may be too specialized for the average reader, the book will appeal to Trillin's fans, aspiring and active journalists, and lovers of good writing.

[Steve Peifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think Calvin Trillin is underrated because his humor is so spectacular that it’s easy to overlook his more serious writing. That would be a shame, because he is gifted at both. His writing on civil rights will stay with you.

But this book is frequently hilarious, and you will stop reading to share a line with whoever is sitting next to you. My favorite is when he writes about food, but the truth is I truly loved the whole book. You will too.

[Jason P · Rating 4 out of 5]

Calvin Trillin is - simply put - great company. And this collection of his writing on journalism and journalists is a great, easy read for anyone with a love of reporting, the media and the quirky people who used to produce the news. Actually - I t’s kind of refreshing to read a columnist who’s often funny in the goofy way great columnists used to be - not angry, distraught or predicting the end of civilization! But maybe that’s just me.

[Homerun2 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Calvin Trillin has been a favorite since I discovered the Tummy Trilogy years ago. This book has a couple of his fantastically funny food pieces, but also some character sketches and many short satire pieces.

His writing is intelligent, wildly funny, and original. I also enjoyed the more serious articles and discovered he was an early reporter on the Civil Rights movement. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[EVAN · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The Lede" is a wonderful retrospective of the career of Calvin Trillin, a man whose career has run the gamut from covering the Civil Rights movement for Time to long-form articles in the New Yorker to food writing (the book includes a piece that was the first time I'd heard of chowhound.com and I'm eternally grateful) to comedic pieces.

The book begins, appropriately enough, with "The Lede," a piece about writing ledes for stories. I laughed out loud at the one he cites; I won't spoil it but will tell you that it involves a camel in Louisiana. He also provides several profiles, from the infamous (Conrad Black) to an affectionate profile of a long-time crime reporter in Miami; a collection of obituaries; and, finally, the aforementioned rememberance of his early career covering the Civil Rights movement.

If I were to raise one, albeit minor, complaint, it would be that he doesn't include at least one of his early pieces, to allow us to see his evolution as a reporter. I do realize that there may have been page limits or rights issues at play.

This honest review was given in exchange for an ARC from Net Galley.

[Kara Kvasnicka · Rating 4 out of 5]

I particularly enjoyed the profiles of Edna O’Brien and R.W. Apple (the latter an eccentric journalist with whom I wasn’t familiar) included in this sampler of Trillin’s writings for various publications over the course of his career. The story I found most hysterically funny was “The Life and Times of Joe Bob Briggs, So Far” about the controversial reaction to Dallas Times Herald movie critic John Bloom’s satirical reviews of the “trashy” movies that were the frequent fare of drive-in theaters after their heyday, written under the pseudonym Joe Bob Briggs. Conversely, “Back on the Bus,” about his experiences covering the civil rights movement for Time Magazine was the piece I found most deeply thought-provoking and moving — proof that Trillin can be as serious as he is funny.

[Neal Pattison · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice collection

Those who had followed Trillin over the decades are familiar with this collection of tales that mostly (sometimes in strained ways) are connected as “coverage of the press.”
As always, Trillin is grumpy, cynical, sly and — often — amusing

[Liam Keating · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun nuggets of Calvin’s time with the Kansas City Star and of Topeka’s Brown vs Board of Education. Some chapters dragged, but the chapters on the Miami Herald and Joe Bob from Texas shined!

[Dan Cassino · Rating 4 out of 5]

Calvin Trillin is the modern James Thurber, if Thurber could write revealing profiles of Joe Bob Briggs or moving reminiscences of the Freedom Summer. Which he couldn’t.
Trillin is funnier, anyway.

[Dodi · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's not often a book compels me to laugh out loud, but I did several times while reading The Lede. Calvin Trillin reviews six decades of writing for magazines and newspapers. He discusses a diverse variety of topics over the span of his career. He reported on the Civil Rights Movement, and he includes eulogies he wrote for friends' funerals. Trillin adds a long chapter on Joe Bob Briggs, a redneck movie reviewer, the alter-ego of John Bloom.

This book is interesting for the opinionated historical perspective of a reporter alone. Trillin's dry humor and his wit propel The Lede to one of my favorites.

[Sher]

I gave the audiobook a go for about 40 minutes, but the narration (by Robert Fass) is a bit robotic and aside from that, I found this to be a snooze fest. Maybe I'll try it again in the future.

[Crusade Bus · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up on a whim thinking it would be a memoir from Trillin’s time in journalism. It was rather an anthology of his writing on the press — one without a ton of context as to where each piece appeared, mind you. Some of them are legitimately, laugh-out-loud funny and wonderful. Some are filler. Some real gems but overall as a book, meh. Would love to read a legit memoir from him, though.

[Shannon Heaton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well-written, light and breezy. More on Joe Bob Briggs than I cared to read about (and I do remember them). Might have to try his works on food.

[Ned Frederick · Rating 4 out of 5]

The latest Calvin Trillin recollection collection is bittersweet. It comes across as the sort of book that is often published posthumously by whomever is managing the writer’s estate. Scraps of left over writings, loosely tethered to a theme, and assembled into a book intended to squeeze a few more bucks out of the author's depressed and peckish fans. For the record, we of the Chillin with Trillin Fan Club don’t really care that our affections are being so exploited. We will read anything Mr Trillin wrote, ever, especially so at this stage. Left to contemplate the prospect that this might be Calvin Trillin's swan song, we are mostly just eternally grateful.
At 88 he might be generously described as entering a period of waning productivity… Squeezing out that last bit of droll before the drool if you will. Those of us who adore his take on just about anything are already feeling a sense of impending loss. His is a nonpareil voice… a voice I have often sought out for at least fifty of my 77 years. The only silver lining I can find in this dark cloud of impermanence is the possibility that declining memory will allow me to rediscover Calvin Trillin anew somewhere down the road.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trillin presents a collection of pieces published over the last fifty odd years, the theme being his observations of the press, all the way to a peek at the Internet age. These range from his humorous pieces from the New Yorker, an excerpt from a novel, an example of a "deadline poem" from the Nation, several pieces written to memorialize dead friends, an article on chowhound.com and its community of New York based eaters, and a few of his pieces of serious journalism, including a brief discussion of his time working for a magazine's Atlanta bureau during the Civil Rights movement. I can't imagine someone not liking this book.

[Kate (kate_reads_)]

DNF at 25% - in the early 2000s, I enjoyed reading some Calvin Trillin collections about his wife and food. So I was interested to see what he had to share about journalism. Some of the pieces I read were interesting, some felt like filler and others maybe didn’t age so well. Ultimately, I decided to DNF because it wasn’t working for me but ymmv. Thank you very much to the publisher for the free book to review.

[Steven Meyers · Rating 5 out of 5]

“WORDS DID NOT ESCAPE HIM”

The 89-year-old Mr. Trillin is back with a collection of some of his career pieces that revolve around journalism. His dry wit is on full display in the book. The collection is chockful of amusing observations and interesting stories. There are a few times I was laughing out loud at his wordplay.

The author covers such topics as being a newspaper floater; TIME magazine’s working environment (written in 2013,) and the economic status in the news business (written in 1998.) He also has some longer pieces that give vignettes of Miami Herald’s Edna Buchanan being a police reporter (written in 1986) and the apparently colorful, brilliant, legendary, New York Times reporter R.W. Apple, Jr. (written in 2003.) While the pieces are loaded with gentle humor, his story about Miami Herald’s crime beat has some quirky but gruesome information. ‘The Lede’ includes a class-warfare piece about the kidnapping of Savannah, Georgia high-society mucky-mucks’ son and turns into a fight between a local newspaper and the mucky-muck family (2001.) The author also shares a handful of nice obituaries about famous and not-famous news writers. It wouldn’t be a Trillin collection without a few of his short witty poems.

Other articles cover such topics as newsmen eating at the place voted number one by Texas Monthly for barbecue (2008); homosexual rights being suppressed in 1972 New York City; alternative weeklies (1978); foodies in greater New York City (2001); Nampa, Idaho pressuring the local newspaper to solely be a business cheerleader and ignore controversial issue or the paper would lose advertising revenue (1970); the use of dirty words in the New Yorker (2011); and a Dallas Times Herald news writer that creates a fictional redneck movie reviewer as a lark, it becomes very popular, and turns into the newspaper having a tiger by the tail (1986.) His last piece recalls his tenure as a TIME magazine cub reporter covering the Freedom Rides in 1963.

Boy oh boy, times sure have changed since the articles were originally published. The Internet has gutted out or destroyed many newspapers and magazines. I felt a tinge of sadness about the importance of our nation’s fourth estate becoming less robust and central to people’s lives. Mr. Trillin’s collection has plenty of mild humor while also addressing serious topics. I enjoyed all the pieces except for the eccentric one about New York foodies. This group lives to eat while I eat to live.

[Michael Reilly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like the idea of Calvin Trillin.

He has made a good career out of writing about interesting people. He has done it with good cheer and great humor. He has wandered around the literary world. His over twenty-five books include classic books on American food as it is et, some of the best New Yorker style crime writing from all over America, collections of humor pieces full of gems, memoirs which are touching and funny in the right proportions, not to mention his civil rights reporting from the 1960s South, his ultra-clever political doggerel and his novels and short stories.

He wrote for the New Yorker and The Nation , among many other places. I always read anything under his byline.

This is a collection of pieces about the press. There are some fairly long pieces on complicated people like Edna Buchanan, the dame of Miami crime writers, or Conrad Black, the Canadian and then British press baron, or John Bloom, the newspaper writing who created the "Joe Bob" character, and had it take over his life.

He reprints some of his New Yorker crime stories with newspaper connections. He has a couple of stories about the pressures of a small town reporter covering crimes involving the people who run the town.

There is a good helping of his short funny pieces. A column of corrections of mistakes he found in his writing. He admits that he was in error when he reported that Immanuel Kant said, "It don't make me no never mind". He does say "although it should be noted that I have not yet read all of his works."

In a column on the uncomfortableness of meeting in person someone who you have insulted in the press he explains how awkward he would have felt running into Steve Forbes after his description of Forbes in Time Magazine as a "dork rocket" was repeated in print fairly regularly or meeting Al Gore after calling him "a manlike object".

A clever, good hearted, witty guy writing sharp prose about interesting things. What's not to like?

[A Mac · Rating 4 out of 5]

This work is written by Calvin Trillin who has written for the New Yorker for decades. It’s an “opinionated portrait of journalism” and includes insights into journalists and the technicalities of writing for a newspaper.

I enjoyed the author’s writing style and humor. His humor was present throughout, whether he was discussing the proclivity of people who wrote for the Times to write memoirs, or when he was discussing someone’s death. His style is approachable and easy to read and made for an entertaining experience.

The work is divided into seven parts that all have a different focus, and each part is subdivided into smaller sections that focus on a specific topic under it. This was a tidy way to have this work set up. I enjoyed the section that was short biographies of reporters the most, especially the one about Edna Buchanan. The first section, which focused on some of what being a reporter includes and how it’s changed over time, was also quite informative. Another section is titled R.I.P that are shorter bios about reporters with big personalities who have died.

There was an especially interesting segment about John Bloom writing in Texas in the 1980s as a B-movie columnist Joe Bob, whose satire strayed too far into the offensive due to an over-commitment to his character. There were certainly some sections that I found less interesting, but as they’re not interconnected, it would be easy to skim or skip the small sections if you don’t find them compelling.

While I’ve never had an interest in journalism, I really enjoyed this read. Not only did I enjoy the author’s style, I learned quite a bit about random newspapers throughout the U.S., and some journalists who led fascinating lives. If you’re looking for an informative work of nonfiction to read, this is worth checking out. My thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for allowing me to read this work. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

[Ken Heard · Rating 4 out of 5]

After receiving one of the most snobbish rejection letters for a story pitch to the New Yorker magazine, I swore I'd never read the magazine or anything about it. Granted, my idea was a bit far-fetched for the magazine -- I covered a UFO conference in northwest Arkansas where a retired Air Force official from New York said there was an underground hangar at LaGuardia Airport where UFOs were stationed. The magazine said they didn't stoop that low to include a story from my ilk.

That said, I ended up reading Trillin's account of his time with the New Yorker, along with Time and other publications, and enjoyed it.

Trillin opens with dispatches from the job, entertaining pieces about journalism in the heyday of the 1960s. He also has some fun profiles of characters and writers from the 1980s. There's a long feature on Edna Buchanan, the Miami crime reporter who turned to fiction, and a piece on Joe Bob Briggs, a fictional redneck movie critic for the Dallas Times Herald and later the Texas Monthly magazine.

At times, especially toward the end, some of the columns dragged on. There's a piece on New York eateries that went on and on and on. And, despite the important topic, his account of the freedom marches and civil rights protests of the late 1960s tended to linger on.

Overall, though, this is an excellent look at the profession of journalism when newspapers thrived, reporters tried and there wasn't as many agendas out there.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

The only print news source my family subscribed to when I was growing up was the local paper. My first awareness of Trillin came from Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show, where he was a frequent guest. Evidently I didn’t find him all that interesting, because I never bothered to track down any of the books he was plugging.

Silly me. When I started listening to this one, I experienced a “D’oh!” moment. All those years, I could have been enjoying his writing. It’s a unique mix of Midwestern and cosmopolitan.

What appealed most, of course, was the humor, but there is a range in mood and tone here that might have special appeal to the shortened attention spans of the 21st century. If you are not enamored of any individual article, you can safely skip to the next piece.

Here’s a sampling of some of the topics:

-spurious H. L. Mencken quotes
-early 1970s gay rights efforts in New York
-various obituaries
-Texas bbq
-Joe Bob Briggs’s origin story
-Miami Herald crime reporter Edna Buchanan
-providing gossip columns to the Soviet Union

If there’s nothing in that list that piques your interest, I don’t know what to tell you.

[Neil Pierson · Rating 4 out of 5]

About the upper crust of society in Savannah, Georgia: "They are the sort of people who, when difficulties arise, make a phone call." A complete picture in 13 words. Calvin Trillin is a marvelous writer. He has written for The New Yorker, Time, The Nation, and other publications. He's got chops.

The book is a collection of his pieces that in some way relate to his career as a reporter, humorist, and columnist. Sometimes, it's a distant relationship, but that's okay.

The pieces are of two general types. One is humorous. There's a whiff of New Yorker-style condescension--aren't these human follies amusing?--but they're very well-written and funny.

The other type is reporting and consideration of incidents that he (or his editor) felt shed light on society at large. Some of these, like the account of a reunion of Freedom Bus riders, are fascinating. For a few like the account of adventurous eating in New York City, I found myself more interested in the writing than the subject.

Because it's a collection of short, standalone pieces, it's a great pick-it-up-and-read-a little-when-you-feel-like-it book.