The Best of Mary Schmich: Selected Writings by the Chicago Tribune's Winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary

by Mary Schmich

A collection some of Mary Schmich's best columns, selected and organized for continuity by the author.

Genres: Nonfiction

467 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 11, 2012

About the author

Mary Theresa Schmich (B.A., Pomona College) is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune.

The oldest of eight children, Schmich grew up in Georgia and attended high school in Phoenix, Arizona. After working in college admissions for three years and spending a year and a half in France, Schmich attended journalism school at Stanford. She has worked as a reporter at the Peninsula Times Tribune, at the Orlando Sentinel and, since 1985, at the Tribune. She spent five years as a Tribune national correspondent based in Atlanta. Her column started in 1992 and was interrupted for a year during which she attended Harvard on a Nieman Fellowship for journalists.

Reviews

[Kodzo Selormey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first came across Mary Schmich's writing via the famous Sunscreen column and have dipped in and out of her writing ever since. This collection, brings together a selection of some of her best columns, and covers topics as broad as politics, ethics, family relationships and the weather.

All of this is done in Ms Schmich's poetic style that often make you forget that you are reading a new paper column and instead hark to Auden or Keats. The style is also very personally and I felt as I was reading it as if I had received a set of letters from a well educated, well travelled and knowledgeable friend.

Clever and well written, this anthology is an excellent read

The only one complaint I would have about this book, is that it is not long enough. There are many columns that I a recollection of that are not in this book. I will wait for volume 2 for those.

[Ann Fisher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chicagoans know and love Mary Schmich, but she should have a far wider audience. This collection includes not only the columns which won her the 2012 Pulitzer, but many others as well, nicely arranged to flow together in a way that you would not get just reading the columns individually. Many of the best are profiles, including many lovely ones about her own family, and a very moving collection of articles about Joan Humphrew Lefkow, the judge who sadly became famous when an unhappy litigant murdered her mother and husband.

I'm sorry there isn't an easy way to make a gift of an e-book, and that this isn't available in hardcover or paperback. It would make an excellent gift.