1974: A Personal History

by Francine Prose

“In this remarkable memoir, the qualities that have long distinguished Francine Prose’s fiction and criticism—uncompromising intelligence, a gratifying aversion to sentiment, the citrus bite of irony—give rigor and, finally, an unexpected poignancy to an emotional, artistic, and political coming-of-age tale set in the 1970s—the decade, as she memorably puts it, when American youth realized that the changes that seemed possible in the ’60s weren’t going to happen. A fascinating and ultimately wrenching book.”—Daniel Mendelsohn, author of The A Search for Six of Six Million

The first memoir from critically acclaimed, bestselling author Francine Prose, about the close relationship she developed with activist Anthony Russo, one of the men who leaked the Pentagon Papers--and the year when our country changed.

During her twenties, Francine Prose lived in San Francisco, where she began an intense and strange relationship with Tony Russo, who had been indicted and tried for working with Daniel Ellsberg to leak the Pentagon papers. The narrative is framed around the nights she spent with Russo driving manically around San Francisco, listening to his stories--and the disturbing and dramatic end of that relationship in New York.

What happens to them mirrors the events and preoccupations of that historical the Vietnam war, drugs, women's liberation, the Patty Hearst kidnapping. At once heartfelt and ironic, funny and sad, personal and political, 1974 provides an insightful look at how Francine Prose became a writer and artist during a time when the country, too, was shaping its identity.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, History, Politics, Biography, Biography Memoir, Audiobook

266 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 18, 2024

About the author

Francine Prose is the author of twenty works of fiction. Her novel A Changed Man won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and Blue Angel was a finalist for the National Book Award. Her most recent works of nonfiction include the highly acclaimed Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife, and the New York Times bestseller Reading Like a Writer. The recipient of numerous grants and honors, including a Guggenheim and a Fulbright, a Director's Fellow at the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library, Prose is a former president of PEN American Center, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her most recent book is Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932. She lives in New York City.

Reviews

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was so excited to read this memoir by Francine Prose. She has published 19 novels, of which I have read only one: Mister Monkey. Based on that one I have the idea that she is unique among American novelists.

In 1974, A Personal History, she recalls her time in San Francisco where she had escaped to from a marriage she planned to end. She stays with friends who are part of the artistic counter-culture people. It is summer, wine and pot and partner swapping are still going on in a city which has changed so much by 2024. She meets Tony Russo, the other half of the two who leaked The Pentagon Papers to the New York Times and the Washington Post in 1971. Both Tony and Daniel Ellsberg have been indicted; Tony served jail time but Ellsberg emerged as a hero to all the anti-Vietnam War folks.

I once had a San Francisco adventure. My new first husband and I had honeymooned across the country from Ann Arbor, MI in our Econline van, camping, hiking, getting high and even foolishly picking up hitchhikers in 1969. We arrived in SF just as the Summer of Love was devolving into the fall of heroin. We were completely against the Vietnam debacle, we were complete hippies, and we were there to join a group of people starting a free school. It turned out some of those people were already junkies. We fled back home.

By 1974 I had two young sons and lived in what my sisters and I call “the baby zone.” I had never been the protestor type: no marches or demonstrations for me because I hate crowds. But I had helped several dudes, including my husband, avoid being drafted. All very much behind the scenes.

Francine has a bit of a fling with Tony in that summer of 1974. He was by then a paranoid mess but was trying to write his own book about how he came to be a whistleblower. He tells this tale to Francine and since he knows she has already published a novel with another coming out soon, he seems to be hoping to get her help.

Now I am an older woman writing my own book, studying The Pentagon Papers as research for it, living in my mind back in the 60s. Francine was as young and self-centered and careless as I was at that age. Oh, the things we do in our youth! It’s a wonder that we survived at all.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

1974 is Francine Prose’s memoir of a year in her life, an eventful one for her and a momentous one for the country as well. In her 20s, escaping a marriage she just doesn’t want, nothing bad, just mutual disinterest, she winds up at the home of friends in San Francisco, still a Mecca of sorts for youth even after the hay days have ended. She has written two books that are in the process of being published and a bit scattered about her next move.

One evening she is playing cards with her roommates and their friend, Tony Russo, who proves to be an interesting guy. Although I believe I’m only a few years younger than Prose, I think I likely fall into a large group of Americans who aren’t familiar with his name. Anthony “Tony” Russo leaked the Pentagon Papers along with Daniel Ellsberg. According to some sources, it was initially his idea. This memoir recreates Prose’s time with Russo as she learns his stories from Vietnam, Rand Corp, jail, coping with the FBI, etc. We follow as Prose comes to terms with who she is when she is with this older man (who is in his 30s) trying to come to grips with what has happened in and to his life.

I found this a very interesting read, a memoir set at the time of change from the tumultuous 60s to the more controlled 70s. Prose is a keen observer of her younger self as part of both worlds. It is not written in a strictly linear fashion at times, but as memory intrudes. That didn’t interfere with my enjoyment or understanding. Recommended as memoir and also for its political/ historical content.

Thanks to Harper Collins Publishers and NetGalley for an eARC of this book. This review is my own.

[Daniel Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

The audiobook is easy to listen to. It’s a story about the author’s friendship with Anthony Russo after he helped Daniel Ellsberg release the Pentagon Papers in 1971. Russo was a radical leader of the anti-Vietnam war movement. Living in San Francisco, the author and Russo were in the middle of the drug and sexual revolution and by 1974 they were kind of together. Russo believed the executive branch lied to Congress and the American people about the Gulf of Tonkin incident that got Congress to authorize the war. With the help of the Brand Corporation, where Russo worked, the executive branch gave a false impression that we were winning the war and pressed for more intervention. Eventually, the war effort failed. Unfortunately for Russo, he became unemployable and paranoid that the government was trying to kill him. Prose went on to become a successful writer.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting lens through which to view a complicated moment in the country’s history. That Prose is a gifted writer is news to no one, but the voice in this memoir is deliciously frank and self-critical in a way that gets you inside her 20-something, 1974 head. This memoir trope can be cringe-y, but in Prose’s hands the observations are unexpectedly funny, expectedly smart, and wholly fascinating.

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

This unusual memoir offered me a wonderful take on the early 1970s, a historical blindspot for me since I was alive but still too young to have any first hand knowledge of the politics of the era. Prose’s approach to memoir writing is wonderfully novel. By focusing on her rather odd relationship with one of the central characters in Pentagon Papers affair, Prose avoids any hint of solipsism in her description of an era. While the reader learns a lot about the author’s life, he or she learns much more about her friend (at once heroic and tragic) and even more about society in general during this formative era. Most particularly, the memoir examines issues related to the peace movement, feminism, and SSN Francisco’s counter culture. Well-written, analytical, and anything but narcissistic, I’m eager to read my first Prose novel soon.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

I completely understand why Francine Prose needed to write this memoir about her relationship with Pentagon Papers co-conspirator Tony Russo. I'm a little less clear about why I needed to read it. I can't entirely articulate why this book didn't fire me up, but it could have something to do with the over-worn theme of boomer idealism gone sour, and I may also have trouble with protagonists (in this case the author) who take tarot cards and I Ching seriously. But I can also tell that many others will like this memoir more than I did.

Francine Prose does, however, deserve considerable credit for portraying her younger self as somewhat unlikeable. And the off-kilter charm and strangeness of Tony Russo is portrayed evocatively.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collin's for providing an early copy for review.

[Behind The Bookshelf · Rating 4 out of 5]

"1974"
Author: Francine Prose
Publication Date: June 18, 2024


This exquisitely crafted and enthralling book, with its eloquent prose and meticulous attention to detail, offers readers a profound and moving insight into a solemn period of history. From the very first page, I had high expectations for this memoir, and I am delighted to say that it not only met them but far exceeded them.
In this remarkable account, the author fearlessly delves into her deep and personal connection with Tony Russo, a man whose life became intricately entangled with the infamous Pentagon Papers. Through her vivid storytelling, she takes us on an emotional journey down memory lane.
Much thanks to NetGalley, Harper, and Francine Prose for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Sunny White · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh. This is not a telling of history but reads more like a rant. She says it herself (several times), she comes from privilege and yet she still tells her privileged account of the atrocities occurring during the Vietnam War. I struggled with her lack of facts, lack of historical building, and unsupported opinions. I had to keep googling events to figure out her references. Does she not realize most of the population was not even alive in 1974.

My harshest review this year because I was left wanting so much more. I received an ARC from Net Galley and Harper in exchange for an honest review.

[Keely · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1974, writer Francine Prose was crashing with friends in San Francisco when she embarked on a months-long affair with Tony Russo, one of the two RAND Corporation employees who leaked the Pentagon Papers a few years earlier in an effort end the Vietnam War. It's a very strange affair between Francine and Tony. They mostly just drive around all night while Tony tells her his story in bits and pieces. Meanwhile, Francine processes the end of her marriage and struggles to see and present herself as a real writer.

I'm not sure why I should have been interested in this memoir, but I was. I mean--what a choice little slice of personal history! She sorta' dated one of the Pentagon Papers guys--and he was more than a little unstable at the time. But I was actually less into the troubled relationship with Tony and more into the Francine's story as a young Boomer woman coming of age amid a wild mix of sexual revolution, drugs, serial affairs, changing expectations for women, and growing disillusionment, both personal and societal. What a time to be young...

[Matthew Harby Conforti · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/ I found this memoir strangely hypnotic-- I listened to the audio, read by Prose, her writing is evocative and goes down easy, I kept coming back to it in any free moment. This is very much a coming of age memoir, focused on a tumultuous time for both the writer and the nation at large. I learned so much about the late-60s and early-70s and Prose depicts San Francisco, Cambridge, MA, and New York in sparkling detail. The pacing is great and she braids the personal, historical, and political in a way that kept me engaged. A 77 year old writing about her 27 year old self has the benefit of hindsight and wisdom, but Prose truly captures what it feels like to be at sea as a young adult and the meandering quality of those years of life.

[Kara Kvasnicka · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a third grader for most of 1974, falling in love with Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books and, under the supervision of a bevy of flight attendants, flying solo for the first time in my life for an extended summertime visit with my grandparents and other relatives in Minnesota. Quite frankly, the only reason I wanted to read this book was to see how an adult woman’s experiences of that year would have differed from mine. They were, to say the least, much darker. And, I will take my 1974 over Prose’s any day. The centerpiece of her “walk down memory lane” is her truly weird relationship with anti-war hero Anthony Russo, after he along with Daniel Ellsberg nearly went to prison for leaking the Pentagon Papers. She never knows quite what she meant to him, but I think it’s fair to say that he was always far more important to her than she to him, and she should be more forgiving of her younger self for choosing to cut ties with him after his paranoia about being under constant government surveillance morphs into decidedly cringy behavior. Unsettling though it may be, I am glad I discovered this unique memoir of a young woman seeking purpose and meaning in a time for our country that was obviously not nearly as innocent the then nine-year-old me imagined it to be.

[Tiffany · Rating 3 out of 5]

I rented this book as a ebook from Libby. I think this book is some where between a two and three star ⭐️ 📖 book. The biography is retelling events that she witnessed in the 70’s, with that being said she was kind of a non character.

I understand that this book is meant to be political, and to show the impact the liberals had on America. The trauma to the soldiers in the Vietnam war. The theft of important paperwork that forced cogs to turn.

But the story was about her friend and half hearted lover, and substance abuse. Personally I would have rather read about her travels through India. For two reasons: 1.) all of America already knows and have had this info smashed down our throats since I have been alive. 2.) I think escape from camp 14, when heaven and earth change places, and last to eat, last to learn. Are biographies that are far more impactful authentic about first hand accounts of people who truly try and help in some way. With fresh amazing stories and amazing resilient individuals.

I would skip, if I could go back in time. It was entertaining I grew some knowledge on drugs that I didn’t know about. It also reconfirmed the utter entitlement this generation has.

[Olivia Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was interested in this book as I was born in 74. Glad I chose it. this personal history explores the author's brief relationship with one the people who released the Pentagon Papers - and her relationship with herself in her 20s. A compelling look at an awkward year, age, and relationship

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

is it comforting or terrifying that in 2025 we are in largely the same place as we were in 1974? the government is corrupt. politicians are being assassinated. the united states may soon be involving us in a war we want no part of. the women’s march failed. diversity is dead. the president is a liar, and nobody cares.

what happens now?

[Cate Swallow · Rating 4 out of 5]

me when my situationship is a pentagon papers whistleblower

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Somehow I'd never managed to read any of this prolific and award-winning writer's books until now, drawn to the period of the early 70s culture, which I'm exploring in my own writing. Now I'm completely depressed again, which happens when I read somebody who is so fucking great. Her "topic" is the relationship she'd developed with Tony Russo, the antiwar activist and former RAND Corporation war planner who conspired with Daniel Ellsberg to release the Pentagon Papers in 1971. Prose met him thru mutual friends in San Francisco where she'd fled from Cambridge. a bad marriage, and a bad case of agoraphobia. Russo is odd, she gets that from the first night when they began what became a series of evenings of aimless driving thru the streets of San Francisco, prompting her expropriation of a similar vibe from Hitchcock's VERTIGO as a leitmotif for the book. Time passes; they drive and don't have sex; he's drawn to her writing skills, as he is convinced that his redemption lies in producing a kind of mea culpa book. He's racked with guilt over his own role in Vietnam before turning against the war, and has all the symptoms of PTSD before the disorder was named. This is a multi-layered, complex, structurally innovative form of memoir that kept me gripped with fascination and admiration.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s a fascinating book about a time when the people who believes all was possible a decade prior are seeing those dreams crumble. It is a book about youth and heroes and disappointments and growing up. And Vertigo. It’s wondrous.

[Tammi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I kept waiting for something to happen. It just continued with Tony and Francine driving around talking and eating. Once they had sex. It really was a non story to me.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Note: I did not finish. Maybe it got better, but from what I had already read, I didn't have much hope. Reading about 1974 sounded very interesting. The author describes herself as a hippie in this era; fighting against the Vietnam war and big government. She says she was a feminist then and is still a feminist. So this is where I take issue. The definition of a feminist in the 1970s vs. what a feminist is now is VERY different. And today, people that are anti-war and anti-big government are the conservatives! It's like we're living in the upside down. Because of the author's hypocrisy, I just couldn't read anymore.

[Anthony Millspaugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an incredibly beautiful book reflecting what it was like to be recognizing the transcendence from youth into adulthood in a volatile year in America.

What does it mean to accept responsibility for making mature decisions? What is the difference between casual relationships and loving ones? How can a sensitive individual that speaks truth to be power be destroyed by selflessness? How does one show true empathy and love for the damaged soul?

These questions are beautifully examined in this reflective moment in a young woman’s life and how it impacted by her connection with a man that deserves to have his life altering experience remembered vividly and not as an asterisk.

[Margaret Busch · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you enjoy cultural criticism similar to Joan Didion, this book is a good choice! The way the author uses the year 1974 as a metaphor both for a shift in the country at the time, and herself, was really beautiful! At times the chapters and sections felt slow, and the conversations she recalls with Tony Russo feel redundant at certain points. However, the way the author concludes her time with Russo, makes the read wonder if this was the point all along? Poetic and personal, an interesting perspective on a paradoxical political figure. Overall a great read!

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author looks back at a key moment in cultural history and her own in this great memoir of New York and San Francisco in the early 70s, culminating in her weird relationship with Tony Russo in '74, half of the pair who leaked the Pentagon Papers. She really brings that paranoid era to life, from the afterglow of the 60s to Patty Hearst's kidnapping and the realization that it wasn't that easy to subvert a power structure. More even than that, it's a timely look at what young women tend to tell themselves as they navigate the weird peccadilloes of older men they date. I'll be reading more of this author, who has a long and esteemed backlist.

[Robyn Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

B- Audiobook

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating read — complemented well by Palo Alto, And the Band Played On, and Coming To My Senses.

[Reese Borchert · Rating 5 out of 5]

i want to re read “most dangerous: daniel ellsberg” and then re read this one!!! it’s too good.

[R.A. Cramblitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fifty years after her short-lived foray with Pentagon Papers co-conspirator Anthony Russo, Francine Prose dissects the relationship and her own state of being at an important time in American history: When the activism and group hope of the 60s were giving way to self-interest and corporate domineering. She spares no criticism of herself or others, using her keen insights and deep human empathy to shine a light on the personal foibles and divergent goals that can undermine a relationship. San Francisco in 1974 is painted vividly here, without nostalgia, but with a longing for the last vestiges of a community of fellow artists and journey seekers who didn't need a lot of money to lead rich lives.

Prose possesses a singular mind, and I always relish the opportunity to tap into it.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to Harper Collins Publishers for sending me this good reads giveaway. Well written memories of important events of the 1970's.

[Jessie Rubino · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story about the ramifications of war, the way the memory of valor can be lost to a quick news cycle and a complacent public. But also, a story about dating a self centered balding man in your 20s and still getting screwed over by him.

[Karina Buck · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Moving Memoir

I was drawn to this book because like Francine Prose, I too as a young woman lived in San Francisco in 1974. Other than the date and setting, I didn’t know what to expect. But her vivid memories of the city in the early 70’s, her tentative thoughts on relationships with friends and ersatz lovers felt familiar, haunting and honest. It captured that long ago time and place- the drifting, the fear, the uninformed hero-worshiping, the heartfelt political passions, the confusions around the free love ethos, the limitations of being a feminist in those days. I am always looking for observant, articulate people to make sense of coming of age in that historical moment, and Prose’s deeply touching personal history, looking back from the vantage of 50 years, shed some light for me on the subject. This book will stick with me.

[Linda Lowell · Rating 2 out of 5]

OMG, famous writer appropriates Tony Russo!

I very much wanted to like this book. I knew the author, her first husband in college and have followed her career with admiration. The events of 60s and 70s shaped my life to the same magnitude as hers. By the time I got to the last of her excuses for — or celebrations of — her wearisome self-involvement I was relieved to put 1974 down. I read it out of loyalty to our past, but that loyalty is thoroughly dispelled.