Southern Bookman

AP golf writer Doug Ferguson doesn't rest in chronicling sport

The Associated Press' Doug Ferguson upholds golf's tradition of great sportswriting.

As a golf fan and connoisseur of newspaper writing, I savor Ferguson's accounts of tournaments such as last weekend's Genesis Invitational at famed Riviera in Los Angeles. Ferguson has been covering regular tour tournaments, the four majors and events like the Ryder Cup since 1998.

Not only does he write daily articles, he also gives Twitter updates and produces a weekly column, "On the Fringe."

Working under deadline pressure, Ferguson covers 28 tournaments a year. He received the prestigious PGA Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism in 2019, following AP predecessors Bob Green and Ron Sirak.

Not yet 60, Ferguson shows no signs of burnout. With his heavy workload, Ferguson delivers the nuts and bolts with literary style.

After watching young Max Homa's playoff victory Sunday over Tony Finau on CBS, I was eager to read Ferguson's report in the AJC on the tournament's finish.

I wasn't disappointed; Ferguson visually captured the drama of Homa's win. His piece recalled Herbert Warren Wind's reports on major tournaments that used to run in the New Yorker.

Ferguson's work is more prevalent as newspapers devote less attention to golf. He's one of the few writers still following the tour week to week. Even The New York Times and Washington Post have reduced their regular coverage of the sport.

CBS, NBC and the Golf Channel extensively televise golf. But a tournament is not history until Ferguson's story appears.

 

 

Baltimore Sun escapes hedge fund's clutches

A white knight has arrived to save the Baltimore Sun from the rapacious Alden Global Capital hedge fund.

Wealthy hotel magnate Stewart W. Bainum Jr. has reached a deal to buy the Sun for $65 million, rescuing the Baltimore paper from Alden Capital's purchase of Tribune Publishing for $630 million.

Bainum's nonprofit Sunlight for All Institute will acquire the Sun, if Alden shareholders agree. The nonprofit will also publish the Annapolis Capital Gazette and other Maryland newspapers, according to a New York Times article.

Alden Capital, notorious for stripping assets and firing reporters at local newspapers, will buy the Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News, Orlando Sentinel and other once flourishing newspapers published by the Tribune company.

Chicago Tribune journalists have waged a campaign against the Alden deal, pleading for a local business leader like Bainum to save the newspaper.

Under the Tribune company, the Daily News has already suffered major staff cuts and the closure of its newsroom. Alden will cut whatever meat's left on the bones of the tabloid.

Alden's MediaNews Group gained notoriety for ravaging the Denver Post and other newspapers, laying off reporters and selling off assets. Journalists have complained about the lack of pens and notepads, and unheated work spaces.

Tribune newspapers outside of the Sun could also find a savior: Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, a major Tribune stockholder, must approve of the deal with Alden.

But Soon-Shiong is unlikely to want to buy other newspapers after his at first promising ownership of the Times has hit rocky times with falling ad revenues and disappointing online subscriptions.

The Sun's long demise is one of the saddest stories in local journalism. The home of H.L. Mencken, the Sun in its heyday won 15 Pulitzer Prizes and had an extensive network of foreign correspondents.

Noted journalist Russell Baker, later a brilliant New York Times columnist, began his career at the Sun.

Baker in "The Good Times," the second volume of his memoirs, gives a memorable account of covering Queen Elizabeth II's coronation when he was the Sun's London correspondent.

William Manchester, famed for his accounts of the John F. Kennedy assassination and a major biography of Winston Churchill, sadly never completed, was another Sun reporter.

David Simon, who went on the create HBO's "The Wire," also worked for The Sun, along with his wife, the detective novelist Laura Lippman.

Simon devoted a season of "The Wire" to the decline of the Sun after the Tribune purchased it from Baltimore's Abell family, who had run the paper for years. In Simon's portrayal, the new owners weaken the newspaper by emphasizing soft features over hard news.

Bainum promises to bring the Sun to new vitality, although the nonprofit model is disheartening for those who remember when newspapers were thick with advertising. If saved from Alden, the Sun can keep giving Baltimore in-depth news coverage.

 

AJC excels with Krispy Kreme fire coverage

I was not surprised to see AJC photographer John Spink's front-page photo Thursday showing an Atlanta firefighter standing outside of the burned-out Krispy Kreme store on Atlanta's legendary Ponce de Leon Avenue.

Spink has an amazing ability to be the first journalist on the scene of such dramatic events in Atlanta.

During Spink's stellar career, for which he deserves a Pulitzer Prize, he's taken shots of wrecks, murders, robberies, natural disasters and, in his spare time, charming features.

The doughnut shop, whose electric sign announcing a fresh hot batch of sugary treats has cheered Atlantans for generations, burned in a fire early Wednesday morning. The outside, with its "doughnut factory" sign, was saved, but the inside gutted, the Atlanta Fire Department said.

Spink's photo, with its classic composition, showed a sign in the window saying "we're hiring."

The AJC's coverage of the fire at the Ponce de Leon landmark showed traditional newspaper craft at its best.

Reporter Chelsea Prince, one of the newspaper's new wave of journalists, captured the store's importance to Atlantans.

While illustrating how the print newspaper can heighten a story with striking photos and writing, the newspaper used social media to solicit memories of Krispy Kreme from readers.

Repeating a frequent phenomenon in inner-city Atlanta stories, several of the reminisces came from outside the Perimeter.  Those living in the suburbs have a surprising fondness for the old city.

NBA legend Shaquille O'Neal, who has owned the doughnut shop since 2016, promised to rebuild the store, one of several signature Atlanta businesses on Ponce de Leon.

A living museum of Atlanta life, the strip is the home of Mary Mac's Tea Room, the Majestic Diner, the Clermont Lounge and the Plaza Theater.

The old Sears store has been renovated into the Ponce City Market, across the street from the site of Ponce de Leon Park, where the Atlanta Crackers played before the Braves arrived. The stadium's magnolia tree still stands on the edge of Midtown Place Shopping Center.

A rush of development fueled by the Beltline has boosted the street's commercial revival, leading to fears that long-established businesses will disappear. O'Neal's promise that the Krispy Kreme will return is good news for those who value tradition.

 

Christopher Hitchens' widow, agent seek to stop independent biography of writer

Christopher Hitchens is still stirring controversy, nearly a decade after his death.

In a hyped-up literary feud that Hitchens would have mocked, his widow and literary agent are seeking to halt a planned biography of the writer.

Carol Blue-Hitchens and Steve Wasserman sent an e-mail to Hitchens' associates asking them not to cooperate with author Stephen Phillips, who has a contract with W.W. Norton to publish "Pamphleteer: The Life and Times of Christopher Hitchens" in 2022.

The rarefied dispute gained momentum with a New York Times article Tuesday, following biographer David Nasaw's condemnation of Blue-Hitchens and Wasserman in a recent essay in the Nation.

Nasaw, the award-winning biographer of Andrew Carnegie and Joseph P. Kennedy, accused Blue-Hitchens and Wasserman of engaging "in a kind of censorship" and pointed out that efforts to control a subject's image through authorized biographies often backfire.

Calling Hitchens a significant figure of his times, Nasaw defended Phillips' effort to present opposing views of him.

A longtime writer for the Nation, Hitchens broke with his leftist colleagues over his support for the Iraq war and his increasingly misogynistic writing. A gifted raconteur, Hitchens frequently appeared on TV and as a public speaker.

As a leftist writer earlier in his career, Hitchens gained notoriety for books exposing Mother Teresa and Henry Kissinger. A noted atheist, Hitchens reportedly shunned religious conversion while dying of cancer in 2011.

The email by Blue-Hitchens and Wasserman sounds like something from a satirical novel by David Lodge or Richard Russo, or even Evelyn Waugh, if e-mails had existed during his life.

"Dear Family, Friends, Colleagues, Fellow Scribblers, Brothers & Sisters, Comrades:

We are aware that a self-appointed would-be biographer, one Stephen Phillips, is embarked on a book on Christopher. We read his proposal and are dismayed by the coarse and reductive approach. We have no confidence in this attempt at the man in full. We are not cooperating and we urge you to refuse all entreaties by Mr. Phillips or his publisher, W.W. Norton.

Feel free to contact us with any questions as you may have.

In solidarity,
Carol & Steve

Carol Blue-Hitchens, Executor of the Estate of Christopher Hitchens
Steve Wasserman, Literary Agent"

As The New York Times article pointed out, the email is self-defeating because it would silence those with the most favorable views of Hitchens. And those close to Hitchens are resisting; Hitchens' brother, Peter, a British conservative columnist, talked with Phillips, the Times article said

It's unlikely that Phillips can find many new revelations about Hitchens. He himself wrote the revealing and entertaining memoir "Hitch" before his death and has appeared in memoirs and a recent novel, "Inside Story," by his close friend Martin Amis. Former colleagues like Nation columnist Alexander Cockburn attacked Hitchens in print.

Phillips' title, "Pamphleteer," does seem limited. Hitchens was much more than that. But he wrote in the spirit of old-time pamphleteers like Thomas Paine. Perhaps the title is metaphorical.

Hitchens was a public intellectual who courted controversy. Blue-Hitchens and Wasserman's dubious campaign against Phillips runs counter to Hitchens' ideals.

Mary-Kay Wilmers stepping down as London Review of Books editor

Mary-Kay Wilmers has made the London Review of Books a literary beacon.

In nearly 30 years as the editor of the journal, which her family owns, Wilmers has discovered numerous writers and published a range of controversial articles.

Unlike other magazines, the LRB has kept running long, extensive pieces on complex subjects. 

In the LRB, writers give personal witness to world events such as the coronavirus epidemic, Brexit and Mideast and African politics.

The 82-year-old Wilmers recently announced her retirement as editor, although she will stay on as a consultant. She will be replaced by deputy editor Jean McNicol and senior editor Alice Spawls.

A member of London's left-wing literary establishment, Wilmers is one of the last of the old-time editors who made their publications extensions of their personalities.

Over the years, she made independent decisions such as the cover a few years ago with a headline announcing the demise of Britain. She also published Seymour Hersh's article that denied the Obama administration's account of Osama Bin Laden's killing.

Wilmers is also an accomplished essayist. Without the grind of daily editorial duties, she likely will devote more attention to her writing.

LRB fans hope that McNicol and Spawls keep the journal's unpredictability and feisty independent spirit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Farewell, Hal Holbrook, known for uncanny portrayal of Mark Twain

Mark Twain was a central figure in American culture when Hal Holbrook began portraying him in the 1950s.

Holbrook, who won acclaim for a range of TV, movie and theater roles including "Deep Throat" in "All the President's Men," died at age 95 Jan. 23 in his Beverly Hills home, according to media reports.

His portrayal of Twain was a TV and theater sensation, bringing back to life for postwar audiences a 19th century cultural titan.

Twain, the author of "Huckleberry Finn" and "Tom Sawyer," was a superstar lecturer in the late 19th century, delighting audiences with his sardonic barbs exposing human frailties.

His witticisms endured for decades; educated Americans once knew a variety of Twain quotations, some falsely attributed to him.

Beginning in his 20s, much younger than Twain at the height of his fame, the World War II veteran Holbrook revived the writer's act, donning a wig, false moustache and white linen suit.

Holbrook went on to play Twain for more than six decades, winning a Tony award for a Broadway production. As Holbrook's New York Times obituary noted, he needed less makeup to perform the role as he grew older.

The five-time Emmy winner received an Academy Award nomination in 2007 for his performance in "Into the Wild." At the time, he was the oldest actor to receive an Oscar nomination. Along with Twain, he played Lincoln several times.

In one of his best-known roles, Holbrook shone as "Deep Throat," the long unnamed source for Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. "Deep Throat" was later identified as FBI official Mark Felt.

In "Magnam Force," Holbrook was the vigilante boss of police inspector Clint Eastwood. Holbrook also appeared in "Wall Street" as the old-school stock broker Lou Mannheim.

Familiar on TV commercials, Holbrook with his resonant voice was one of those American Dads who exemplified an honest and fair-minded but pragmatic American masculinity.

As Twain, Holbrook spawned a mini-genre of one-person theater. I myself have seen portrayals of William Faulkner, Dorothy Parker and Patsy Cline. Surely, someone has played Charles Dickens, and Lincoln.

Along with Twain's witticisms, the appeal was Holbrook's uncanny ability to realistically channel Twain. Twain acolytes after seeing the performance believed that the writer had come back to life. Wide cultural familiarity with Twain's work boosted Holbrook's renown.

But younger generations no longer know Twain's books. He's one of the deadest members of the Dead White Males club.

In recent years, "Huckleberry Finn," considered by Hemingway and others the first great American novel written in the country's vernacular language, has been removed from school reading lists.

As kids turn to video games and social media sites, they no longer read books of any kind, much less classics.

Although the young Huckleberry's friendship with the escaped slave Jim is a testament to their shared humanity, the book has been attacked as racist because of its frequent use of the word "nigger."

Black and liberal intellectuals condemn the account of Huck and Jim's raft journey down the Mississippi River as a totem of white supremacy.

Holbrook's portrayal of Twain was more than a novelty. Critics saw the performance as innovative theater. Holbrook in drawing upon the deep well of Twain's work was the show's playwright and actor.

In an endearing letter to the editor in The New York Times Wednesday, novelist Anne Bernays says that her late husband Justin Kaplan was inspired to write his celebrated biography of Samuel Clemens/Twain by watching Holbrook's performance.

It's doubtful that Holbrook's work would be produced now. Holbrook's death marks the fading of a generation that knew and revered Mark Twain.

 

 

 

 

Media acclaim greets new Sally Rooney novel arriving in September

The novel still lives: News that Sally Rooney will publish a new book is drawing widespread media coverage.

Rooney's third novel, "Beautiful World, Where Are You" comes out in September, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in the United States and Faber & Faber in Great Britain and Rooney's native Ireland.

At age 30, Rooney is one of the few novelists who still receive such attention in the social media age. Rooney gained enormous popularity among a coterie of fans with her first books, "Conversations With Friends" and "Normal People," which examined the erotic confusions and cultural aspirations of young people coming of age in a socially changing Ireland and Europe. 

She also received acclaim for a steamy Hulu series based on "Normal People," which told of a young Irish couple's troubled love affair.

While some U.S. critics have given Rooney's work tepid praise, she has been acclaimed internationally as "the voice of her generation." She is one of the few "literary" novelists who command a wide readership.

Previews of the new novel indicate it will cover much of the same ground as her previous books. That's not a detriment; Faulkner, Fitzgerald and others revisited the same territory throughout their careers.

Set in Dublin, "Beautiful World, Where Are You" will portray Alice, a novelist, her best friend, Eileen, and their love interests, Felix and Simon. The young adults seek meaning from their lives in a world of declining prospects and increasing environmental devastation.

While upholding the continued relevance of novels, the new book reflects the decline of letter writing. Much of the novel's plot consists of emails between Alice and Eileen instead of the ink-and-paper letters that once carried narratives. Rooney also used emails and text messages in her other novels.

But book lovers can rejoice: Rooney once again shows that novels still matter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mimi Swartz takes aim at Ted Cruz

I'm always glad when Mimi Swartz publishes an essay from Texas on The New York Times op-ed page.

Swartz, a Houston resident and executive editor of Texas Monthly magazine, writes mini-essays that touch upon personal experience to illuminate the state's curious blend of urban sophistication and anti-intellectual conservatism.

In a Times op-ed piece Tuesday, Swartz slams the despicable Texas Sen. Ted Cruz for advancing his political career by cynically appealing to the Republican Party's most primitive elements. Swartz emphasizes that Cruz's effort to attract Donald Trump's extremist followers clashes with Cruz's Ivy League education. "A thug in a sharp suit with an Ivy League degree is still a thug," Swartz concluded.

Along with Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, who also boasts of an elitist education, Cruz led Senate opposition to Joe Biden's certification as president. Their support of Trump's false claims of fraudulent voting led to last week's mob invasion of the U.S. Capitol.

Hawley in a notorious photo is shown raising his fist in support of the Trump supporters as they gathered to attack the Capitol while Congress was in session to accept Biden's electoral college victory.

After the riot, the Houston Chronicle called for Cruz to resign, and an effort is gaining force to remove him and Hawley from the Senate.

With their prestigious educations and analytical abilities, Hawley and Cruz might have formulated the philosophical basis for a new, more progressive Republican Party.

Instead, they seek political power by pandering to the party's reactionary, violent forces of racism and white supremacy.

 

AJC correspondent Tia Mitchell's heroic reporting in wake of Capitol riot

Applause for AJC Washington correspondent Tia Mitchell, who braved the Trump mob's invasion of the U.S. Capitol last week and carried out her mission.

Mitchell and other Capitol journalists were endangered in their own workplace by an attack like those associated with totalitarian countries. She and several colleagues gave The New York Times first-person accounts of their ordeal. The Sunday article revealed courage under fire in performing their First Amendment duties.

Along with several colleagues, Mitchell was covering the debate over certifying Joe Biden's election as president when the vandals broke into the Capitol corridors and attempted to enter the House chamber. As Mitchell told the Times, she was reporting on Georgia's House Republican delegation protesting the state's electoral votes going to Biden. As the threat worsened, she was given a gas mask, and taken to a safe location.

After the looters were at last cleared and Congress resumed its debate late Wednesday night, Mitchell returned to report on Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler's speech announcing that she would change course and not oppose Biden's certification, turning against an effort led by Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. Defeated the day before by Democratic candidate Raphael Warnock, Loeffler told the Senate that she made the choice because of the riot.

Mitchell, who had begun work the morning before, stayed until Biden's confirmation was completed early Thursday morning. Members of Georgia's Republican House delegation continued to support Trump even after the riot.

In an aside in the Times article, Mitchell mentions seeing Loeffler on the Senate subway as both left the Capitol after the long, stressful day. Even then, Mitchell sought to interview Loeffler, who understandably had nothing more to say.

Mitchell when she began work Wednesday morning didn't realize she'd have to display a war correspondent's valor in the U.S. Capitol. Despite the personal threat, she gave AJC readers essential news about what will be remembered as a dark day in U.S. history.

 

Farewell, Neil Sheehan

Neil Sheehan stood tall among reporters revered in newsrooms across the nation.

Sheehan, who died Thursday at age 84 from Parkinson's disease complications, was one of the famous New York Times reporters whom young idealistic journalists sought to emulate.

Best known for initiating the Times' publication of the Pentagon Papers in 1971, Sheehan won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988 for his epic account of the Vietnam War, "A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam."

Sheehan received the Pentagon Papers, a massive U.S. government report on America's escalation of the Vietnam War through the years, from Daniel Ellsberg, a government analyst who had illegally copied the document.

As a Times article accompanying Sheehan's obituary in the Times Thursday discloses, Sheehan himself used subterfuge and deception to duplicate Ellsberg's copy of the report.

Fearful of governmental prosecution, Ellsberg forbade Sheehan from copying the report, allowing him to read it. But he gave Sheehan the key to his apartment in Cambridge, Mass., and Sheehan took the report and copied it when Ellsberg left on a trip. The Times article tells a harrowing story of Sheehan and his wife copying the report at neighborhood print shops, then transporting the pages to New York City, buying an airplane seat for the several suitcases needed.

After the Times began publishing the report, the Nixon administration went to court to stop the newspaper, citing national security. When a judge halted the Times' publication, the Washington Post began printing the document. The U.S. Supreme Court on June 30, 1971, ruled in favor of the newspapers, finding the government sought unconstitutional prior restraint of publication.

Sheehan took 15 years to complete "A Bright Shining Lie," which viewed the career of Lt. Col. John Paul Vann in Vietnam as the paradigm of America's disastrous involvement in the war. The book with its complex portrait of the U.S. military and Vietnamese society unveils the war's tragedy with the narrative power of a Homeric epic.

The understanding of Vietnam came from personal experience; Sheehan was one of the reporters whose slow disillusionment with the war led to critical articles and increasing public opposition. First reporting for United Press International, then the Times, Sheehan along with the Times' David Halberstam, the Associated Press' and Times' Malcolm Browne  and CBS' Morley Safer uncovered the U.S. military's deceptions.

Publication of the Pentagon Papers and the Washington Post's unraveling of the Watergate scandal represented the high point of American newspapers' power.

Such a massive commitment of resources is hard to imagine today, even with the newspapers' revival from online subscriptions.

With the Internet and cable TV, the media environment is more fragmented today, although the Times and Post still hold immense power to set the national agenda. The Trump administration has attacked the media even more vociferously than Nixon's.

But young idealistic reporters still arrive to follow Sheehan's bright, shining example, whether they know it or not.