Teacher and Author
To start with, only one lived to tell his tale. Only one could, in subsequent years, collect information from the public record and recollect his actions, thoughts, and emotions at the time. The other left only letters for a stranger … Continued
Shelley Mydans approached her work for Life magazine with utmost seriousness. At the same time, she downplayed her role as primarily supportive of photographers. It was her job, she explained, to “mak[e]arrangements for their pictures, and writ[e] the background and … Continued
In 1941, Clark Lee was a reporter for the AP based in Shanghai, where “for more than four years,” he wrote, the city “had been living practically in state of siege, with bombs, bullets, and barbed wire for its daily … Continued
Every once in a while, a trove of source material makes an entire work of nonfiction possible. At least, it can turn a run-of-the-mill narrative into a tale that hums and sparks with energy. I made the related argument in … Continued
Roi Ottley thought of himself as a Negro. To him, Joe Louis, Paul Robeson, Langston Hughes, as well as the nameless dark-skinned American soldiers he reported on, were Negroes. To us, today, that noun never crosses our minds. If it … Continued
“I have always had an insatiable desire to learn,” Eddie Rickenbacker told his hometown newspaper in 1955 when he was at the peak of his power as president of Eastern Air Lines. He wasn’t bragging. Eddie sought knowledge with an … Continued
Before and after. Before, he was a gadfly, goading leaders to hasten the age of aviation. After, he was a Jeremiah, warning against complacency, denouncing featherbedding. In between, there was a twenty-three-day ordeal on the Pacific. Because he survived, he … Continued