The Princeton Anthology of Writing: Favorite Pieces by the Ferris/McGraw Writers at Princeton University

Published by Princeton University Press 2001

The Princeton Anthology of Writing

Favorite Pieces by the Ferris/McGraw Writers at Princeton University

Edited by: John McPhee and Carol Rigolot

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691236865

Overview
Contents

About this book

In 1957--long before colleges awarded degrees in creative nonfiction and back when newspaper writing's reputation was tainted by the fish it wrapped--Princeton began honoring talented literary journalists. Since then, fifty-nine of the finest, most dedicated, and most decorated nonfiction writers have held the Ferris and McGraw professorships. This monumental volume harbors their favorite and often most influential works. Each contribution is rewarding reading, and collectively the selections validate journalism's ascent into the esteem of the academy and the reading public.

Necessarily eclectic and delightfully idiosyncratic, the fifty-nine pieces are long and short, political and personal, comic and deadly serious. Students will be provoked by William Greider's pointed critique of the democracy industry, eerily entertained by Leslie Cockburn's fraternization with the Cali cartel, inspired by David K. Shipler's thoughts on race, unsettled by Haynes Johnson's account of Bay of Pigs survivors, and moved by Lucinda Frank's essay on a mother fighting to save a child born with birth defects. Many of the essays are finely crafted portraits: Charlotte Grimes's biography of her grandmother, Blair Clark's obituary for Robert Lowell, and Jane Kramer's affecting story of a woman hero of the French Resistance.

Other contributions to savor include Harrison Salisbury on the siege of Leningrad, Landon Jones on the 1950s, Christopher Wren on Soviet mountaineering, James Gleick on technology, Gloria Emerson on Vietnam, Gina Kolata on Fermat's last theorem, and Roger Mudd on the media. Whether approached chronologically, thematically, randomly, or, as the editors order them, more intuitively, each suggests a perfect evening reading.

Designed for students as well as general readers, The Princeton Anthology of Writing splendidly attests to the elegance, eloquence, and endurance of fine nonfiction.

Author / Editor information

John McPhee is the author of twenty-five books, including The Control of Nature, Irons in the Fire, and Annals of the Former World, for which he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1999. Carol Rigolot is the Executive Director of the Council of the Humanities at Princeton University. She is a faculty member in the Romance Languages department, specializing in twentieth-century French literature.

Reviews

"The range, care, and thoughtfulness with which this volume has been edited is hugely impressive. It is an extraordinary work whose greatest strength lies in the selections themselves. It will be exceptionally useful as a supplemental text for undergraduate instruction and is very likely to find a receptive audience among the public as well."—David Abrahamson, Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University

"This book is a delight for the general reader as well as an excellent resource for undergraduate or graduate students of journalism. It represents many of the finest nonfiction writers of the past several decades. There are many treasures here—and some real surprises. This is compelling stuff, wide ranging and beautifully balanced."—Evan Cornog, School of Journalism, Columbia University

"This is a significant collection of first-rate factual writing, and a valuable contribution to the literary scene."

"[An] eclectic collection of more than four dozen pieces of literary journalism . . . the end product is a volume meant for browsing rather than reading--not necessarily a bad thing. Far from it, with contributors as distinguished as Victor Navasky, Geoffrey Wolff, Harrison Salisbury, and Francine du Plessix Gray, not to mention McPhee himself."

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
PREFACE Publicly Available Download PDF	v
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Beauty for Ashes David K. Shipler Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
A View of Mountains Jonathan Schell Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	9
The Boat Haynes Johnson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	11
Josephine Guezou Jane Kramer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	18
Twentieth-Century Odyssey Robert Donovan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	22
A Farewell to Hue Don Oberdorfer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	29
Looking for Trouble Leslie Cockburn Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	36
The Forthright Estate: In Praise of the Newspaper Column Karl E. Meyer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	41
Code of Ethics Roger Mudd Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	46
Father of His Country Paul Taylor Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	51
Workplace Discrimination Stuart S. Taylor Jr Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	59
Harassment by Kids: Are More Lawsuits the Answer? Stuart S. Taylor Jr Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	62
Driver's Education Larry L. King Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	66
People and Character Irving Dilliard Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	72
Saving The Nation Victor Navasky Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	75
Faith, Sex, Mystery Richard Gilman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	87
My Own Vox Pop Richard Stengel Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	94
Stardom? They'd Rather Pass Richard Stengel Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	95
Space Invaders Richard Stengel Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	97
The Country Is at Crisis Point Charlotte Grimes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	99
Memo to Conservatives: Family Ties Are the Strongest Values of All Charlotte Grimes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	104
All Sentient Beings Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	107
When Worlds Collide Ronald Steel Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	114
First Born, Fast Grown: The Manful Life of Nicholas, 10 Isabel Wilkerson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	117
Massacre at Columbine High School Nancy Gibbs Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	123
Gender in the Classroom Deborah Tannen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	126
Cop-Out on Class: Why Private Schools Are Today's Draft Deferments Jonathan Alter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	131
It's a Wonderful Legacy Jonathan Alter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	133
The Era of Bad Feeling Jonathan Alter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	134
Two of a Kind Jim Hoagland Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	137
Truly a Nation . . . Jim Hoagland Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	139
A Little Homer at the Beach Jim Hoagland Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	140
Why I Can't Write Fiction Lawrence Weschler Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	143
On Robert Lowell Blair Clark Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	147
The Miss Dennis School of Writing Alice Steinbach Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	151
Meeting Mahfouz Milton Viorst Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	156
Critic's Notebook Richard Eder Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	163
L'Atalante Terrence Rafferty Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	166
Annie of Corsica Jeremy Bernstein Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	170
Two Deaths—One Then, One Now: On Losing a Father, a Newspaperman John Darnton Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	176
Heavy Lifting Geoffrey Wolff Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	179
Lenin Peak Christopher Wren Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	193
From So Simple a Beginning Jonathan Weiner Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	198
Pioneer 10 Pushes Beyond Goals, Into the Unknown John Noble Wilford Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	204
Get Set to Say Hi to the Neighbors John Noble Wilford Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	207
Left the Light On, But Nobody Came Malcolm W. Browne Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	209
The Invisible Flying Cat Malcolm W. Browne Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	210
At Least the Monsters Survive Malcolm W. Browne Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	212
Beauty, as Scientists Behold It Malcolm W. Browne Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	213
Manual Labor James Gleick Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	216
Maintenance Not Included James Gleick Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	218
At Last, Shout of "Eureka!" in Age-Old Math Mystery Gina Kolata Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	221
Scientist Reports First Cloning Ever of Adult Mammal Gina Kolata Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	223
What If We Succeed? Walter Sullivan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	225
Deus Conservat Omnia Harrison E. Salisbury Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	234
Introduction to Morgan, American Financier Jean Strouse Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	242
Down Twenty-Three Steps Robert K. Massie Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	249
The Forest Coup David Remnick Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	252
Pictures from the Rubble Patch Jonathan Sanders Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	259
A Corner of Russia Serge Schmemann Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	264
Goodbye to Rafah Gloria Emerson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	268
Mock Democracy William Greider Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	272
The Big Barbecue Landon Y. Jones Jr Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	281
The Rope Line Samuel G. Freedman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	289
Nixonland Francine Du Plessix Gray Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	298
Consultants: The Men Who Came to Dinner Walter Guzzardi Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	306
Class Act Jeremy Treglown Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	316
The New American Heartland John Herbers Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	321
The 1950s Charles Kaiser Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	325
Jazz: Music Beyond Time and Nations Nat Hentoff Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	330
Miracle Kid Lucinda Franks Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	335
Travels of the Rock John Mcphee Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	351
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	369
INDEX Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	373