The Memoir & Poetry Spot
A snapshot review of a book related to the Non-fiction Feature
Also in Bulletin #42:
The Non-fiction Feature: The Creation of the Media by Paul Starr
The Product Spot: News Literacy Project
The Pithy Take
Me and The Times by former New York Times editor Robert Stock is a remarkable memoir of his early life and his career. His career tracks from an elevator job to journalism to public relations to editing–but ultimately, the book is story linked after story of his experiences and travels, many of which he undertook for The Times.
These range from adventures in Greece, thoughts on the petroleum industry, interviews with Sue Baker (a leader in the field of injury prevention), to clarinet duets with Richard Stoltzman. He also discusses the dangers of “click-bait” news and the increasingly dangerous partisanship of modern news organizations, and how both have worked to form the social divides we see today. It is an honest and insightful telling that peers behind the curtains of what went on at one of the world’s most impressive news organizations.
Our final night in Leningrad was spent at the circus, a splendid one-ring affair complete with clowns and dancing horses and spinning acrobats. All around us Russians were laughing and cheering, adults as well as children.
It was good to see that the glum men and women I had seen standing in long lines at stores and shouldering their way through the crowds on subway platforms had some fun in their lives.
Me and The Times
Author: Robert Stock
Publisher: Gatekeeper Press
252 pages | 2024
Purchase
