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Reporting at wit's end : tales from The New Yorker / St. Clair McKelway ; introduction by Adam Gopnik.

By: Material type: TextTextPublication details: New York : Bloomsbury USA, 2010.Edition: 1st U.S. edDescription: xix, 620 p. ; 21 cmISBN:
  • 160819034X (pbk.)
  • 9781608190348 (pbk.)
Uniform titles:
  • New Yorker (New York, N.Y. : 1925)
Subject(s):
Contents:
The 1930s. Firebug-catcher -- Place and leave with -- The innocent man at Sing Sing -- Average cop -- Who is this king of glory? (with A.J. Liebling) -- The 1940s -- Some fun with the F.B.I. -- Mister 880 -- The cigar, the three wings, and the low-level attacks -- The wily Wilby -- Gossip writer -- The 1950s. The blowing of the top of Peter Roger oboe -- The cockatoo -- A case of felony murder -- This is it, honey -- The perils of Pearl and Olga -- The rich recluse of Herald Square -- The 1960s. The Edinburgh caper -- The big little man from Brooklyn.
Summary: Writing for the magazine from the 1930s through the 1960s, McKelway specialized in light true crime stories about arsonists, embezzlers, counterfeiters, suspected Communists, and innocent men and the fire investigators, forensic accountants, Secret Service men, clueless FBI agents, and biased cops who pursued them.
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Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 814.54 M154 Available 33111008859643
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"Why does A. J. Liebling remain a vibrant role model for writers while the superb, prolific St. Clair McKelway has been sorely forgotten?" James Wolcott asked this question in a recent review of the Complete New Yorker on DVD. Anyone who has read a single paragraph of McKelway's work would struggle to provide an answer.

His articles for the New Yorker were defined by their clean language and incomporable wit, by his love of New York's rough edges and his affection for the working man (whether that work was come by honestly or not). Like Joseph Mitchell and A. J. Liebling, McKelway combined the unflagging curiosity of a great reporter with the narrative flair of a master storyteller. William Shawn, the magazine's long-time editor, described him as a writer with the "lightest of light touches." His style is so striking, Shawn went on to say, that "it was too odd to be imitated."

The pieces collected here are drawn from two of McKelway's books-- True Tales from the Annals of Crime and Rascality (1951 ) and The Big Little Man from Brooklyn (1969). His subjects are the small players who in their particulars defined life in New York during the 36 years McKelway wrote: the junkmen, boxing cornermen, counterfeiters, con artists, fire marshals, priests, and beat cops and detectives. The "rascals."

An amazing portrait of a long forgotten New York by the reporter who helped establish and utterly defined New Yorker "fact writing," Untitled Collection is long overdue celebration of a truly gifted writer.

The 1930s. Firebug-catcher -- Place and leave with -- The innocent man at Sing Sing -- Average cop -- Who is this king of glory? (with A.J. Liebling) -- The 1940s -- Some fun with the F.B.I. -- Mister 880 -- The cigar, the three wings, and the low-level attacks -- The wily Wilby -- Gossip writer -- The 1950s. The blowing of the top of Peter Roger oboe -- The cockatoo -- A case of felony murder -- This is it, honey -- The perils of Pearl and Olga -- The rich recluse of Herald Square -- The 1960s. The Edinburgh caper -- The big little man from Brooklyn.

Writing for the magazine from the 1930s through the 1960s, McKelway specialized in light true crime stories about arsonists, embezzlers, counterfeiters, suspected Communists, and innocent men and the fire investigators, forensic accountants, Secret Service men, clueless FBI agents, and biased cops who pursued them.

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