An outstanding and colorful account of the men and women who covered WW II for newspapers and radio. As we approach the 50th anniversary of D-day, Voss profiles the bravery and high ethical standards of these correspondents, photographers, and battlefield artists. Voss, a curator at the National Portrait Gallery, discusses such legendary figures as Edward R. Murrow, William Shirer, Ernie Pyle, and the cartoonist Bill Maudlin. But Voss is not content merely to recite the biographical details. He grapples with the very contentious issue of censorship when a great democracy goes to war, or as he puts it, ``the nation's security vs. the right to know.'' Two particularly noteworthy chapters deal with women journalists in combat and the African-American press. He chronicles the story of George Schuyler, editor of the black newspaper The Pittsburgh Courier. Schuyler trenchantly pointed out the irony of racism toward blacks in America while the country was fighting fascism abroad. The story of cartoonist Maudlin's run-in with General George Patton, who hardly appreciated Maudlin's satirical jabs at military life, is told with flair. Voss sees comics as having performed the function of editorial pages—rallying support for the war. He concludes his book with a moving discussion of John Hersey's Hiroshima, about the dropping of the atomic bomb. Voss also includes an appendix with Murrow's reporting from the Buchenwald concentration camp following its liberation, and a sample of Schuyler's searing commentary on racism. This book has dozens of photos and illustrations that bring the period to life. As the events of WW II fade from living memory, this book will hopefully preserve the work of that era's journalists for generations to come.
Pub Date: May 26, 1994
ISBN: 1-56098-349-3
Page Count: 208
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1994
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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