A well-written book for lovers of book publishing and supporters of human rights.
Former Random House President Bernstein gives a fascinating history of publishing in the 20th century and traces the beginnings of the human rights movement.
The author’s stories of beginning at Simon & Schuster after World War II as office boy “in waiting,” working his way up into the sales department, and working on the Little Golden Books all vividly illustrate corporate life in the publishing industry. During that time, he was fortunate to meet Kay Thompson, who was looking for someone to promote a new line of Eloise merchandise to accompany her bestselling books. It did so well that, after being fired from Simon & Schuster, Bernstein continued promoting Eloise. In a perfect example of the importance of networking and knowing people, the owner of Books, Inc. in San Francisco mentioned Bernstein to Bennett Cerf, owner of Random House, who hired him in 1956. Thompson went with him, and he became her literary agent. As he notes, children’s books fueled his career. He began with a book of stories linked to Shirley Temple’s TV show and worked for years with Dr. Seuss. Within a decade, he was president of the company. He continued Cerf’s publishing philosophy to print books because they were important, even if they weren’t big sellers, and Cerf’s legacy taught Bernstein to hire and delegate and to “beware of articulate incompetents.” Without his high-profile position at Random House, he might not have been invited to Moscow in 1970, where he was exposed to the Soviet dissident movement, then in its infancy. From then on, the author was active in many organizations related to human rights, including the Association of American Publishers, the Fund for Free Expression, the International Freedom to Publish Commission, and as chair of Human Rights Watch. The Helsinki Final Act of 1975 helped hatch the Helsinki Watch and America’s Watch, eventually covering the Middle East, China, and Africa; Bernstein was there for it all.
A well-written book for lovers of book publishing and supporters of human rights.Pub Date: April 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-62097-171-0
Page Count: 336
Publisher: The New Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2016
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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