Editors saw him as youthful but dependable. Lewis Lapham, the longtime editor-in-chief of Harper’s, assigned him as a contributing editor of the magazine, a distinction he held for five years. “I trusted Johnny; I liked his sensibility,” Lapham told me. “Very early on, you hear a writer’s voice and you understand the first-person singular. . . . It was because… Continue reading The Brilliance of Johnny Greene by @jimbillson
Category: Journalism
The Strange Story of a Secret Literary Fellowship
“I was offered ten thousand dollars as part of a new award funded by the chairman of Barnes & Noble. But I was not supposed to tell anyone about it.” — from Daniel Gross in The New Yorker
Harper Lee’s true crime story
Casey Cep, who seems to be The New Yorker’s resident Harper Lee expert, is out with a Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee from Knopf. Alexandra Alter at The New York Times had a nice Q&A with her earlier this month. There are two intertwined mysteries at the heart of… Continue reading Harper Lee’s true crime story
Crime reporters allowed to carry guns
Strange times in Brazil, as that country’s president has signed a decree allowing crime reporters to carry guns. Under a terse decree signed by the president on 7 May and published in the official gazette yesterday, “professional journalists who cover crime” are among the many categories of citizens now allowed to carry firearms in public. The other… Continue reading Crime reporters allowed to carry guns
Steve Weddle 