| Edition |
First edition. |
| Description |
xxiv, 207 pages ; 22 cm |
| Summary |
"Short autobiography about author's processes of researching, interviewing, and writing his books"-- Provided by publisher. |
|
"From the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Power Broker and The Years of Lyndon Johnson: an unprecedented gathering of vivid, candid, deeply revealing recollections about his experiences researching and writing his acclaimed books. For the first time in book form, Robert Caro gives us a glimpse into his own life and work in these evocatively written, personal pieces. He describes what it was like to interview the mighty Robert Moses; what it felt like to begin discovering the extent of the political power Moses wielded; the combination of discouragement and exhilaration he felt confronting the vast holdings of the Lyndon B. Johnson Library in Austin; his encounters with witnesses, including longtime residents wrenchingly displaced by the construction of Moses' Cross-Bronx Expressway and Lady Bird Johnson acknowledging the beauty and influence of one of LBJ's mistresses. He gratefully remembers how, after years of working in solitude, he found a writers' community at the New York Public Library, and details the ways he goes about planning and composing his books. Caro recalls the moments at which he came to understand that he wanted to write not just about the men who wielded power but about the people and the politics that were shaped by that power. And he talks about the importance to him of the writing itself, of how he tries to infuse it with a sense of place and mood to bring characters and situations to life on the page. Taken together, these reminiscences--some previously published, some written expressly for this book--bring into focus the passion, the wry self-deprecation, and the integrity with which this brilliant historian has always approached his work."--Dust jacket. |
| Contents |
"Turn every page" -- ROBERT MOSES. The city-shaper ; Carbon footprint ; Sanctum sanctorum for writers -- LYNDON JOHNSON. LBJA ; "Why can't you do a biography of Napoleon?" ; INTERVIEWING. "I lied under oath": Luis Salas ; "Hell, no, he's not dead": Vernon Whiteside ; "It's all there in black and white": Ella So Relle ; "I wanted to be a citizen": Margaret and David Frost ; "My eyes were just out on stems": Lady Bird Johnson ; Tricks of the trade -- A sense of place -- Two songs -- The Paris Review interview. |
| Note |
"This is a Borzoi book published by Alfred A. Knopf." |
| Subject |
Caro, Robert A.
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Journalists -- United States -- Biography.
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Authors, American -- 20th century -- Biography.
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Authorship.
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LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Journalism.
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LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Composition & Creative Writing.
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Caro, Robert A. (OCoLC)fst00094043
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Authors, American. (OCoLC)fst00821764
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Authorship. (OCoLC)fst00822442
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Journalists. (OCoLC)fst00984188
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United States. (OCoLC)fst01204155
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| Chronological Term |
1900-1999
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| Genre/Form |
Biography. (OCoLC)fst01423686
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Autobiographies.
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| Other Form: |
Online version: Caro, Robert A., author. Working First edition. New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2019 9780525656357 (DLC) 2019000496 |
| ISBN |
9780525656340 |
|
0525656340 |
|
