Nothin' But Good Times Ahead
Will van Overbeck (Jacket photograph) New York, NY: Random House, 1993. First edition [stated]. Hardcover. xi, [3], 255, [3] pages. Inscribed by author on fep. DJ is price clipped. She's back. Molly Ivins, our most perceptive, outrageously funny political commentator, has given us an uproarious book. In Nothin' But Good Times Ahead, Ivins proved that no one has a steadier gaze or a quicker trigger finger, as she hits the bull's-eye in such targets as George Bush, Bill Clinton, Camille Paglia, the Clarence Thomas hearings, and the ethics-twisting, English-slaughtering pols of her beloved Texas. Here's Molly on: The 1992 Republican Convention: "Many people did not care for Pat Buchanan's speech; it probably sounded better in the original German." Texas politics: "Better than the zoo, better than the circus, rougher than football, and even more aesthetically satisfying than baseball." Gibber Lewis, former House Speaker of the Texas State Legislature: "He once announced, 'This is unparalyzed in the state's history." Another Gibberism: "It could have bad ramifistations in the hilterlands." From Wikipedia: "Mary Tyler "Molly" Ivins (August 30, 1944 January 31, 2007) was an American newspaper columnist, populist, political commentator, humorist and author....Ivins was born in Monterrey, California, and raised in Houston, Texas. Her father, Jim Ivins, known as "General Jim" because of his rigid authoritarianism (or sometimes "Admiral Jim" for his love of sailing), was an oil and gas executive, and the family lived in Houston's affluent River Oaks neighborhood. Ivins graduated from St. John's School in 1962. In high school, she was active in extracurricular activities, including the yearbook staff. She had her first pieces of journalism published in The Review, the official student newspaper of St. John's School, though she never wrote any of the political columns that would become her specialty later in life. Ivins enrolled in Scripps College in 1962 but was not happy there, and transferred to Smith College in 1963. During this time, she became romantically involved with Henry "Hank" Holland, Jr., a family friend, and then a student at Yale, whom she referred to as "the love of my life." When he was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1964, her friends would later say that she never seemed to find anyone else who could replace his memory, and she never married. She spent her junior year at the Institute of Political Science in Paris, and received her B.A. in history in 1966. She earned a master's degree at Columbia University's school of journalism in 1967. While at Smith, Ivins spent three summers as an intern at the Houston Chronicle. After graduating from Columbia, she took a job in the Twin Cities at the Minneapolis Tribune, where she covered "militant blacks, angry Indians, radical students, uppity women and a motley assortment of other misfits and troublemakers." In 1970 Ivins left the Tribune for Austin, Texas to be the co-editor and political reporter for the Texas Observer. She covered the Texas Legislature and befriended folklorist John Henry Faulk, Secretary of State Bob Bullock and future Governor Ann Richards, among others. She also gained increasing national attention through op-ed and feature stories in The New York Times and The Washington Post along with a busy speaking schedule inside and outside Texas. The Times, concerned that its prevailing writing style was too staid and lifeless, hired her away from the Observer in 1976, and she wrote for the Times until 1982. Ivins also wrote the obituary for Elvis Presley in The New York Times for the August 17, 1977 edition. Generally, her more colorful writing style clashed with the editors' expectations, and in 1980, after she wrote about a "community chicken-killing festival" in New Mexico and called it a "gang-pluck, " she was recalled to New York as punishment. When Abe Rosenthal, editor of the Times, accused her of trying to inspire readers to think "dirty thoughts" with these words, her response was, "Damn if I could fool you, Mr. Rosenthal." Condition: Very good / Very good.
Keywords: Journalists, Columnists, Satire, Texas, Legislature, Ross Perot, George Bush, Political Reporting
ISBN: 9780679419150
[Book #66961]
Price: $100.00