In Search of Willie Morris; The Mercurial Life of a Legendary Writer and Editor
New York: PublicAffairs, 2006. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. xxix, [1], 353, [1] pages. Illustrations. Bibliography. Index. Larry L. King (January 1, 1929 – December 20, 2012) was an American playwright, journalist, and novelist, best remembered for his 1978 Tony Award-nominated play The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, which became a long-running production on Broadway and was later turned into a feature film starring Burt Reynolds, Charles Durning, and Dolly Parton. After his military service, and a year as a journalism major at Texas Tech, King worked as a sports and crime reporter for small newspapers in Texas and New Mexico. In 1964, King quit a Congressional staff job to concentrate on his writing, producing many magazine articles and fourteen books of both fiction and nonfiction, and became one of the leading figures in the "New Journalism." Many of his articles, covering a wide range of subjects including politics, sports, and music, were published in Harper's magazine. His soul-searching Confessions of a White Racist was nominated for a National Book Award in 1972. In 1974, he wrote an article about the Chicken Ranch brothel in La Grange, Texas. King and fellow Texan Peter Masterson developed it into the book of the Broadway musical. King received an Emmy Award in 1982 for the CBS documentary The Best Little Statehouse in Texas. In 1988, Austin's Live Oak Theatre presented King's new drama The Night Hank Williams Died. The play went on to be produced Off-Broadway and around the nation. In 1989 it received the Helen Hayes Award for best new play, and King was awarded the Mary Goldwater Award from the Theatre Lobby Trust. Willie Morris, the famously talented, and complex, writer and editor, helped to remake American journalism and wrote more than a dozen books, with several classics among them. His time at the head of Harper's magazine, where he was made editor at age thirty-two, is legendary. With writers like David Halberstam, Norman Mailer, and author of this book, Larry L. King, Harper's became the magazine to read and the place to be in print. Morris was friend, colleague, or mentor to a remarkable cast of writers, William Styron, James Jones, Truman Capote, George Plimpton, Gay Talese, and later in life, Barry Hannah, Donna Tartt, John Grisham, and Winston Groom. In Search of Willie Morris is a wise, sometimes raucous, and moving look at Morris that conveys the energy and activity of the years at the top and the troubles, talents, late rallies, and mysteries of his later life. Written with the affection of a close friend and the critical insight of a fellow writer, it is an absorbing biography of an extraordinarily gifted literary man and raconteur who inspired both wonder and frustration, and who left behind a legacy and a body of work that endures. In 1963, Morris joined the staff of Harper's Magazine as associate editor, and became editor-in-chief four years later. On publication, North Toward Home became a best-selling book and earned the prestigious Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship Award for nonfiction. It is an autobiographical account of his childhood in Yazoo City, Mississippi, early adulthood in Austin, Texas, and eventual move from the South to New York City. Critics cited the author for his tender reflections on Southern smalltown culture, and for the tone of those alienated expatriate Southerners who move north, but retain nostalgia for the South they left behind. The Cowles family, owners of Harper's Magazine, was perplexed by the content Morris published: longer articles of overtly liberal sentiment that offended more cautious advertisers. Amidst falling ad sales, the Cowles family expressed their dissatisfaction with Morris until he ultimately resigned under pressure in 1971. Derived from a Publishers Weekly article: To read this loving, loquacious, warts-and-all tribute to the famed Harper's editor and author who died in 1999 is to be a fly on the wall at a high-spirited wake attended by literati like Norman Mailer and David Halberstam. The prolific King, a friend of almost 40 years who wrote for Morris at Harper's, reconciles the brooding loner with the extroverted golden boy who at 32 revitalized America's oldest magazine. Morris's vast ambition and self-destructive alcoholism, according to King, can be traced to his overbearing, socially insecure smalltown Mississippi mother, who was a secret drinker. Most noteworthy is the description of Morris's colossal fall from grace and rash resignation from Harper's in 1971, where he was blamed for diminished profits. Other standouts are accounts of Morris's close friendship with the dying James Jones, celebrated author of From Here to Eternity , and his tumultuous affair with socialite Barbara Howar, who publicly accused Morris of ripping off her life in his poorly received novel The Last of the Southern Girls. This insider's memoir will be savored by Morris's friends and fans. Condition: Very good / No Dust Jacket present.
Keywords: Writer, Editor, Willie Morris, Harper's Magazine, Truman Capote, James Jones, David Halberstam, John Cowles, Alcoholism, Barbara Howar, Norman Mailer, Ole Miss, University of Mississippi, William Styron, Yazoo City
[Book #84988]
Price: $30.00