An Honorable Estate: My Time in the Working Press

ISBN: 0807127329

Author: Rubin, Louis Decimus

Condition: New

In his delightful new memoir, Louis Rubin takes us back to the days when Coca-Colas were called "dopes" and the newspaper business was still a young man's best entree to the world of letters. Rubin brings to life the newsroom of the 1940s and the 1950s and makes real the seductive lures of the low-paying but exciting work of the reporter. And ultimately, this consummate man of words discloses why he left the career he had pursued since the age of ten, when he produced his first newspaper using carbon copies.In AN HONORABLE ESTATE, Rubin conjures the newsrooms of his youth, complete with lead slugs and the tangy smell of printing ink. He sketches the changing cast of characters of his early career: friendly police sergeants and vindictive fire captains from the local beat; middle-aged copyeditors with odd mannerisms and bad luck at the racetrack; and the very best and worst of people working as reporters and editors at papers large and small.His unswerving historical perspective and faultless prose are on display throughout. By turns funny and profound, Rubin describes the sticky situations that arise from writing editorials and examines the reasons behind his reporting choices and job changes. He is utterly forthright about his career missteps, his nostalgia for a South that never was, and the evolution of his views on desegregation-views that landed him at odds with his brilliant conservative friend and one-time boss James Kilpatrick.Guiding this remarkable reminiscence is Rubin's desire to work out why, in his thirties, he relinquished his lifelong ambition to be a daily journalist-a profession he continues to admire mightily-and what this says about his temperment and capabilities. Anyone interested in the Golden Age of journalism or considering a career in the Fourth Estate, and all who admire Rubin's extraordinary storytelling gift, will relish this account of the birth and metamorphosis of a writing life.