Althouse: "The abundance of sightings has also garnered the attention of another New York journalist and author: the 84-year-old biographer himself."

May 28, 2020

"The abundance of sightings has also garnered the attention of another New York journalist and author: the 84-year-old biographer himself."

1. And I've garnered the attention of "garnered."

2. The quoted sentence is from "Lights. Camera. Makeup. And a Carefully Placed 1,246-Page Book/‘The Power Broker,’ a biography by Robert Caro, has become a must-have prop for numerous politicians and reporters appearing on camera from home" (NYT).

3. Robert A. Caro is the one nonfiction author I keep track of and "garner" is a word I keep track of, so this article hit right in my zone. I like the interior decoration angle too — interior decoration in the time of the virus.

19 comments:

Michael K said...: I just want the volume five of his LBJ biography to appear. I have not read the Moses bio. Too many other things to read. I just finished the siege of Acre in the new biography of Napoleon.; 5/28/20, 3:50 PM
Ken B said...: Interesting question: what non fiction authors do you watch for?

I have several. In no particular order
Tom Holland
Bart Ehrman
Nassim Taleb
Jon Haidt
Ibn Warraq

I don’t always read their latest but I always give it a look-see, and usually read it. I am reading Holland's latest now, Dominion. It is interesting and good but not up to In the Shadow of the Sword, or Rubicon.; 5/28/20, 4:02 PM
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...: I hope there's a recent pic of Caro in shorts.; 5/28/20, 4:10 PM
RKS said...: Any Bible sightings?; 5/28/20, 4:20 PM
gspencer said...: I recentlyly read Caro's Power Broker. Certainly interesting. My criticism: Caro repeats needlessly. The book should be 40% is size. The same can be said of his work on LBJ. Doesn't he have editors?

All despite its size, Caro doesn't even mention one of the greatest chapters in Moses' life: Moses' being taken-down by a dowdy but fierce challenger, one Jane Jacobs, who doggedly fought Moses over that Lower Manhattan Expressway. And won.; 5/28/20, 4:39 PM
Marcus Bressler said...: His book on Robert Moses was outstanding.

THEOLDMAN

Will get around to the LBJ volumes in the near future.; 5/28/20, 4:40 PM
gspencer said...: "Any Bible sightings?"

Surely you jest!; 5/28/20, 5:45 PM
Michael K said...: I have several. In no particular order
Tom Holland

Holland, I understand , has been in hiding since "Shadow of the Sword."; 5/28/20, 5:52 PM
Temujin said...: I'm so old fashioned, I still use books to read.

Ken B. check out any of the books by Robert Kaplan, if you like non-fiction geopolitics.; 5/28/20, 5:53 PM
Ann Althouse said...: @gspencer

There's a wonderful chapter on Jacobs but it was cut in the process of editing:

"I got a response from Ina Caro, the author's wife and research assistant, via his lecture agent, who wrote, "Over 30 years ago, when she typed the original manuscript for The Power Broker, there was a wonderful chapter on Jane Jacobs--as good, she thought, as the one on the Cross Bronx Expressway. Unfortunately, when the book was handed in it was one million words long and had to be cut by a third -- 300,000 words. Entire chapters were cut. One on the Brooklyn Dodgers and Moses, one on the Port Authority, one on the city planning commission, one on the Verrazano Narrow Bridge and one on Jane Jacobs. She hopes those pages are still in storage and can be read someday when a library acquires Mr. Caro's papers."... That's a trove of material that should surface someday... Given that The Power Broker has been reprinted umpteen times, I'd love to see future editions add a bibliographical note briefly describing the missing chapters. That would relieve future readers from some measure of wonder."; 5/28/20, 6:12 PM
bwebster said...: I wonder how many of them have actually read The Power Broker? I bought it and read it probably a good forty years ago and gained - as a semi-native Californian - a greater understanding of NYC culture and history than by any other study, before and since. It’s also what led me to start reading his LBJ biography as it began to come out. I stopped after volume 3 and am waiting for him to finish it before reading the whole series in a row.; 5/28/20, 8:12 PM
Marcus Bressler said...: I was wondering what happened to the Varrazano Narrows bridge in that tome.

THEOLDMAN; 5/28/20, 8:19 PM
William said...: David McCullough, Ron Chernow or Robert Caro. These are the writers whose books are most likely to appear on the bookshelves of people who appear on television. With the exception of Stacy Abrams, you rarely see any Harlequin Romances.; 5/28/20, 9:35 PM
daskol said...: Put the damn book on Kindle already. Save the trees.; 5/29/20, 9:35 AM
daskol said...: This is a neat graphic/comic book take on Robert Moses and his many projects in NYC, for those who prefer pictures to a bajillion words.; 5/29/20, 9:38 AM
Unknown said...: The problem with many of these non-fiction works is that they are usually VERY long, and become a bit of a chore to read. Nonetheless, they are quite good, and do provide a good background (if nothing else) about human nature and its interaction with real-world circumstances. Along the lines of Power Broker, my current pandemic-lockdown reading material is "Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898" by Edwin G. Burrows & Mike Wallace (not THAT Mike Wallace). I find it an excellent insight into the city's history, and it continues to explain (in part) some of the reasons why certain streets are named as they are, and other places (e.g., neighborhoods) are called what they are. Very well-researched, and well-written, in my opinion.; 5/29/20, 9:41 AM
daskol said...: Since NYC has been supplanted by Capital City in the global dominion, I think Hedrick Smith's the Power Game is more important than books of that once great city of yore.; 5/29/20, 9:57 AM
Narr said...: I'm being completely open and honest here when I say that it's surprising to me, and a little saddening, that Prof follows only one non-fiction author. I watch Caro when he's on CSpan and don't doubt his books are good, but that's too much to commit myself to. Now.

Amen to Robert D. Kaplan, and Tom Holland. Simon Winchester. Homeboy Hampton Sides.
Steven Johnson.

For military history nerds, I strongly recommend Cathal Nolan's The Allure of Battle.

So many excellent writers on interesting topics!

Narr
Wulf's Humboldt bio is off to a good start; 5/29/20, 10:20 AM
Nichevo said...: Missing chapters of The Power Broker would be worth the read. Infuriating that three boroughs of New York public libraries have TPB only on audio. WTF?!; 5/30/20, 3:09 AM