Books & Brunch to Look at Press Follies Oct. 19

The Oct. 19 NPC Books & Brunch meeting will feature a look at press foibles and follies through a lens of the past.

The discussion of the book “Just Enough Liebling: Classic Work by the legendary New Yorker Writer A. J. Liebling” begins at noon on the 19th in the Club’s Fourth Estate restaurant.

"From the grave, which claimed him (in 1963) at age 59, A.J. Liebling continues to reign as the great American press critic," Jack Shafer wrote in "Slate" in 2004. "Although Liebling contributed millions of words to The New Yorker and other publications about food, New York, boxing, scam artists, war, all things French, low-life culture, politicians, and the Paiute Indians (!), he's best remembered for the 82 columns of press criticism he wrote for the magazine between 1945 and 1963 under its 'Wayward Press' rubric."

The part of the book that could spark the most conversation may well be Liebling's examination of how newspapers responded when the Kremlin announced on March 4, 1953, that dictator Josef Stalin had suffered a brain hemorrhage and then the next day that he had died.

The lack of trustworthy news from the Soviet Union didn't stop newspaper commentators from speculating on likely consequences.

"According to newspaper canon, however, a big story calls for a lot of copy,'' Liebling wrote of Stalin's stroke and death. ``The New York papers rose to the occasion by resorting to a procedure known variously as constructive journalism, interpretive reporting, and the crystal ball. Newspaper seers had to start explaining the significance of his death before he had actually died and then keep on inventing exegeses until he was in his tomb."

Liebling concluded: "When you fill your news columns with stuff that is only 10 percent news, I suppose you create in the reader's mind a doubt that any of it is news."

Books & Brunch meets in the Fourth Estate Restaurant on the third Saturday of each month. Monthly discussions alternate between fiction and non-fiction books that attendees select two months before they are discussed.

The Nov. 16 discussion will be on "The Stranger’s Child" by Alan Hollnghurst.

For more information or to be added to the Books & Bruch email list contact the group's chair, Jack Williams, at [email protected]