A Matter of Opinion (Hardcover)

by Victor S. Navasky (Author) "I am the first member of my family to earn a college degree (A.B., Swarthmore 1954)..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, The New Republic, National Review (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
As the mordant maxim byword at the offices of a certain left-wing weekly has it, "If it's bad for the country, it's good for The Nation" (the magazine's circulation has risen 71% since the 2000 election of George Bush). Of course, an alternative theory might emphasize Navasky's sure-handed stewardship of the country's "oldest weekly magazine" over the last 25 years. After editing a prominent 1960s satirical magazine (the Monocle) and working at the New York Times Magazine, Navasky, with his combination of bedrock principle and a light touch, was a perfect fit at the Nation. Unmistakably confined to professional doings (family members are hardly mentioned), this memoir recounts myriad tempests in teapots (and some not so trifling), lawsuits, donnybrooks, controversies and lines drawn in the sand. If the New Republic is where liberals address Washington, the Nation is where liberals talk among themselves. Navasky discusses many of his lively charges and colleagues (Trillin, Ephron, Hitchens, Sontag), and relates his thinking behind some of his most important decisions as an editor. Too fragmented to substitute for a history of the left over the past few decades, Navasky's story is finally about the nuts and bolts of editing an intellectual journal, interesting enough in its own right. Agent, Amanda Urban. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The New Yorker
"Journals of opinion are not by themselves going to save the world," Navasky admits, but, in nearly three decades of running The Nation and in four hundred-odd pages here, he remains a tireless evangelist for the idea that the world as we know it—liberal, democratic, and Enlightened—won't be saved without them and the public discourse they foster. Opinion magazines themselves, however, survive on the strength of their editors, or, as Navasky points out, on the reach of their editors' Rolodexes, and, luckily for The Nation, Navasky knows almost everyone. The front-room tour of his charmed rise from the Little Red School House to the publisher's chair includes visits with Bob Guccione, Paul Newman, and Jürgen Habermas. Along the way, Allen Ginsberg sleeps on the floor, formerly blacklisted members of the Hollywood Ten defame each other, and Norman Mailer claims he's never sold out.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 464 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1st edition (April 21, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374299978
• ISBN-13: 978-0374299972
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.4 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,054,265 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent book, January 3, 2007

By	E. M. Uprichard "emu1" (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: A Matter of Opinion (Paperback)

A riveting tale of the world of opinion magazines. Not for everyone, perhaps, but if you have ever been interested in what it takes to publish a magazine, this book portrays it well. But the real selling point is that it's beautifully written. He's funny, clever, bright, and charming. You get a serious look at his life as well as his work and it's for this reason that the book is excellent.