City Editor (Paperback)

~ (Author), Alexander Woollcott (Foreword) "THE acrobatic city editor of fiction always has the adjective "hard-boiled" before his title; it seems as inevitable as "waiting" automobile. "nearby" drugstore and "hurrying..." (more)
Key Phrases: most newspaper men, night city editor, story reproduced, New York, Herald Tribune, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

As a writer for the old New York Herald Tribune in the 1920s and 1930s, Walker chronicled the city in words the way Weegee did with a Graflex. City Editor, from 1934, follows his own career at the Tribune as well as offering lessons in the ethics of journalism, freedom of the press, and the corporate influence on editorial. Written in 1933, The Night Club Era is Walker's portrait of the wicked city during Prohibition and how the banning of liquor gave rise to a new social setting in which, legal or not, booze flowed uninhibited and gangsters rubbed shoulders with socialites and legitimate businessmen, all unified with the single intent of having a high time with a highball. Both volumes could function equally well as history texts.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"It's the liveliest and most entertaining work about a noble profession that has appeared in years... Walker's learned essays on freedom of the press, libel, editing, the varieties of reporting experience and other topics... give the book body. Style and stories give it flavor and bouquet." -- New York Times Book Review

"It is the sort of book which will prompt all newspaper men... to glow with recollections of their experiences in the 'game.' And to those who know nothing about newspaper work except what they have learned from plays, novels, and the movies, it will come as an exciting exposé, very likely to disabuse their minds of foolishly romantic notions but corrective and enriching on that account." -- Books

"Keen, quick, interested in every detail of the endless moving picture of life which shows itself to the city editor daily. Mr. Walker writes about his craft in a style which seems fresh from the reporter's typewriter, written to catch an edition." -- Saturday Review of Literature

"Authentic and valuable... It is worth tons of books on 'How to Become a Journalist.'." -- Christian Science Monitor

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Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press; Johns Hopkins Pbk. Ed edition (August 3, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801862922
• ISBN-13: 978-0801862922
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,266,478 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Early book about a Newpaper Editor in 1930's New York, January 19, 2008

By	Robin E. Moore (Guntersville, AL United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: City Editor (Hardcover)

Stanley was the most famed, most colorful city editor in New York City. Around him grows a fine garden of anecdote.

Short, wiry, hardbitten, he was born 33 years ago on a Texas ranch. He went to the University of Texas, later worked for a while on the Dallas News. In 1919 he broke into New York on the old Herald. He was never an outstanding reporter. He stayed with the Herald when Frank Andrew Munsey merged it with the now defunct morning Sim and when Ogden Reid merged it with his Tribune.

He works his staff hard, himself harder. A day with Stanley Walker might begin at 10 a. m. and last (if he is taking both the day and night desks) until midnight. It might include lunch at the Algonquin or a bite with some of his staff in Blake's, the Herald Tribune saloon. Back at his desk, smoking innumerable cigars, he would see the first edition onto the presses, return to Blake's, catch a midnight train out to Great Neck, L. I. where he lives. On the train he reads one of the early editions so he can telephone back further instructions when he gets home.
As a writer for the old New York Herald Tribune in the 1920s and 1930s, Walker chronicled the city in words the way Weegee did with a Graflex. City Editor, from 1934, follows his own career at the Tribune as well as offering lessons in the ethics of journalism, freedom of the press, and the corporate influence on editorial.