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John Dickerson

On Her Trail: My Mother, Nancy Dickerson, TV News' First Woman Star Paperback – August 18, 2015

by John Dickerson (Author)

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Before Barbara Walters, before Katie Couric, there was Nancy Dickerson. The first female member of the Washington TV news corps, Nancy was the only woman covering many of the most iconic events of the sixties. She was the first reporter to speak to President Kennedy after his inauguration and she was on the Mall with Martin Luther King Jr. during the march on Washington; she had dinner with LBJ the night after Kennedy was assassinated and got late-night calls from President Nixon. Ambitious, beautiful and smart, she dated senators and congressmen and got advice and accolades from Edward R. Murrow. She was one of President Johnson's favorite reporters, and he often greeted her on-camera with a familiar "Hello, Nancy." In the '60s Nancy and her husband Wyatt Dickerson were Washington's golden couple, and the capital's power brokers coveted invitations to swank dinners at their estate on the Potomac.

Growing up in the shadow of Nancy's fame, John Dickerson rarely saw his mother. This frank memoir -- part remembrance, part discovery -- describes a freewheeling childhood in which Nancy Dickerson was rarely around unless John was in trouble or she was throwing a party for the president and John was instructed to check the coats. By the time John was old enough to know what the news was, his mother was no longer in the national spotlight and he didn't see why she should be. He thought she was a liar and a phony. When he was fourteen, his parents divorced, and he moved in with his father.

As an adult, John found himself in Washington, a reporter covering her old beat. A long-delayed connection between mother and son began, only to be cut short by Nancy's death in 1997. In her journals, letters and yellowed newspaper clippings, John discovered the woman he never knew -- an icon in television history whose achievement was the result of her relentless determination to reinvent herself and excel. On Her Trail is a fascinating picture of the early days of television and of Washington society at its most high powered, and charts a son's honest and wry search for the mother he came to admire and love.

Print length

360 pages
Language

English
Publication date

August 18, 2015
Dimensions

5.5 x 0.9 x 8.38 inches
ISBN-10

1501130676
ISBN-13

978-1501130670
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"John Dickerson's biography of Nancy Dickerson is a raw and compelling portrait of his mother, who was, in a way, the Katie Couric of her time, the first woman to break into the all-male fortress of TV news, back in the dark ages of the 1960s. With On Her Trail Dickerson has written more than a biography: it is a history of the time, with rich new stories about John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson and a social dissection of elite Washington. It is--and this may be the most captivating part of the book--a personal confession of life with a mother almost obsessively driven in her career. . . . The book is a mix of solid reportorial digging with a son's sometimes heartbreaking insights. It is bold, shocking at times, and brilliant."
--Lesley Stahl

"Beautifully observed and richly reported, a family tale with a twist--because it's written about the kind of family that normally wouldn't let secrets make their way outside the security fence. A tough and loving book by a gifted journalist."
--Peggy Noonan

"Anyone who was a big fan of Nancy Dickerson will hate John Dickerson by about page 40. But by the time you reach the end of this poignant, sometimes funny, but always wise and human memoir-biography, you will love them both. John for his insight and compassion, and Nancy for the price she paid to blaze the trail for Katie Couric and Greta van Susteren."
--Al Franken

"With On Her Trail, John Dickerson has written a compelling and nuanced portrait of his mother, Nancy Dickerson, who was TV news' first woman star. . . . There are plenty of details in Dickerson's book to interest Kennedy-watchers. . . . But most of all, the book is rich with details about the political and the powerful in the '60s and '70s as television news came of age." --Boston Globe

“Riveting. . . . You cannot turn your eyes away.”
--Elsa Walsh, The Washington Post

“A memorable portrait of the woman and her career. . . . A unique and authentic view of Nancy Hanschman Dickerson . . . that will shape future studies of this phenomenal woman.”
--The Washington Times

About the Author

John Dickerson is Slate's chief political correspondent and appears regularly on NPR, FOX and MSNBC. A former White House correspondent for Time magazine, he covered George W. Bush's administration and his presidential campaigns. He and his wife and two children live in Washington, DC.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Simon & Schuster; Reissue edition (August 18, 2015)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 360 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1501130676
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1501130670
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.9 x 8.38 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,332,177 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,898 in Journalist Biographies
- #13,939 in Women's Biographies
- #43,238 in Memoirs (Books)

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86 ratings

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John Dickerson

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I am a correspondent for 60 Minutes and CBS News. I am also a contributing writer for The Atlantic magazine. Formerly I was co-host of CBS This Morning, moderator of Face the Nation and CBS Chief Washington Correspondent and Political Director. In my print career, I wrote for Slate magazine for ten years and Time magazine for twelve years before that. I sometimes write about topics other than politics, like family and risk-taking and baseball but those pieces have yet to be collected into a book of essays to read on a quiet Sunday afternoon. I also can be found on the Political Gabfest and Whistlestop podcasts.

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3 star		8%
2 star		2%
1 star		2%

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Noneofyourbiz

"A Great Lady"

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 1, 2008

Verified Purchase

That's how George W. Bush described Nancy Dickerson. So at last we stumble upon something I can agree with The President about!

I am just a few years older than the author, and was a very little girl when I saw Nancy Dickerson on TV. I found her fascinating, because she was the only female newscaster I had ever seen. (This was before Nickolodeon, and I watched whatever came on, including the news.) She had a deep, mellow voice and a very calm way of speaking that conveyed to my young ears that was she was talking about was IMPORTANT.

Turns out she was as brave and as tough as I wanted her to be. Reading this book, I realized how hard it was for her to be the first girl in The Boys' Club. How hard she tried (if you've read the book, that will make you smile), both at work and at home. As if being a trailblazer on TV wasn't enough, Nancy married a widower and became instant mother to adolescent girls. Gulp! And she went on to have two kids of her own (including the author).

Her son does a masterful job of telling her story both as a frustrated, disillusioned child of divorce and as a fledgling journalist himself, learning to appreciate his mother's accomplishments. This is no mean feat. I did, however, subtract a star for some silly errors. (JFK and Jackie married at Merrywood, and were already wed when he wrote Profiles in Courage. Our author is not only a reporter, he lived in that house for 20 years, you'd think he could get those facts straight.)

4 people found this helpful

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Elisabeth Null

A great read by a gifted writer

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 24, 2006

Verified Purchase

On Her Trail is a must read for anyone with an interest in Washington society, the mechanisms of national political life, women's history, or the evolution of modern journalism. It is also a model of supple, elegant story-telling. Journalist John Dickerson has laced his biographical memoir with wit and pathos, turning the book into a real page-turner.

He traces his painful but intertwined relationship with his mother, tv news pioneer Nancy Dickerson, a role model for generations of ambitious women inspired by her career as a female national network news correspondent. Dickerson uses the tools of his trade to explore his mother's life from many vantage points. By telling "both sides of the story," he recalls his "Mom" through the eyes of an emotionally neglected child while sustaining empathy for her throughout his narrative. Anyone who has read John Dickerson's columns at Slate Magazine [...], knows he is a master of Washington's elite ethnography: analyzing the unspoken rules of the game and the skills of politicians attempting to negotiate these rules. He got his initial training at Merrywood, his parent's mansion, opening doors for galas frequented by Washington's leading power couples. As the book progresses, we flash in and out of Nancy Dickerson's adventures on Capitol Hill and on the presidential campaign trail---experiences compared and contrasted with those of her son, for many years a Time political and White House correspondent. I got an almost visceral exposure to the way news is gathered and had many laughs and tears along the way.

15 people found this helpful

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MaraLazar

Appeals to the heart as well as the brain

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 27, 2015

Verified Purchase

This book was extremely satisfying to my brain as well as to my heart. It is a wonderfully human story with personal and historic insights into the Kennedy through Reagan regimes. This is the story of Nancy Dickerson, a woman breaking into television media in the 50’s, a place quite devoid of women up until that time. It is also the story of the author, John Dickerson, her son. In a sense, Mr. Dickerson has followed in her footsteps with his own impressive career in the political media world. Previous reviews have criticized the author for lashing out at Ms. Dickerson. I can’t help but wonder if they were reading a strangely edited Readers Digest version of this book. Yes, there were some critical, outright painful passages, but I read a nuanced and thoughtful account of a fascinating story. Mr. Dickerson manages to objectively analyze his mother’s career and her role in making a path for other women in media. Sure, he is less objective when discussing her parenting skills, and the impact that it had on him, but that is part of what makes this book so compelling. He expresses great regret in judging her so harshly as an adolescent. Overall this as a richly satisfying read.

7 people found this helpful

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Kim

So personal, clever, and compelling!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 11, 2020

Verified Purchase

No doubt, Nancy Dickerson is smiling down from Heaven at her son, John's masterpiece. I couldn't put this book down, and just sent it to my mom. We were huge Nancy Dickerson fans in the 60's. Mrs. Dickerson answered my fan letter when I was age 14, and inspired me to become a television news anchor, reporter and producer. Even if you are too young to remember TV's first female news star, this book is worth your time. There are many colorful stories about the Kennedy and Johnson presidencies which Dickerson covered. And you'll learn why a coveted broadcast news career isn't always what it seems.

2 people found this helpful

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JSLundgren

A qualified "read"

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 20, 2015

Verified Purchase

I didn't love John Dickerson's writing style, but I enjoyed learning more about his mother, the subject, Nancy Dickerson. I have vague recollections of her as a lone female news reporter when I was young and I wondered what happened to her. She was clearly a complicated person. It took a lot to get through the first 40 or so pages because John clearly had an axe to grind when it came to his mother. After he vented a bit, we got down to who she was and how her life unfolded. She was a tough broad. She used her femininity to get what she wanted. It wasn't easy for her but she had her sights set. I don't know who else could have told the story, but I feel like it could have been told better. Even so, I'm glad I read this book and learned about Nancy.

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