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Read all about them
Capsule reviews prepared by the
American Library Assn.
By Carol Felsenthal
In the late 19505, there
wasn't even a token woman
doing serious television repor
ting.
So Nancy Dickerson was a
first, when in 1960 she was
made a CBS network cor
respondent, after landing a
newsbreaking interview with
Speaker of the House Sam
Rayburn —a man who
religiously refused requests
for TV interviews because
“the bright lights made his
bald head look even balder.”
After Lyndon Johnson
decided to run for vice presi
dent, he also refused all inter
view requests — except
Dickerson's. From a swarm
of shoving, shouting
reporters, he’d consistently
pick her out, greet her with,
“Hello, Nancy” and so give
CBS the edge in cutthroat
network competition.
Dickerson’s memoirs of
covering The last four’ ad
ministrations are fascinating
WHAT AMERICANS ARE READING
Based on most requested books from the shelves of libraries
in 150 cities around the country, compiled by the American
Library Association. (Distributed by Newspaper Enterprise
Assn.}
Fiction
Week Lasl Weeks
Week On List
1. TOUCH NOT THE CAT, , 17
by. Mary Stewart (Morrow. $8 95 )
2. TRINITY, 3 37
by Leon Uris (Doubleday. $lO 00 )
3. DOLORES, . 4 19
by Jacqueline Susann (Morrow. $6 96 )
4. SLEEPING MURDER, 2 8
by Agatha Christie (Dodd, Mead. $7 95 )
S.ORDINARY PEOPLE, 9 15
by Judith Guest (Viking, $7 95 )
6. LONELY LADY, 6 24
by Harold Robbins (Simon & Schuster $9 95 )
7.STORM WARNING, 5 4
by Jack Higgins (Holt. Rinehart &Winston
$8.95)
8. PRIDE OF THE PEACOCK, 10 14
by Victoria Holt (Doubleday. $7 95 )
9. OF THE INNOCENT, 8 3
by Taylor Caldwell (Doubleday. $lO 95 )
10. WEDNESDAY, THE RABBI GOT WET, 7 4
by Harry Kemelman (Morrow, $8 95.)
Non-Fiction
This Last Weeks
Week Week On List
1. ROOTS, 1 9
by Alex Haley (Doubleday. $12.50.)
2. PASSAGES, 2 21
by Gail Sheehy (Dutton, $lO 95.)
3. YOUR ERRONEOUS ZONES, 3 B
by Wayne W Dwyer (Funk & Wagnails, $6.96.)
4. RIGHT AND THE POWER, 5 8
by Leon Jaworski (Readers Digest Press/Gulf
Publishing Co . $9 95.)
5. BLIND AMBITION: THE WHITE HOUSE 4 3
YEARS,
by John Dean (Simon & Schuster. $11.95.)
6. FINAL DAYS, 8 34
by Woodward & Bernstein (Siomon & Schuster,
$12.50.)
7. SYBIL, 6 2
by Flora Rheta Schreiber (Regnery, $8 95.)
8. BLOOD & MONEY, 7 5
by Thomas Thompson (Doubleday, $10.95.)
9. MAN CALLED INTREPID: THE SECRET — . 28
WAR,
by William Stevenson (Harcourt, Brace.
Jovanovich, $12.95.)
10. ADOLPH HITLER, 10 2
by John Toland (Doubleday. $14.95.)
One hour
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AMONG THOSE PRESENT by Nancy Dickerson (Random House,
238 pages. $8.95)
ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES by Richard H. Rovere (MacMillan,
274 pages. $10.95)
TALKING WOMAN by Shana Alexander (Delacorte, 271 pages,
$8.95)
because she was always
“Among Those Present;”
always reporting from inside
Washington social and
political circles. When she
reports that L.B.J. felt in
ferior to the Kennedys, she
backs up her statement by
recalling Johnson pleading
with her during the 1960 cam
paign, “Nancy, you know the
Kennedys. Will you tell them
what a good job I'm doing?
. . Or at least will you tell
them how hard I’m trying?”
In 1970, when students
descended on Washington to
protest the U.S. invasion of
Cambodia, Nixon made a
middle-of-the-night visit to the
Lincoln Memorial, the
student’s campsite. What
prompted that bizarre
pilgrimage was a suggestion
from Dickerson, whom Nixon
had called a couple of hours
BE 8 '
mm ■ /Hr
NANCY DICKERSON tells
how it felt to be “Among
Those Present”.
earlier and awoken from a
sound sleep. “I really love
those kids," he assured the
groggy reporter. “I told
Haldeman and Erlichman to
bring them all in here ... I
told them I’d love to see the
kids.”
The fact that the powerful
confided in Dickerson makes
her book difficult to put down
but also troubling to read.
Dancing with L.B.J. at a
White House ball or chatting
with Kissinger at a
Georgetown dinner party are
certainly not ideal
preparations for investigative
or even hard news reporting
But her memoirs show that
the Dickerson formula for
success included more than
charm and carefully
cultivated contacts. Mixed in
were boundless energy and
capacity for work — working
on Christmas and Thanksgiv
ing, sandwiching in her
marriage and the birth of her
sons between deadlines and
inaugural balls, toiling 18-
hour-days during conventions,
and spending large chunks of
her life in airplanes and
motels. She was away from
home so frequently that when
she called home to talk to her
son and “he was told his Mom
my wanted to talk to him, he
ranWfiifetele/isioA instead of
goirifelbW phdfo.”
Judging (tom her
pedestrian prose, Nancy
Dickerson performs much
better in front of a camera
than a typewriter. Shana
Alexander, author of “Talking
Woman,” turns out to be the
quintessential “writing
woman" — an absolutely
superb stylist.
In reprints of her Life and
Newsweek columns, strung
together by short
autobiographical reflections,
Alexander writes brilliantly
about subjects as diverse as
Patty Hearst, Bella Abzug,
Masters and Johnson (“The
Ma and Pa Kettle of
gynecology”), the Watergate
hearings (“educational TV of
the highest order, Sesame St.
for grownups”), a pregnant
elephant, and George
Wallace.
She also writes brilliantly,
but not extensively enough,
about herself. If Dickerson is
a television pioneer, Alex
ander is a magazine pioneer.
She started at Life in 1951 as a
researcher (“Only men could
become writers”). In 1961,
after writing what remains
one of the best portraits ever
written of Judy Garland
(reprinted in her book) she
became Life’s first female
staff writer and, three years
later, she became its first
female columnist.
She left Life after 18 years
to become editor of McCalls,
the first woman editor of the
world’s largest woman’s
magazine in 50 years. “It was
an uncomfortable position for
me, but it didn't last long. I
was expected to talk and act
like a lady editor. I didn’t and
I got fired.”
From there she went to
Newsweek where she produc
ed consummate commen
taries on Watergate, the SLA,
Operation Babylift and Opera
tion Homecoming — all sub
jects that had been written to
death, but brought alive with
Alexander’s rare wit, insight,
and intelligence.
Alexander’s style is to get
emotionally involved with her
subject. In “Arrivals and
Departures," part reprinted
articles and part memoirs,
Griffin
DALE
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Richard Rovere shows a style
as different as possible from
Alexander’s, but equally com
pelling. His prose is as un
derstated and elegant as the
New Yorker — the magazine
he has been writing for since
1944.
Although the collection in
cludes fine portraits of Joe
McCarthy and John Kennedy
— both written following per
sonal interviews — Rovere
usually writes about
politicians without the
benefit, or burden, as he
would have it, of personal con
tact. Instead, he relies on the
politician’s record.
In 1955 he wrote a study of
Richard Nixon’s career, hav
ing often observed but never
met the man. Nixon indignant
ly asked Rovere how he could
judge a man he had never
met. Rovere asked Nixon if he
thought Carl Sandburg should
have abstained from writing
about Abraham Lincoln
‘ because he had not known
him. Nixon shrugged and
walked away, but eight years
later Rovere turned up on the
President’s enemies list.
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film!
Quote/Unquote What people are saying
k / H
Henry Kissinger
“I believe that the
relationship between morality
and foreign policy is not a
simple one. I agree . . . that it
is necessary to have strong
moral conviction, but it is also
necessary to bring into
relationship the realities of a
situation with moral purposes
. . . (And) it is the essence of
foreign policy to take into ac
count the views of others that
may also be claimed to be un
iversal.”
Page 11
— Secretary of State Henry
Kissinger in his farewell ad
dress to NATO officials in
Brussels.
“I want to make Stan
Musial commissioner. He’s
qualified and he says he will
take the job. Kuhn — to heck
with Kuhn — he never
smiles.”
— Ted Turner, owner of the
Atlanta Braves, who wants to
get rid of baseball Com
missioner Bowie Kuhn.
“Neither the regime nor the
society at large understands
what human rights are.”
— Russian dissident historian
Andrei Amalrik, explaining
that the fight for freedom in
the U.S.S.R. is hampered by
an absence of any Russian
tradition of civil liberties.
“You don’t realize the im
portance or significance of
such a thing (as citizenship)
until you lose it.”
— Iva Toguri d’Aquino, known
during World War II as
— Griffin Daily News Monday, December 20, 1976
“Tokyo Rose,” on her request
for a pardon from President
Ford.
“I like to see the ball in the
air. That way I know where it
is.”
— Oregon State football coach
Craig Fertig.
“I used to do interviews. I
used to enjoy doing them. But
it turned out that I was always
getting misquoted and people
were confusing facts. It took
me a long time to figure out
that the only people who are
really interested in talking to
me are my friends, and the
radio and press people just
aren't my friends.”
— Jonathan Richman, lead
singer of Modern Lovers, a
rock group, in a recent story
in Crawdaddy magazine.
“I’ve played Santa Claus for
so many years, I do it with my
eyes closed.”
— Irving Selis, executive
director of The Associated
Blind, who is blind himself, on
his organization’s annual
Christmas party for blind
children.
“When you’re testifying
three days a week on the
average, sometimes four,
then how in the world can one
be expected to run a depart
ment of 120,000 people?”
— Treasury Secretary
William Simon complaining
about the frequency with
which he is called to testify
before Congress.
William Simon