Synopses & Reviews
Croswell Bowen: A Writerand#8217;s Life, a Daughterand#8217;s Portrait is the life story of a journalist who wrote his way through the major events of the mid-twentieth century.
and#160;While tracing the trajectory of Croswell Bowenand#8217;s (1905and#8211;71) personal life, his daughter, Betsy Connor Bowen, follows the path left by her father as he wrote about the Wall Street crash of 1929, the Great Depression, World War II, the McCarthy era, the presidency of John F. Kennedy, and the Vietnam War.
and#160;A riveting account of the life and times of an American journalist, Connor Bowenand#8217;s biography of Bowen is a daughterand#8217;s quest to find her father through his work at the intersections of journalism, democracy, and liberalism.
and#160;Bowenand#8217;s life and work were shaped by his conviction that finding the right stories and telling them with the right words could create a better world. He wrote about criminals, poverty, illness, discrimination, and other matters of social injustice. While writing to advance causes he believed in and lending a voice to the less fortunate, he struggled to maintain his marriage and provide for his family. Although he made mistakes in both his professional and personal life, Connor Bowen celebrates his ability, even in failure, to maintain bold moral integrity.
and#160;
Review
and#8220;Croswell Bowen was a man full of contradictions, and life did not always deal him a fair hand. Difficult he sometimes may have been, but you cannot take away his talent as a writer and reporter or fault his generosity of spirit. He deserves not to be forgotten, and thanks to this loving and eloquent portrait by his oldest daughter, he wonand#8217;t be.and#8221;and#8212;Robert Cowley, author and founding editor of
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History and#160;
Review
and#8220;Walking the tricky line between biography and memoir with aplomb, Betsy Connor Bowen paints a portrait of her New Deal liberal photo-reporter father that shows him in his literary glory but with his flaws as welland#8212;which makes him all the more intriguing. Fascinating and heart-breaking.and#8221;and#8212;Heath Lee, author of
Winnie Davis: Daughter of the Lost Causeand#160;
Review
and#8220;This book is an homage to all those who, like Croswell Bowen, dare to face the blank page, who live from one story to the next in order to understand and articulate the world they knowand#8212;and, ideally, script a better one. An engrossing must-read for aspiring and veteran journalists alike.and#8221;and#8212;Stacey Chase, freelance writer for the
Boston Globe and
Globe Magazine, the
Christian Science Monitor, and
NewsweekSynopsis
The host of The Bob Edwards Show and Bob Edwards Weekend on Sirius XM Radio, Bob Edwards became the first radio personality with a large national audience to take his chances in the new field of satellite radio. The programs' mix of long-form interviews and news documentaries has won many prestigious awards.
For thirty years, Louisville native Edwards was the voice of National Public Radio's daily newsmagazine programs, co-hosting All Things Considered before launching Morning Edition in 1979. These programs built NPR's national audience while also bringing Edwards to national prominence. In 2004, however, NPR announced that it would be finding a replacement for Edwards, inciting protests from tens of thousands of his fans and controversy among his listeners and fellow broadcasters. Today, Edwards continues to inform the American public with a voice known for its sincerity, intelligence, and wit.
In A Voice in the Box: My Life in Radio, Edwards recounts his career as one of the most important figures in modern broadcasting. He describes his road to success on the radio waves, from his early days knocking on station doors during college and working for American Forces Korea Network to his work at NPR and induction into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2004. Edwards tells the story of his exit from NPR and the launch of his new radio ventures on the XM Satellite Radio network. Throughout the book, his sharp observations about the people he interviewed and covered and the colleagues with whom he worked offer a window on forty years of American news and on the evolution of public journalism.
A Voice in the Box is an insider's account of the world of American media and a fascinating, personal narrative from one of the most iconic personalities in radio history.
About the Author
BETSY CONNOR BOWEN has worked as a community organizer, elementary school teacher, college instructor and assistant professor, securities analyst, journalist, and filmmaker. She is the author of a young adult novella, Spring Bear, and the editor of her father's World War II memoir, Back from Tobruk (Potomac Books, 2012).