Halberstam dead

[MertWindu]

Jack Shafer offers up ... well, I'm not sure what it is. Maybe he comes not to praise Halberstam (who I admired, please not), but to bury him:

http://www.slate.com/id/2164960?nav=tap3

I don't care who you are. You use your column space to take shots at a dead man, and you come off like a hack. I'm convinced Shafer posts here as at least five different antagonistic idiots.

 

[Ike Broflovski]

That last story about the NY Times considering Halberstam so young that it didn't have a decent obit in the can for Tuesday's paper would explain the half-ass obit it used.

You know, I don't think it's out of the question that they did a half-ass job on the obit because Halberstam, kind of like Molly Ivins, left the paper under less than amicable terms.

 

[friend of the friendless]

Sirs, Madames,

I met Halberstam once--back when he was researching his Jordan book, about which the less said the better. Asked him a couple of questions about MJ. He humoured me. I suspect he was probably more comfortable in the company of students than middle-aged hacks like myself (probably feared the likes of me would slow him down). His book on the four old Red Sox is a beautiful piece of work--so lyrical you forget just how good his reporting is. One of those things ... you get typed as a reporter and they think that you're not a phrase turner. In the obits he'll get his props as a reporting legend, but if The Teammates was the first thing you read, you'd say that he was a pretty slick wordsmith.

YHS, etc

 

[Ike Broflovski]

That's a nice post, friendofthe . . .

I think most of what he wrote can stand as good examples for people getting into the profession of how to work a story. He was a very polished writer, but he gave himself a lot to work with. That, to me, is the secret of success. Good writing is often the result of good reporting. How many more times do you remember a story, or an article or a book, for the content, over how it was written?

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

Not to be completely contrarian but Shafer -- and Lemann -- are both right about him needing an editor on a lot of his books.

 

[HejiraHenry]

Not to be completely contrarian but Shafer -- and Lemann -- are both right about him needing an editor on a lot of his books.

Stephen King being a decent paired entry from the fiction side ...

 

[Johnny Dangerously]

And it would be great to hear Y.A. Tittle's reaction to all this. He was about to be interviewed for a great book, and then Mr. Halberstam dies on the way to his house.

I bet that woulda been a great book.

Is there someone, or more than one someone, gifted enough to gather Tittle and some others who would have been interviewed, and have a PBS-type roundtable discussion to talk about the game, the book, the what-if, and use the occasion as a tribute to Halberstam and a chance to give these subjects a chance to tell their story in a way that might illuminate us and extend the circle of respect for Halberstam?

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

Well, since we're coming up on the 50th anniversary of the game, I suspect a lot of someones will do just that.
Note to football historians -- was Tittle even on the Giants in 1958? I thought he was still with the 49ers.

 

[Johnny Dangerously]

You are correct, FB, but as you know he also played for the Colts and the Giants and probably would have been an invaluable source -- the extra kind of detail for which Halberstam is celebrated.

 

[Dan Rydell]

Anyone who wants to rip a great man like Halberstam after he dies has no respect for the work he did.

Yeah, maybe he coulda had a better editor. And what about you? Is your stuff so polished?

Halberstam wrote -- and, more significantly, reported -- more good stuff about good and bad topics than almost anyone of us could ever dream about.

**** the editing. Read what he wrote. Think about what he reported, and what it took to go do that reporting. Think about everything he saw, and then wrote about. The man chronicled history, and not from a telephone. He was there to watch it.

I just wish I could read the interview with Y.A. Tittle, who was waiting to talk to Halberstam when Halberstam met his death.

Sadly, that interview didn't happen, and I bet it woulda been terrific.