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Charles Kaiser

Remembering Molly

Fine writers and close friends gathered Tuesday afternoon to celebrate the passions and the prescience of Molly Ivins, the larger-than-life Texan who spent every day of her life fighting for what she believed in, until cancer killed her last January, at the age of 62.

The crowd at the Society for Ethical Culture included former Read More

The Last Hosannas For Halberstam

It felt like practically everyone who has ever had a by-line had crowded into the sanctuary of Riverside Church Tuesday afternoon to say good-bye to David Halberstam, an author with the voice of a deity, the heft of a tight end, and a hardcover-track-record that was the envy of every writer in the Read More

When We Went Gay

Ten years ago, CHARLES KAISER wrote The Gay Metropolis, the landmark portrait of 20th-century New York viewed through the eyes of gay New Yorkers. A lot has changed since then, from the murder of a Wyoming teenager named Matthew Shepard that reanimated the gay political movement, to the Supreme Court decision that is the most Read More

The Age of Schlesinger, Convened and Recalled

He was a man who loved American history, tall women, small children, dry martinis, big steaks, epic movies and every kind of Kennedy. On Monday morning, the old guard of liberal New York turned out to celebrate all of Arthur Schlesinger Jr.’s passions in the Great Hall of Cooper Union—a location chosen because it was Read More

Rumsfeld Lies, Press Takes a Nap

Once upon a time, it was considered news when a senior official in Washington blatantly lied to a Senate Committee.

No more.

If the Bush administration has proven anything, it is that the Big Lie is just as effective today as it was 60 years ago.

One of the most egregious examples of this occurred Read More

A.M. Rosenthal, 1922-2006

Abe Rosenthal died yesterday at the age of 84, from the effects of a severe stroke he suffered two weeks ago. As the dominant editor of The New York Times from 1969 to 1985, he inspired more admiration, emulation and vilification than any other journalist of his generation.

He was an up-from-the-bootstraps New York City Read More

A.M. Rosenthal, 1922-2006

Abe Rosenthal died yesterday at the age of 84, from the effects of a severe stroke he suffered two weeks ago. As the dominant editor of The New York Times from 1969 to 1985, he inspired more admiration, emulation and vilification than any other journalist of his generation.

He was an up-from-the-bootstraps New York City Read More

Bitter 43rd Street Feud Spices Rich Times Memoir

The Times of My Life, and My Life With ‘The Times’ , by

Max Frankel. Random House, 546 pages, $29.95.

One of the many pleasures of Max Frankel’s memoir is his account of

the 30-year war he fought with A.M. (Abe) Rosenthal over who would become

the top editor of The New York Times Read More

The Best Shots in the World: The Life of the Magnum Agency

Magnum: Fifty Years at the Front Line of History , by Russell Miller. Grove Press, 336 pages, $26.

This wonderful history of a legendary photo agency should entertain almost everyone interested in photography or journalism-except for some of its prima donna subjects.

Russell Miller profiles Magnum-the glamorous, exceedingly ill-run photographers’ cooperative-from its birth Read More