Conversations with Willie Morris

Description

For over forty years, Willie Morris confronted the turbulent issues of his generation. As the controversial and bold young editor of the Daily Texan at the University of Texas in Austin, he quickly incurred the wrath of the institu tion's Board of Regents for his scathing attacks on censorship and segrega tion. While at the helm of the Texas Observer he courageously reported events that the mainstream press seldom bothered to cover, such as unsanitary and hazardous conditions in nursing homes ("A Dismal Study-The Aged in Texas" blazoned one headline), illiteracy, the social ineffectiveness of the death penalty, racial discrimination, and the political shenanigans and skull duggery of Texas legislators. As the youngest editor in chief in the history of Harper's, Morris aggressively transformed the stodgy, patriarchal magazine into one of the country's most exciting and influential periodicals. "I have no alternative to words," Morris occasionally replied when asked about his far-reaching career. And driven by social conscience, he continued to speak out on matters that concerned him after he resigned his editor's position and left New York City, at various times writing with outrage, with humor, with sadness, and with affection but always with passion and candor. The author himself was as multi-dimensional as his writing. "Very few people really know Willie Morris," contended writer David Halberstam dur ing the period the two men worked together at Harper's. A self-described "good ole boy." Morris with his generous, adventurous spirit and self effacing nature-captivated both friends and perfect strangers. Interviewers found relaxed and affable, open to their questions, and forthright with his responses. Halberstam, however, believed that only Morris's closest friends also recognized him as a "very complicated, enormously sophisti cated, strong man." These few were probably not surprised if they had dis covered that while he was working in New York City in the early 1970s, a study published in the social science journal Public Interest ranked him among the seventy most prestigious contemporary American intellec tuals." ISBN:9781578062379