About the Book
Among his devoted fans, his pieces were known simply as McGs. With a "genius for illuminating that sometimes ephemeral apogee in people's lives when they prove capable of generating a brightly burning spark" (Columbia Journalism Review), Robert McG. Thomas Jr. commemorated fascinating, unconventional lives with signature style and wit.
The New York Times received countless letters over the years from readers moved to tears or laughter by a McG. Eschewing traditionally famous subjects, Thomas favored unsung heroes, eccentrics, and underachievers, including: Edward Lowe, the inventor of Kitty Litter ("Cat Owner's Best Friend"); Angelo Zuccotti, the bouncer at El Morocco ("Artist of the Velvet Rope"); and Kay Halle, a glamorous Cleveland department store heiress who received sixty-four marriage proposals ("An Intimate of Century's Giants"). In one of his classic obituaries, Thomas described Anton Rosenberg as a "storied sometime artist and occasional musician who embodied the Greenwich Village hipster ideal of 1950's cool to such a laid-back degree and with such determined detachment that he never amounted to much of anything." Thomas captured life's ironies and defining moments with elegance and a gift for making a sentence sing. He had an uncanny sense of the passion and personality that make each life unique, and the ability, as Joseph Epstein wrote, to "look beyond the facts and the rigid formula of the obit to touch on a deeper truth."
Compiled by Chris Calhoun, one of Thomas's most dedicated readers, and with a fittingly sharp introduction from acclaimed novelist and critic Thomas Mallon, 52 McGs. will win legions of new fans to the masterful writer who transformed the obituary into an art form.
Table of Contents:
CONTENTS
FOREWORD
EDITOR'S NOTE
DAISY ANDERSON, Widow of Former Slave and Union Soldier
LEWIS J. GORIN JR., Instigator of a 1930's Craze
TED HUSTEAD, Built the Popular Wall Drug
JESSE HILL FORD, a Novelist Who Wrote of Race Relations
ANNE HUMMERT, Creator of Soap Operas
MILTON RUBINCAM, Top Genealogist
MASON RANKIN, Founded AIDS Group in Utah
JOHN FULTON, Spain's First U.S. Matador
VIRGINIA MAE MORROW, Created Bridey Murphy Hoopla
HAL LIPSET, Private Detective with a Difference
R.V. PATWARDHAN, Hindu Priest with New York Verve
SIDNEY GROSSMAN, Entrepreneur Headed Lumber Concern
CURTIS L. CARLSON, Founder of Trading Stamp Conglomerate
MINNESOTA FATS, a Real Hustler with a Pool Cue
J. K. STOUT, Pioneering Judge in Pennsylvania
SIDNEY KORSHAK, Fabled Fixer for the Chicago Mob
FRANCINE KATZENBOGEN, Gave Cats the Lap of Luxury
NGUYEN NGOC LOAN, Executed Viet Cong Prisoner
JACK BIBLO, Used Bookseller for Half a Century
KAY HALLE, an Intimate of Century's Giants
HALLIE C. STILLWELL, a Rancher and Texas Legend
MARSHALL BERGER, Linguist with a Keen Ear for an Accent
PHILIP O'CONNOR, Acerbic Memoirist
TOOTS BARGER, the Queen of Duckpins' Wobbly World
EDGAR NOLLNER, Hero in Epidemic
MARGUERITE YOUNG, Author and Icon
REV. LOUIS SAUNDERS, Buried Oswald
DOUGLAS CORRIGAN, Wrong-Way Trip Was the Right Way to Celebrity as an Aviator
ANTON ROSENBERG, a Hipster Ideal
EDWARD LOWE, Cat Owners' Best Friend
MAURICE SAGOFF, a Master of Terse Verses on Literature
ROBERT SAUDEK, a Pioneer of Culture on TV
FRED ROSENSTIEL, Devoted His Life to Planting Flowers
SYDNEY GUILAROFF, Stylist to Stars
EMIL SITKA, Favorite Foil of Three Stooges
FRED FELDMAN, Helicopter Reporter
FRANK KURTZ, World War II Hero
J. EDWARD DAY, Postmaster Who Brought in the ZIP Code
MARIA REICHE, Keeper of an Ancient Peruvian Puzzle
WALTER J. KURON, of Red Baron Era
CHARLES MCCARTNEY, Known for Travels with Goats
ROBERT C. JOHNSTON, Engineer
ANGELO ZUCCOTTI, Artist of the Velvet Rope
PATSY SOUTHGATE, Who Inspired 50's Literary Paris
HENRY GOURDINE, Master of Fishing Skills and Lore
GEORGE W. CROCKETT, Was a Civil Rights Crusader
DAVID LONGABERGER, Basket Maker
MANUEL ELIZALDE, Defender of Primitive Tribe
DAVID LUDLUM, Weather Expert
HOWARD HIGMAN, Academic Impresario
SADLER HAYES, Salesman of Insurance and a Partygoer
MARY BANCROFT, U.S. Spy in World War II
ROBERT MCG. THOMAS JR., Chronicler of Unsung Lives
About the Author :
Robert McG. Thomas Jr. was born and grew up in Shelbyville, Tennessee. Joining The New York Times as a copyboy in 1959, he went on to work for the paper as a police reporter, rewrite man, society news reporter, and sportswriter before turning to obituaries full-time in 1995, the year he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Thomas died in January 2000.
Review :
Billy CollinsU.S. poet laureate and author of "Sailing Alone Around the Room"
Robert McG. Thomas has not only lifted the genre of the obituary to new literary heights, he has raised the dead by giving voice to some of the greatest unsung eccentrics of our time.
Nicholas Pileggiauthor of "Casino"
Robert McG. Thomas is a brilliant stylist whose masterful obits, day after day, brought the men and women he wrote about back for one last dance.
