LETTERS TO MY CHILDREN

LETTERS TO MY CHILDREN
Item# 0836270274
$24.95

Product Description

by Robert C. Maynard with Dori J. Maynard

Maynard, who died in 1993, was noted in journalism as the former editor who bought California's Oakland Tribune and the first black American to own a major daily. This book collects some 90 of his syndicated columns. Maynard wrote in a clear, uncomplicated style-fine for newsprint, but nothing special-and his views on subjects political are sensible but hardly visionary. This book's value lies in its cumulative portrait of the author and his life. Born in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood to Barbadian immigrants who believed in work, religion and family love, Maynard left home for Manhattan's Greenwich Village as a teenager, then apprenticed at a newspaper in York, Pa., learning the rhythms and responsibilities of small-town life. He grew up in a city where integration and ethnic mixing were possible, and he learned an unshakable racial pride. Perhaps most important, his family eschewed television-``Milton Berle is an agent of the devil,'' said his dad-so Maynard was steeped in books; many people who are not, he observes, never gain a love of learning. As the sensitive introductions by his journalist daughter show, Maynard passed on his legacy. (July)

Hardcover: 246 pages