Entries for May 10, 2007

May 12 is the 50th anniversary of Robert Novak's arrival in Washington to work as a reporter for the Associated Press. He's had an amazing career, which he's chronicled in a fascinating autobiography called, inevitably, The Prince of Darkness: 50 Years of Reporting in Washington. I've read an advance copy, and it's a terrific book, full of fascinating revelations. The book, like Novak's columns over the years, alternately infuriated and delighted me. It's also an excellent lens to examine the past 50 years of political history, like three other books on longtime Washington journalists, Robert Merry's Taking on the World: Joseph and Stewart Alsop, Guardians of the American Century, and Ronald Steel's Walter Lippmann and the American Century, and Katharine Graham's Personal History.