The Fine Print: My Life as a Deskman

Excerpts from review of "The Fine Print" selected by Kirkus Indie Editors to be featured in Kirkus Reviews, issue of Aug. 15, 2015. Vivid Personal Dispatches From the Heyday of Print Journalism Veteran journalist Jack Schwartz started his career in the late 1950s. His passionately penned memoir spans the world of New York City newspapers from his first job as a copy boy at the Mirror, the Hearst flagship paper, to the New York Times. . . . With a storyteller's verve, Schwartz meticulously describes these positions and their associated historical moments. . . . Schwartz's prose exudes a palpable affinity for the written word, and his text recalls the days of bustling newsrooms where "everyone seemed to be smoking, drinking or growling-some simultaneously." Readers interested in how the pre-Internet newspaper business was run in the mid-to-late 20th century will find Schwartz's memoir educational as well as charmingly anecdotal. A fond, nostalgic celebration of a decades-long career in media. In the second half of the 20th century, print journalism found its Golden Age. Jack Schwartz was one of the unsung participants, mainly as an editor who polished copy and helped shape coverage at some of America's most important newspapers, among them Newsday and (especially) The New York Times. He doesn't glamorize or sentimentalize but provides an unflinching, inside scoop on the ambitions and foibles of the people who molded the news they saw fit to print. Written with perspicacity and wry humor, recalling high moments and low, Schwartz's personal and professional journey memorably evokes a remarkable era and its cast of colorful characters.