The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective and a World of Literary Obsession
Allison Hoover Bartlett, 2009
Penguin Group USA
288 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781594484810
Summary
The thrilling tale of the ultimate literary cat-and-mouse game, The Man Who Loved Books Too Much centers on the exploits of one man, rare book thief and compulsive collector John Charles Gilkey, and his brilliant crimes lifting some of the world's most valuable and vulnerable works from dealers across the country. Driven to catch him is Ken Sanders, a self-appointed "bibliodick" and respected bookseller and watchdog, who acts to reunite the works with their rightful owners.
Journalist Allison Hoover Bartlett's journey to understand what drives both men (as she tries to stay out of the middle) is not only an insightful tale of high suspense and high stakes, but is also an exploration of what makes us crave and treasure the books we do, and the fine line between a love for books and a dangerous obsession. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Allison Hoover Bartlett's writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post and in the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine, among other publications. Her original article on John Gilkey was included in the Best American Crime Reporting 2007. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
The ways of criminals are mean and manifold, yet few acts of thievery are more confounding than book theft. If you know how to steal with impunity, why waste that precious expertise on a book when you can filch a purse or a bike or a laptop? The Man Who Loved Books Too Much explores the riddle with charm and smarts.
Chicago Tribune
Tautly written, wry, and thoroughly compelling.Bartlett is an appealing storyteller who becomes more personally entangled in her narrative than she had wished, which adds to the drama.
Los Angeles Times
Tautly written, wry, and thoroughly compelling. Bartlett is an appealing storyteller who becomes more personally entangled in her narrative than she had wished, which adds to the drama.
San Francisco Chronicle
Bartlett delves into the world of rare books and those who collect—and steal—them with mixed results. On one end of the spectrum is Salt Lake City book dealer Ken Sanders, whose friends refer to him as a book detective, or “Bibliodick.” On the other end is John Gilkey, who has stolen over $100,000 worth of rare volumes, mostly in California. A lifelong book lover, Gilkey's passion for rare texts always exceeded his income, and he began using stolen credit card numbers to purchase, among others, first editions of Beatrix Potter and Mark Twain from reputable dealers. Sanders, the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association's security chair, began compiling complaints from ripped-off dealers and became obsessed with bringing Gilkey to justice. Bartlett's journalistic position is enviable: both men provided her almost unfettered access to their respective worlds. Gilkey recounted his past triumphs in great detail, while Bartlett's interactions with the unrepentant, selfish but oddly charming Gilkey are revealing (her original article about himself appeared in The Best Crime Reporting 2007). Here, however, she struggles to weave it all into a cohesive narrative.
Publishers Weekly
In her first book, freelance writer Bartlett lifts the veil on the methods of John Charles Gilkey, a thief whose prey of choice was rare books (between 1999 and 2003 he stole approximately $100,000 worth of books from dealers nationwide). Equally fascinating is Gilkey's pursuer, Ken Sanders, a rare-books dealer-turned-amateur detective. Listeners are drawn into the convoluted mind of the thief, the determination of the dealer, and the author's own ambivalence as she becomes involved with both figures and begins to question her journalistic impartiality. Narrator Judith Brackley, who has a long career as a voice artist, brings the appropriate degree of calm and matter-of-fact narration to this engaging material. For all book lovers, book collectors, and readers of true crime. —J. Sara Paulk, Fitzgerald-Ben Hill Cty. Lib., GA
Library Journal
A Janet Malcolm-style reflection on the ramifications of a reporter's interaction with a criminal, in this case one with a bibliomania shared by the antiquarian book dealer pursuing him. Over four years, John Charles Gilkey pilfered hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of rare books, often with credit-card numbers obtained from his part-time job at Saks Fifth Avenue. As freelance journalist Bartlett points out, antiquarian-book theft occurs more frequently than that of fine art. Rather than advertise a theft that would inflame fears of lax security, dealers often prefer to stay quiet about losses. Gilkey's passion-but not his larcenous instinct-was shared by Ken Sanders, a rare-book dealer and volunteer security chair of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America, who doggedly tracked the con man, sometimes at the expense of his own business. Sanders is part of a profession often composed of obsessives who do the work as a labor of love, barely making ends meet. Though she misses a few aspects of the business—e.g., does the Internet secure or tighten dealers' control over their collections?—Bartlett is adept at explaining the mindset required for this trade. But as she interviews Gilkey and accompanies him on a few of his rounds, she finds herself asking questions about her project. Is she giving this narcissist attention that his crimes don't merit? Is she responsible for reporting his crimes to police and unsuspecting book dealers? Many readers will disagree that Gilkey had "come to seem a happy man with goals, ambition, and some measure of success," while supporting the opposite conclusion, that he was "greedy, selfish, criminal." Not only a "cautionary tale for those who plan to deal in rare books in the future," but a demonstration of how a seasoned reporter can disregard the ethics of objectivity.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. What are the subtleties of stealing for profit versus stealing out of a love for books themselves? Is one more justified than the other?
2. What motivates Bartlett's quest to uncover the stories behind the mysterious misdeeds and high profile book thefts? How does this motivation change over the course of the book? Did you find yourself at times sympathizing with or feeling pity for Gilkey? Why or why not?
3. Why do people collect books? What makes certain titles more valuable? The author notes that our books are often "repositories for memories" (p. 20), so given that criteria, what might be your most "valuable" books, and why?
4. In an age of digital book formats do you think there is any steam left in modern book collecting? What effect might this shift to ebooks have? What might be in store for collectors in the future? What do you think our relationship to the "book" will be? Has a shift already begun?
5. Has learning some of the tricks of the book collecting trade-smelling books for signs of mildew encroachment, the flawed nature of "certificates of authenticity," the joy of finding fore edged paintings altered or newly inspired your relationship to books? What insights from this story have had the most impact on you and your collection?
6. Why do some collectors (like Gilkey) risk it all—fortune, freedom, and reputation—to steal to add to their collections? What might prevent others, though equally obsessive, from acting in the same way?
7. From the lens of our culture, what does a library full of old and collectable books say about us (our identities)? Why might we be willing to buy into this projection? Why might we still cling to the idea of personal libraries equating to genteel status or wealth?
8. Why is Gilkey so eager to share his story, including his motivations and theft strategy, with Bartlett? Though it would only increase his profile and make it harder for him to remain anonymous as a thief, what does he stand to gain by telling all?
9. Within the story we get a glimpse into the relationships between Sanders and his father, and Gilkey and his father. Compare and contrast their early lives and the involvement of their fathers in Sanders's and Gilkey's collecting activities. What behaviors were cultivated and encouraged by each? Though both started young with their passions, what factors contributed to their divergent paths?
10. The author notes that the monetary value in literary classics has outpaced stock and bond markets for the past 20 years but notes Sanders's opinion that "it wasn't necessarily a good thing. Books should always be acquired for the sheer love and joy of it" (p. 117). Do you agree? What would be the dangers of rare books being treated like fine art commodities?
11. Why does Gilkey look at his fellow book collectors as his enemies rather than fellow connoisseurs or friends? Contrast his antagonistic, predatory relationship with them to the cordial, extended family-like treatment other collectors extend to each other at book fairs and other gatherings.
12. The Northern California bookselling community is a highly unique and close-knit group. Do you think another merchant group could be capable or willing to go to the lengths that they do to catch a serial thief? Why might they have felt so compelled to act outside of the monetary loss? What is lost if they fail?
13. What ultimately drives Ken Sanders to take on the crusade to nail Gilkey? How would you answer the author who seeks to understand why Gilkey is "so passionate about books...he would put his freedom on the line for them" and why Sanders is "so determined to catch him...[he'd put] the financial stability of his store on the line for it"?
14. Do you think Bartlett had an ethical obligation to share the details Gilkey revealed to her with the authorities or other booksellers? Do you agree with her rationalization as she shifted "from an observer to participant in Gilkey's story" (p. 241)?
(Questions issued by publisher.)
Rewrites: A Memoir
Neil Simon, 1996
Simon & Schuster
400 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780684835624
Summary
Barefoot in the Park, The Odd Couple, Plaza Suite, The Goodbye Girl, The Out-of-Towners, The Sunshine Boys — Neil Simon's plays and movies have kept many millions of people laughing for almost four decades. Since Come Blow Your Horn first opened on Broadway in 1960, few seasons have passed without the appearance of another of his laughter-filled plays, and indeed on numerous occasions two or more of his works have been running simultaneously.
But his success was something Neil Simon never took for granted, nor was the talent to create laughter something that he ever treated carelessly: it took too long for him to achieve the kind of acceptance—both popular and critical—that he craved, and the path he followed frequently was pitted with hard decisions.
All of Neil Simon's plays are to some extent a reflection of his life, sometimes autobiographical, other times based on the experiences of those close to him. What the reader of this warm, nostalgic memoir discovers, however, is that the plays, although grounded in Neil Simon's own experience, provide only a glimpse into the mind and soul of this very private man.
In Rewrites, he tells of the painful discord he endured at home as a child, of his struggles to develop his talent as a writer, and of his insecurities when dealing with what proved to be his first great success—falling in love. Supporting players in the anecdote—filled memoir include Sid Caesar, Jerry Lewis, Walter Matthau, Robert Redford, Gwen Verdon, Bob Fosse, Maureen Stapleton, George C. Scott, Peter Sellers, and Mike Nichols.
But always at center stage is his first love, his wife Joan, whose death in the early seventies devastated him, and whose love and inspiration illuminate this remarkable and revealing self-portrait. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—July 4, 1927
• Where—The Bronx, New York, New York, USA
• Education—New York University; University of Denver
• Awards—3 Tony Awards (1965, '85, '91); Pulitzer Prize
(1991); Golden Globe Award (1978); American Comedy
Lifetime Achievement (1989); Drama Desk Award (1991);
Kennedy Center Honoree(1995); Mark Twain Prize for
American Humor (2006)
• Currently—N/A
Neil Marvin Simon is an American playwright and screenwriter. His numerous Broadway succcesses have led to his work being among the most regularly performed in the world. Though primarily a comic writer, some of his plays, particularly the "Eugene" Trilogy and The Sunshine Boys, reflect on the twentieth century Jewish-American experience.
Simon was born in The Bronx, New York City to Irving and Mamie Simon where he attended DeWitt Clinton High School. He briefly attended New York University from 1944 to 1945 and the University of Denver from 1945 to 1946. Two years later, he quit his job as a mailroom clerk in the Warner Brothers offices in Manhattan to write radio and television scripts with his brother Danny Simon, including a tutelage under radio humourist Goodman Ace when Ace ran a short-lived writing workshop for CBS. Their revues for Camp Tamiment in Pennsylvania in the early 1950s caught the attention of Sid Caesar, who hired the duo for his popular TV comedy series Your Show of Shows. Simon later incorporated their experiences into his play Laughter on the 23rd Floor. His work won him two Emmy Award nominations and the appreciation of Phil Silvers, who hired him to write for Sergeant Bilko in 1959.
In 1961, Simon's first Broadway play, Come Blow Your Horn, opened at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre, where it ran for 678 performances. Six weeks after its closing, his second production, the musical Little Me opened to mixed reviews. Although it failed to attract a large audience, it earned Simon his first Tony Award nomination. Overall, he has garnered seventeen Tony nominations and won three. He also won the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Lost In Yonkers.
In 1966 Simon had four shows running on Broadway at the same time: Sweet Charity, The Star-Spangled Girl, The Odd Couple, and Barefoot in the Park. His professional association with producer Emanuel Azenberg began with The Sunshine Boys in 1972 and continued with The Good Doctor, God's Favorite, Chapter Two, They're Playing Our Song, I Ought to Be in Pictures, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues, Broadway Bound, Jake's Women, The Goodbye Girl, and Laughter on the 23rd Floor, among others.
Simon has been conferred with two honoris causa degrees; a Doctor of Humane Letters from Hofstra University and a Doctor of Laws from Williams College. He is the namesake of the legitimate Broadway theater the Neil Simon Theatre, formerly the Alvin Theatre, and an honorary member of the Walnut Street Theatre's board of trustees.
Simon has been married five times—to dancer Joan Baim (1953-1973), actress Marsha Mason (1973-1981), twice to Diane Lander (1987-1988 and 1990-1998), and currently actress Elaine Joyce. He is the father of Nancy and Ellen, from his first marriage, and Bryn, Lander's daughter from a previous relationship whom he adopted. (From Wikipedia.)
Book Reviews
For a master of the one-liner, Mr. Simon writes surprisingly flat prose, which sometimes wobbles between the cliched and ungrammatical.... Still, the virtues of Rewrites don't depend on good prose. In general, Mr. Simon comes across as ingenuous and likable, avid to master the difficult craft of putting a good play together. His portraits of the people he worked with are acute and winning; the director Mike Nichols, the choreographer Bob Fosse, the producer Saint Subber, the actor George C. Scott, among others, all take on substance in his pages
Christopher Lehmann-Haupt - New York Times
Ought to be required reading for everyone who aspires to a career in playwrighting, fiction, or poetry.
Jonathan Yardley - Washington Post
Simon has built his playwrighting career by creating funny, indelible characters. Who can forget Oscar Madison and Felix Unger? This illuminating memoir, which takes Simon into the 1970s, reveals his creative influences, as well as his personal triumphs and tragedies. He is brutally honest in describing his bouts with writer's block, and he's not afraid to admit that directors and actors have often helped him complete some of his most endearing plays. He confides, for instance, that the third act of The Odd Couple went through numerous rewrites and was salvaged only after director Mike Nichols suggested Simon not set the act in the middle of a poker game. Simon's forthright account of his work with Bob Fosse on Sweet Charity illustrates how two immensely talented individuals can work through their differences to create a highly successful show. Anecdotes about actors Simon has worked with make for particularly entertaining copy, and his description of George C. Scott's erratic behavior while he starred in The Gingerbread Lady shows how a playwright's success can hinge on the whims of a troubled actor. However, many digressions, though humorous, distract from the story at hand. Simon's account of his family and personal life beyond the theater lacks resonance, particularly when dealing with his experience with psychotherapy — the only section of the book written in the third person. While this memoir won't bring down the house, in general it's a well-told tale by a man whose talent, diligence and luck have made him Broadway's shining son.
Publishers Weekly
(Audio version.) Famed playwright Simon complained recently about this [audio] condensation, saying during a segment on C-Span, "They abridged the life out of" [the book]. Much is omitted, for sure, but what remains is vintage Simon and better than no recording at all. He describes quirky show folk and his willing but exhaustive efforts in revising his plays, which include Come Blow Your Horn, Barefoot in the Park, and The Odd Couple. Simon's own soft-spoken reading underplays his witticisms—he is not an actor, after all—but lends authenticity to the narrative, especially during the section wherein he talks about the tragic death of his beloved wife, Joan. We get highlights of his life and career from only 1957 to 1973, however. Playgoers and Simon enthusiasts will enjoy Rewrites. —Gordon Blackwell, Eastchester, NY
Library Journal
The prolific master of Broadway fun hops over the footlights to recall much—but not all—of his personal history. This is an intelligent and diverting memoir, artfully constructed. The work of crafting Simon's first dozen or so plays, from Come Blow Your Horn and Little Me to The Sunshine Boys and The Good Doctor, is presented in the order of their creation. The periods of Simon's life that they recall do not fall so neatly in order, and yet the memories that eddy around the landmarks of the plays are somehow all the more effective without strict chronology. There is a funny set piece on young Neil's sexual initiation. His native wit is as abundant as ever, but he can easily write a simple declarative sentence without punctuating it with a gag. There are poignant glimpses of a childhood in a strangely inoperative family, of a sometimes loving, always complex relationship with gagwriter brother Danny. Simon hasn't much use for agents or their advice on business deals. (Following such advice, he "never saw a dime, a nickel, or a penny" from the TV series of The Odd Couple.) There are third-act problems, out-of-town rewrites, and missing stars. Though there are no lessons on how to be funny, the book is full of clues on the craft of playwriting. There are deft character sketches, but, by far, the most touching parts of Simon's story deal with his love for wife Joan. With her early passing some two decades ago Simon brings down the curtain. Not covered: military escapades, much of life as a TV gag writer, and later uxorial adventures. There are more plays, of course, so let's have the next installment soon, Mr. Simon. Neil Simon delivers, from the heart, a fine portrait of the artist.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for Rewrites:
1. How does the personality of Neil Simon come through in this memoir? How would you describe him? What about him do you find admirable?
2. Simon ponders the roots of humor: ''No one, he says, has yet determined, to my satisfaction, what elements of nature, genetics and environment have to combine to form a man or woman with a keen sense of humor." But Simon himself is a consummate humorist! Do you want to take a stab at what makes people laugh? Does humor come from, say, the mundane in life...or the unexpected? Give it a try! Think of something funny, and try to figure out why.
3. What role did Simon's family play in his artistic develop-ment? Talk about his home life, his parents and their marriage, as well as his brother. (Some good ones: the suitcase-in-the hallway...and his brother's attempt to get him to a brothel.)
4. Simon paints wonderful portraits of famous people who have populated the world of entertainment. Which people or episodes did you most enjoy, find humorous, or surprising?
5. Talk about the long road Simon plodded in order to become a successful playwright.
6. What was it about Hollywood that Simon disliked and that spurred him on to writing for the stage?
7. Most authors use their lives as material for their writing— but they also use their writing as a way to examine or give shape to their lives. How does Simon do either or both of those things?
8. What is the significance of the title, "Rewrites"? In what way might it have a double meaning?
9. The book contains some instructions on how to write a play. Talk about some of his tips: "Character is the foundation of the play"; or "We need to see a character change, not just know that he's changed." What are some of the other pointers he provides? What does he mean by them? How might those same ideas be helpful to us as readers of novels?
10. By far the saddest part of the book is the death of his first wife. How does Simon learn to cope with losing her...or does he?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
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The Manchurian Candidate
Richard Condon, 1959
Simon & Schuster
311 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780743482974
Summary
As compelling and disturbing as when it was first published in the midst of the Cold War, The Manchurian Candidate continues to enthrall readers with its electrifying action and shocking climax.
Sgt. Raymond Shaw is a hero of the first order. He's an ex-prisoner of war who saved the life of his entire outfit, a winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor, the stepson of an influential senator...and the perfect assassin. Brainwashed during his time as a P.O.W., he is a "sleeper"—a living weapon to be triggered by a secret signal. He will act without question, no matter what order he is made to carry out.
To stop Shaw and those who now control him, his former commanding officer, Bennett Marco, must uncover the truth behind a twisted conspiracy of torture, betrayal, and power that will lead him to the highest levels of the government—and into the darkest recesses of his own mind. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—March 18, 1915
• Where—New York, New York
• Death—April 9, 1996
• Where—Dallas Texas
Richard Thomas Condon was a satirical writer and thriller novelist best known for conspiratorial books such as The Manchurian Candidate.
After moderate success as an ad writer and Hollywood agent, Condon turned to writing in 1957. His second novel, The Manchurian Candidate (1959), and the movie made from it in 1962, made him famous. Prizzi's Honor (1982) was likewise made into a successful movie.
Condon's writing was known for its complex plotting, fascination with trivia, and loathing for those in power; at least two of his books featured thinly disguised versions of Richard Nixon. His characters tend to be driven by obsession, usually sexual or political, and by family loyalty. His plots often have elements of classical tragedy, with protagonists whose pride leads them to a place to destroy what they love. Some of his books, most notably Mile High (1969), are perhaps best described as secret history. And Then We Moved to Rossenara is a humorous, autobiographical recounting of various places in the world where he had lived and his family's 1970s move to Rossenarra, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland. (From Wikipedia.)
Book Reviews
(Older works have few, if any, mainstream press reviews online. Check Amazon and Barnes & Noble for helpful customer reviews.)
In The Manchurian Candidate [Condon]...compresses a breathlessly up-to-date-thriller, gimmicked to the gills, from judo to narcohypnosis. [The novel is also] a psychoanalytic horror tale about...a mother and son, and an irate socio-political satire that tries to flay our shibboleths.... Unfortunately, he is least adept in pursuing the psychological strand central to the book.... His style seems quite foreign to the slow, cumulative playing out of motivations such a task demands.
Frederic Morton - New York Times (4/26/1959)
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for The Manchurian Candidate:
1. Do a little research into "brainwashing." Does the process it actually exist? If so, how does it work, how effective is it?
2. Talk about the role of Condon's mother. In what way is Raymond susceptible psychologically because of his relationship with her? Is her character convincing?
3. What or whom is Condon criticizing? As the New York Times critic says above, Condon is writing "political satire that tries to flay our shibboleths." So...once we figure out what a shibboleth is...what does the critic mean? Where does Condon aim his satirical eye?
4. Does this story have relevance to the 21st century? If so, how? Are you paranoid?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
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What the Dog Saw And Other Adventures
Malcolm Gladwell, 2009
Little, Brown & Co.
410 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780316075848
Summary
What is the difference between choking and panicking? Why are there dozens of varieties of mustard-but only one variety of ketchup? What do football players teach us about how to hire teachers? What does hair dye tell us about the history of the 20th century?
In the past decade, Malcolm Gladwell has written three books that have radically changed how we understand our world and ourselves: The Tipping Point; Blink; and Outliers. Now, in What the Dog Saw, he brings together, for the first time, the best of his writing from TheNew Yorker over the same period.
Here is the bittersweet tale of the inventor of the birth control pill, and the dazzling inventions of the pasta sauce pioneer Howard Moscowitz. Gladwell sits with Ron Popeil, the king of the American kitchen, as he sells rotisserie ovens, and divines the secrets of Cesar Millan, the "dog whisperer" who can calm savage animals with the touch of his hand. He explores intelligence tests and ethnic profiling and "hindsight bias" and why it was that everyone in Silicon Valley once tripped over themselves to hire the same college graduate.
Good writing," Gladwell says in his preface, "does not succeed or fail on the strength of its ability to persuade. It succeeds or fails on the strength of its ability to engage you, to make you think, to give you a glimpse into someone else's head. What the Dog Saw is yet another example of the buoyant spirit and unflagging curiosity that have made Malcolm Gladwell our most brilliant investigator of the hidden extraordinary. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—September 3, 1963
• Where—Fareham, Hampshire, England, U.K.
• Raised—Elmira, Ontario, Canada
• Education—B.A., University of Toronto
• Currently—New York, New York, USA
Malcolm T. Gladwell is an English-Canadian journalist, bestselling author, and speaker. He has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1996. He has written five books, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Make a Big Difference (2000), Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (2005), Outliers: The Story of Success (2008), What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures (2009), and David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants (2013). The first four books were on the New York Times Best Seller list.
Gladwell's books and articles often deal with the unexpected implications of research in the social sciences and make frequent and extended use of academic work, particularly in the areas of sociology, psychology, and social psychology. Gladwell was appointed to the Order of Canada 1n 2011.
Early life
Gladwell was born in Fareham, Hampshire, England. His mother is Joyce (Nation) Gladwell, a Jamaican-born psychotherapist. His father, Graham Gladwell, is a British mathematics professor. Gladwell has said that his mother is his role model as a writer. When he was six, his family moved to Elmira, Ontario, Canada.
Gladwell's father noted that Malcolm was an unusually single-minded and ambitious boy. When Malcolm was 11, his father allowed him to wander around the offices at his university, which stoked the boy's interest in reading and libraries. During his high school years, Gladwell was an outstanding middle-distance runner and won the 1,500 meter title at the 1978 Ontario High School 14-year-old championships in Kingston, Ontario. In the spring of 1982, Gladwell interned with the National Journalism Center in Washington, D.C. He graduated with a degree in history from the University of Toronto's Trinity College in 1984.
Career
Gladwell's grades were not good enough for graduate school (as Gladwell puts it, "college was not an... intellectually fruitful time for me"), so he decided to go into advertising. After being rejected by every advertising agency he applied to, he accepted a journalism position at The American Spectator and moved to Indiana. He subsequently wrote for Insight on the News, a conservative magazine owned by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church.
In 1987, Gladwell began covering business and science for the Washington Post, where he worked until 1996. In a personal elucidation of the 10,000 hour rule he popularized in Outliers, Gladwell notes, "I was a basket case at the beginning, and I felt like an expert at the end. It took 10 years—exactly that long."
When Gladwell started at The New Yorker in 1996 he wanted to "mine current academic research for insights, theories, direction, or inspiration." His first assignment was to write a piece about fashion. Instead of writing about high-class fashion, Gladwell opted to write a piece about a man who manufactured T-shirts, saying
...it was much more interesting to write a piece about someone who made a T-shirt for $8 than it was to write about a dress that costs $100,000. I mean, you or I could make a dress for $100,000, but to make a T-shirt for $8 – that's much tougher.
Gladwell gained popularity with two New Yorker articles, both written in 1996: "The Tipping Point" and "The Coolhunt." These two pieces would become the basis for Gladwell's first book, The Tipping Point, for which he received a $1 million advance. He continues to write for The New Yorker and also serves as a contributing editor for Grantland, a sports journalism website founded by ESPN's Bill Simmons.
Works
When asked for the process behind his writing, Gladwell has said...
I have two parallel things I'm interested in. One is I'm interested in collecting interesting stories, and the other is I'm interested in collecting interesting research. What I'm looking for is cases where they overlap.
The title for his first book, The Tipping Point (2000), came from the phrase "tipping point"—the moment in an disease epidemic when the virus reaches critical mass and begins to spread at a much higher rate.
Gladwell published Blink (2005), a book explaining how the human subconscious interprets events or cues and how past experiences can lead people to make informed decisions very rapidly.
Gladwell's third book, Outliers (2008) examines the way a person's environment, in conjunction with personal drive and motivation, affects his or her possibility and opportunity for success.
What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures (2009) bundles together Gladwell's favorite articles from The New Yorker since he joined the magazine as a staff writer in 1996. The stories share a common idea, namely, the world as seen through the eyes of others, even if that other happens to be a dog.
David and Goliath (2013) explores the struggle of underdogs versus favorites. The book is partially inspired by a 2009 article Gladwell wrote for The New Yorker, "How David Beats Goliath."
Reception
The Tipping Point and Blink became international bestsellers, each selling over two million copies in the US.
David Leonhardt wrote in the New York Times Book Review: "In the vast world of nonfiction writing, Malcolm Gladwell is as close to a singular talent as exists today" and that Outliers "leaves you mulling over its inventive theories for days afterward." Ian Sample of The Guardian (UK) also wrote of Outliers that when brought together, "the pieces form a dazzling record of Gladwell's art. There is depth to his research and clarity in his arguments, but it is the breadth of subjects he applies himself to that is truly impressive."
Criticism of Gladwell tends to focus on the fact that he is a journalist and not a scientist, and as a result his work is prone to oversimplification. The New Republic called the final chapter of Outliers, "impervious to all forms of critical thinking" and said that Gladwell believes "a perfect anecdote proves a fatuous rule."
Gladwell has also been criticized for his emphasis on anecdotal evidence over research to support his conclusions. Steven Pinker, even while praising Gladwell's attractive writing style and content, sums up Gladwell as "a minor genius who unwittingly demonstrates the hazards of statistical reasoning." Pinker accuses him of using "cherry-picked anecdotes, post-hoc sophistry and false dichotomies" in Outliers.
Despite these criticisms Gladwell commands hefty speaking fees: $80,000 for one speech, according to a 2008 New York magazine article although some speeches he makes for free. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 10/02/2013.)
Book Reviews
Gladwell is a writer of many gifts. His nose for the untold back story will have readers repeatedly muttering, "Gee, that's interesting!" He avoids shopworn topics, easy moralization and conventional wisdom, encouraging his readers to think again and think different. His prose is transparent, with lucid explanations and a sense that we are chatting with the experts ourselves. Some chapters are masterpieces in the art of the essay.
New York Times Book Review- Steven Pinker
This book full of short conversation pieces is a collection that plays to the author's strengths. It underscores his way of finding suitably quirky subjects (the history of women's hair-dye advertisements; the secret of Heinz's unbeatable ketchup; even the effects of women's changing career patterns on the number of menstrual periods they experience in their lifetimes) and using each as gateway to some larger meaning. It illustrates how often he sets up one premise (i.e. that crime profiling helps track down serial killers) only to destroy it.
New York Times - Janet Maslin
Uniformly delightful...Malcolm Gladwell can write engrossingly about just about anything...His witty, probing articles are as essential to David Remnick's New Yorker as those of Wolcott Gibbs and A.J. Liebling were to Harold Ross's...Gladwell has a gift for capturing personalities, a Borscht Belt comic's feel for timing and a bent for counterintuitive thinking. He loves to start a piece by settling you onto a cushion of received ideas, then yanking it out from under you.
Craig Seligman - Bloomberg News
In What the Dog Saw, Malcolm Gladwell leads the reader on delightful side excursions, shows with insightful conversation how one path interweaves with another, and suggests meaning-he is, in short, an interpretative naturalist of American culture.
Alice Evans - Oregonian
Malcolm Gladwell triumphantly returns to his roots with this collections of his great works from The New Yorker magazine....Do yourself a favor and curl up with What the Dog Saw this week: It is more entertaining and edifying than should be legal for any book.
Louisville Courier-Journal - Scott Coffman
(Audio version.) Gladwell's fourth book comprises various contributions to The New Yorker and makes for an intriguing and often hilarious look at the hidden extraordinary. He wonders what... hair dye tell[s] us about twentieth century history, and observes firsthand dog whisperer Cesar Millan's uncanny ability to understand and be understood by his pack. Gladwell pulls double duty as author and narrator; while his delivery isn't the most dramatic or commanding, the material is frequently astonishing, and his reading is clear, heartfelt, and makes for genuinely pleasurable listening.
Publishers Weekly
Gladwell has gathered 22 of his pieces that have appeared in The New Yorker since 1996, arranging them into three sections: "Obsessive, Pioneers, and Other Varieties of Minor Genius," "Theories, Predictions, and Diagnoses," and "Personality, Character and Intelligence." Fans who are not familiar with Gladwell's articles will be delighted to discover that his shorter work contains the same level of insight, wit, and talent for making the mundane fascinating as they've come to expect from his longer work. Gladwell's writing here is filled with colorful characters, acute analyses, and intriguing questions. However, be warned that the organization of the articles by topic rather than by date can be confusing, especially since much of what Gladwell is discussing has since changed. For instance, although articles about the Challenger explosion, the stock market, and Enron all have postscripts about developments that occurred after the original publication of these pieces, the original publication dates are indicated neither in the table of contents nor at the start of the pieces, frustrating readers' attempts to learn what time period each article covers.
Library Journal
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for What the Dog Saw:
1. According to Steven Pinker's review in the New York Times, Gladwell's essays in What the Dog Saw have to do with "counterintuitive knowledge." In this book what findings, specifically, seem to subvert or turn common sense on its head?
2. Another way in which Gladwell styles his essays is that he uses specific set pieces and and expands them into a wider inquiry. Consider some examples—say, ketchup or hair dye. Where else does Gladwell move from an initial focus on a narrow topic to the larger implications.
3. Gladwell also uses the "straw man" method of persuasion. He begins with a premise that we easily accept (the straw man) then proceeds to knock it down. It leads to surprise, a sort of "wow, I never saw it that way!" What are some of the essays in which Gladwell uses the straw dog approach? Do you find it affective?
4. Which essays did you most enjoy and why? Which surprised you the most?
5. Gladwell has sometimes been described—in this and other works—as facile. In other words, he's been accused of reaching for easy conclusions that fit his overall view, while sometimes ignoring messy evidence that doesn't. Can you find any evidence that this is the case? Does Gladwell present a world that is too neatly wrapped? Or is he simply exploring anomalies where he finds them?
Now for more a few specific questions:
6. Why do we have one type of ketchup as opposed to multiple varieties of mustard?
7. From the essay, "Blowing Up," talk about Taleb Nassim and his theory of markets and investment. Can his basic ideas be applied to other experiences or events?
8. If by any chance you've read The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, do Cesar Millan's dog training methods seem familiar...or completely different than what David Wroblewski wrote about in his novel?
9. In "Open Secrets," how does Gladwell connect Enron, Watergate, prostate cancer research, and Osama Bin Laden— three seemingly disparate subjects? Do you agree with his assessment? What is the difference, according to Gladwell, between puzzles and mysteries? Is this just semantics...or is he reaching for something deeper?
10. Talk about what Gladwell has to say about the accuracy of mammograms as a diagnostic tool.
11. Do you accept Gladwell's argument about plagiarism in the essay, "Something Borrowed"?
12. In "The Art of Failure," Gladwell discusses the difference between choking and panicking? How does he differentiate the two? Are they really mutually exclusive as he presents them? What do you think of his assessment of John F. Kennedy, Jr.'s plane crash? Is Gladwell's analysis glib... or has he hit on some buried structure of the human psyche?
13. In his chapter about the Challenger explosion, do you agree with his assessment that "we don't really want the safest of all possible worlds"? Do you believe that any of the disasters in Part Two could have been foretold and prevented?
14. In what way is criminal profiling not "a triumph of forensic analysis," but a "party trick"? Does Gladwell make his point?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
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Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer
James L. Swanson, 2005
HarperCollins
448 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780060518509
Summary
The murder of Abraham Lincoln set off the greatest manhunt in American history—the pursuit and capture of John Wilkes Booth. From April 14 to April 26, 1865, the assassin led Union cavalry and detectives on a wild twelve-day chase through the streets of Washington, D.C., across the swamps of Maryland, and into the forests of Virginia, while the nation, still reeling from the just-ended Civil War, watched in horror and sadness.
At the very center of this story is John Wilkes Booth, America's notorious villain. A Confederate sympathizer and a member of a celebrated acting family, Booth threw away his fame and wealth for a chance to avenge the South's defeat. For almost two weeks, he confounded the manhunters, slipping away from their every move and denying them the justice they sought.
Based on rare archival materials, obscure trial transcripts, and Lincoln's own blood relics, Manhunt is a fully documented work, but it is also a fascinating tale of murder, intrigue, and betrayal. A gripping hour-by-hour account told through the eyes of the hunted and the hunters, this is history as you've never read it before. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
James L. Swanson is an attorney who has written about history, the Constitution, popular culture, and other subjects for a variety of publications, including the Wall Street Journal, American Heritage, Smithsonian, and the Los Angeles Times. Mr. Swanson serves on the advisory council of the Ford's Theatre Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Campaign and is a member of the advisory committee of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission. (From the publisher.)
His own words
From an interview with the Washingtonian (Feb. 2006):
Q: You say a mythology has elevated Lincoln's assassin, the actor John Wilkes Booth, to a "fascinating antihero" and that a similar reverence toward Lee Harvey Oswald would be deemed obscene. How do you explain that?
First, Lincoln's assassination happened 140 years ago, and a lot of the emotional impact has withered. Second, it's partly due to Booth's excellence as an actor. He performed the assassination in such a dramatic way that we perceive it not just as a horrible crime but as theater. In part, we've bought what he was selling.
Q: Does your style of storytelling, largely from Booth's point of view, risk perpetuating that myth?
I certainly didn't want the reader to sympathize with Booth. He was a racist, and he was a murderer. It was very important to me to write in the epilogue what I think his legacy really was.
Q: What does Lincoln mean to you?
One of the great things about Lincoln is that he truly empathized with other people. He once said, "I shall do nothing through malice; what I deal with is too vast for malice." He had an uncanny ability to see problems through the eyes of others. When you came to him and wanted something, he already knew what you wanted, he knew why you wanted it, he knew what he could give and what he couldn't.
He saw it all when he was a lawyer—divorce, murder, property disputes, slander. He saw the heights and depths to which people could go, how they could tell the truth and how they could lie. In many ways, he was an amateur psychologist.
Q: Movie rights to your book have been sold, with Harrison Ford slated to play one of Booth's hunters. If it were up to you, who would play Booth?
Johnny Depp would make a terrific Booth. There's a trick in casting, because Booth was considered one of the handsomest, most popular men of his time. You'd have to cast a Booth-like person who would exude the same characteristics. (Interview found on author's website.)
Book Reviews
Nearly 141 years later, the body of literature about Lincoln's death is immense and seemingly exhaustive. Yet James L. Swanson's Manhunt has found a reasonably new angle from which to approach its material.... He has successfully streamlined the assassination's aftermath into an action-adventure version of these events. He makes Manhunt very accessible and infuses it with high drama.
Janet Maslin - New York Times
Told expertly...Swanson’s moment by moment account of the 12-day chase is compulsively readable.
Wall Street Journal
Extraordinary.... Brilliant.... As gripping as any tightly scripted crime drama.
Boston Globe
(Starred review.) In the early days of April 1865, with the bloody war to preserve the union finished, Swanson tells us, Abraham Lincoln was "jubilant." Elsewhere in Washington, the other player in the coming drama of the president's assassination was miserable. Hearing Lincoln's April 10 victory speech, famed actor and Confederate die-hard John Wilkes Booth turned to a friend and remarked with seething hatred, "That means nigger citizenship. Now, by God, I'll put him through." On April 14, Booth did just that. With great power, passion and at a thrilling, breakneck pace, Swanson (Lincoln's Assassins: Their Trial and Execution) conjures up an exhausted yet jubilant nation ruptured by grief, stunned by tragedy and hell-bent on revenge. For 12 days, assisted by family and some women smitten by his legendary physical beauty, Booth relied on smarts, stealth and luck to elude the best detectives, military officers and local police the federal government could muster. Taking the reader into the action, the story is shot through with breathless, vivid, even gory detail. With a deft, probing style and no small amount of swagger, Swanson, a member of the Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, has crafted pure narrative pleasure, sure to satisfy the casual reader and Civil War aficionado alike. (Includes 11 b&w photos.)
Publishers Weekly
Small wonder that Manhunt has been optioned as a major motion picture. In this fast-paced, hour-by-hour account of the 12 days following Lincoln's assassination at Ford's Theatre on April 14, 1865, Swanson (coauthor, with Daniel R. Weinberg, of Lincoln's Assassins: Their Trial and Execution) allows the reader to ride along with the Union cavalry and federal agents through the streets of the nation's capital and the wilds of Maryland and Virginia in pursuit of John Wilkes Booth, his coconspirators, and the host of rebel enablers who constituted a viable Confederate underground railroad. Swanson's eye for detail and his excellent thumbnail sketches of the figures involved bring the chronicle alive. There was the simultaneous assassination attempt on Secretary of State William Seward, and Secretary of War Stanton's pivotal role in keeping the nation together during the unrest, stoked by an irresponsible press, following Lincoln's death. Swanson details the conditions endured by Booth while on the run and the foolish mistakes committed by him and his pursuers during the long chase until the last stand at a farm near Port Royal, VA, on April 26. Swanson concludes with discussions of the trial and execution of the four secondary conspirators, the subsequent squabbling over reward money, and the unfolding of the post-assassination lives of the drama's major personalities. Ably researched and seamlessly written, this engrossing book is recommended for all Civil War and Lincoln collections—and all libraries. —John Carver Edwards, Univ. of Georgia Libs.
Library Journal
[T]his nonfiction account of Booth's getaway as compelling as the best thrillers.... With a surfeit of detail at his disposal, Swanson weaves an absorbing tale in unadorned prose that critics greeted with unanimous approval.
Bookmarks Magazine
One of the more kinetic renderings of the Lincoln assassination, Swanson's synthesis of the sources is bound to be a cover-to-cover reading hit with history lovers.... Artfully arranging Booth's flight with the frantic federal dragnet that sought him, Swanson so tensely dramatizes the chase, capture, and killing of Booth that serious shelf-life (plus a movie version) awaits his account of the assassination. —Gilbert Taylor
Booklist
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for Manhunt:
1. Swanson tells part of his story through Booth's voice, which as a novelistic technique encourages readers to identify with a character. Do you think that Swanson makes Booth a sympathetic antihero?
2. In the above interview (under Author Bio), Swanson suggests that we have gained enough distance from Lincoln's assasination to create a certain "myth" surrounding Booth. Will that ever be true for Lee Harvey Oswald...or the 9/11 perpetrators? Does distance from an event create a certain mythology? Does it create a more objective lens through which to view an event?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
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