City Room

Full disclosure: I am one of that nationwide brotherhood of folks who cannot get along without the New York Times. Though 450 miles and two states removed from New York City, I still devour the Times as a starving man would devour a hearty meal. It is good news for us Times junkies that Arthur Gelb's recounting of his career at the paper, published to considerable acclaim last year, is now out in a paperback reprint. The book is not without flaws, but Gelb tells his personal story with gusto and weaves it deftly into the lore, traditions, triumphs and crises of the paper itself. Gelb joined the paper at age 20 in 1944 as a copyboy. He worked his way up through the reporting ranks, covering police, hospitals and various other beats, then spending many years in the cultural department, dealing with the paper's critics of art, theater, architecture and music and covering the nightclub scene himself. Then they made him metropolitan editor (Times-speak for city editor) and by the time he retired in 1989 he was managing editor. He leaves the impression that life in the rarefied air of the paper's higher echelons was not to his taste --- he longed to be back in the city room, covering news and writing about it on a daily basis. Gelb's book is discursive and anecdotal. He goes into too much detail about many things and has a tendency to get sidetracked from the main thrust of whatever crisis he helped to report or cover by some alluring but peripheral topic that pops up out of nowhere. He has a hundred stories to tell, and he tells them all, come hell or high water. His rise through the paper's ranks was propelled by his own obvious talent, plus a flair for self-promotion, a take-charge attitude under stress that fit the needs of a major newspaper, and a shrewd ability to ingratiate himself with people who could do his career good. The pattern was set at the very start, when Gelb was looking for a way to set himself apart from the other copyboys who shared his desire to become a reporter. A sympathetic older staffer suggested he start an internal staff newsletter. He got right on the case and did the job well enough to eventually earn promotion to the reporting staff. In the process he even met his future wife. Not a bad parlay! One point that Gelb emphasizes will surely seem odd to present-day journalists on other newspapers: He constantly emphasizes how, in his reporting days, police, press agents and government officials seemed actually eager to give the Times inside information and helpful spoonfuls of hot news. How times have changed! Today these functionaries generally work hard to make a reporter's job more difficult, or to feed him only self-serving puffery. Perhaps the solution to this mystery lies in the fact that the New York Times, is, after all, The New York Times. Those who work for lesser papers are treated accordingly (I speak from experience). A great virtue of Gelb's book is his humanizing of his fellow reporters, critics and edit

City Room is a memoir of a person who loved his job and his city. Gelb traces his gradual ascent at the New York Times from ambitious copy boy to managing editor and corporate leader. He brings to this book wonderful stories of his love for the culture available in New York, especially the theatre, and the ways he worked to promote coverage of the arts.The book is framed by two scandals; early coverage of the Holocaust in the immediate aftermath of World War II and most recently the implosion resulting from the journalistic sins of Jason Blair. In dealing with these problems and detailing the work on stories throughout his career as a reporter and editor, we see why and how the New York Times established itself as the newspaper of record for our times. It also chronicles the ups and downs of New York City and the Times' bond with the city.For anyone interested in journalism or New York City, it is a delightful visit with a person on intimate terms with both.

It's great to see someone of Arthur Gelb's age and experience who has remained true to the very core of what reporting and journalism is all about -- keeping people informed. He outlines his rise from copy boy to managing editor of the Great Gray Lady, the New York Times, through some of the most turbulent years of the nation. He doesn't pull punches when describing some of his associates in those years, and I raised my eyebrows more than once at his descriptions of some of the giants of the Times. At times, his exhaustive attention to detail does bog the reader down, but he is peerless in his recollection and objectivity. He never hesitates to give credit where it is due, whether he liked the person or not. My one real criticism of this book is its complete absence of pictures. I would have liked to have seen a few of the people he so lovingly described, particularly those of his early years on the Times. But, like the paper he has devoted his life to, photos play a secondary role to the text. Definitely worth reading for anyone who wants to understand how the Times, and with it, the substantial portion of today's press, has grown and changed in the past 50 years.

Once I started reading City Room, I had only one regret--that I had to get my customary quota of sleep. Every night, I was tempted to forget the clock, and enjoy more of Arthur Gelb's enthralling story about his lifelong love affair with The New York Times. Yet the book expands far beyond reliving the development of a writer and his newspaper. City Room reflects the emergence of the nation during some of America's most historic events. Plus, readers will enjoy the author's stories about celebrities he knew, interviewed, entertained, and wrote about. City Room will mesmerize you. I expect to remain under Athur Gelb's spell for a long time.