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The Times of My Life and My Life with the Times
In this remarkable memoir, The New York Times's Max Frankel tells his life story the way he lived it--in tandem with the big news stories of our time.
"I escaped into America, and beyond it. The idea of America became my proud passport. A passion to conform made me a patriot. The discovery of words turned me into a skeptic. And the journalist's press pass sent me vaulting across borders to gain a spectacular perspective on our era. Like the astronauts floating in outer space, I've had a rare glimpse of the earth in my times, and it gave me an irrepressible urge to record the journey."
Max Frankel started to write for The New York Times as a student at Columbia in 1949, and during the next half century he held just about every important position on the paper--foreign correspondent, Washington bureau chief, editorials editor, and executive editor.
When The Times of My Life begins, Max Frankel is a boy in Nazi Germany; we experience the terror of his wartime escape with his heroic mother, their immigrant lives in New York, and a teacher's inspired decision that he could belatedly learn to read English if he learned to write it. And so Max Frankel found his career. His book, like his life, moves through Hitler's Berlin, Khrushchev's Moscow, Castro's Havana, and the Washington of Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon. It reevaluates the Cold War and interweaves Frankel's personal and professional lives with the era's greatest stories, from Sputnik to the Pentagon Papers, from the building of the Berlin Wall to its collapse, all the while tracking the tensions of managing the world's greatest newspaper.
Beautifully written, filled with anecdotes and insights, The Times of My Life evokes an unparalleled life as it embraces America in our time.
"I escaped into America, and beyond it. The idea of America became my proud passport. A passion to conform made me a patriot. The discovery of words turned me into a skeptic. And the journalist's press pass sent me vaulting across borders to gain a spectacular perspective on our era. Like the astronauts floating in outer space, I've had a rare glimpse of the earth in my times, and it gave me an irrepressible urge to record the journey."
Max Frankel started to write for The New York Times as a student at Columbia in 1949, and during the next half century he held just about every important position on the paper--foreign correspondent, Washington bureau chief, editorials editor, and executive editor.
When The Times of My Life begins, Max Frankel is a boy in Nazi Germany; we experience the terror of his wartime escape with his heroic mother, their immigrant lives in New York, and a teacher's inspired decision that he could belatedly learn to read English if he learned to write it. And so Max Frankel found his career. His book, like his life, moves through Hitler's Berlin, Khrushchev's Moscow, Castro's Havana, and the Washington of Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon. It reevaluates the Cold War and interweaves Frankel's personal and professional lives with the era's greatest stories, from Sputnik to the Pentagon Papers, from the building of the Berlin Wall to its collapse, all the while tracking the tensions of managing the world's greatest newspaper.
Beautifully written, filled with anecdotes and insights, The Times of My Life evokes an unparalleled life as it embraces America in our time.
560 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1999
7 people are currently reading
119 people want to read
About the author
Max Frankel
21 books1 followerMax Frankel was an American journalist who was executive editor of The New York Times from 1986 to 1994.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 12, 2013
In reality, 3.5 stars. More enjoyable than I might have imagined. Frankel, no surprise, is an excellent writer, and his story of flight from Hitler and Stalin to success in America is great stuff. Best of all, he covers lots of territory without getting too detailed about arcane events. Drawback (minor): three self-justifying chapters about how he dealt with the challenges (problems? issues?) of adding gays, blacks, and women to the NY Times workforce.
Very interesting insights on Khruschev, JFK, LBJ, Nixon, and others. Liberal without being unbalanced. Critical when necessary, but in a civilized and restrained manner. Nice mix of personal with the historic. Heck, maybe it's 4 stars after all!
Very interesting insights on Khruschev, JFK, LBJ, Nixon, and others. Liberal without being unbalanced. Critical when necessary, but in a civilized and restrained manner. Nice mix of personal with the historic. Heck, maybe it's 4 stars after all!
March 31, 2013
A beautifully written biography detailing his escape from Nazi Germany and his life in journalism at the New York Times. I highly recommend this book.
October 23, 2024
Excellent. A very enjoyable read of my own history along with a newspaper publishing story.
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April 28, 2011Frankel's NY Times life in 60s-90s, from reporter to Exec Ed. Off-record encounters with history makers
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December 30, 2017I have to confess that I didn't finish this book - I liked it but I lost track of it. I may try again later. I read about his early years and his and his mother's harrowing escape from Nazi Europe, leaving his father behind, but I didn't get to the years of his success at the Times.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews