Meetings: A Reporter's Notebook

by Jess Stearn

Mae West, Johnny Carson, Taylor Caldwell, Elvis Presley, Carl Sandburg, Eleanor Roosevelt, Grace Kelly, Joseph P. Kennedy, and Clark Gable are just a few of the people Jess Stearn crossed paths with in his storied career as a journalist and author. He met with the famous and the infamous, the proud and the humble, the glamorous and the plain. With every meeting, Stearn learned something about the world, about human nature and about himself. He learned about humility from the policeman who risked his life in turbulent waters to save a boy’s dog. He learned about loyalty from Phil Donahue who, after achieving superstardom, remembered those who stuck by him in the lean years. He learned about integrity from baseball great Sandy Koufax who refused to blame other players for costly World Series errors that marred the end of his brilliant career. He learned about pride and independence from an Italian immigrant bootblack who refused a generous tip. These snapshots from a reporter’s notebook offer a compelling look at American history in the 20th century. Stearn’s detailed personal reflections on events such as the Lindbergh kidnapping, the rise of rock ‘n’ roll music and the Kennedy assassination bring into clear focus the larger-than-life characters who molded our times. Whether you lived through these events or just read about them in history books, Meetings will hold you spellbound and keep you turning pages as you explore Stearn’s fascinating experiences.

308 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Stearn was a Jewish-American journalist and author of more than thirty books, nine of which were bestsellers. As an author, Stearn specialized in sensationalist speculative non-fiction. His early work focused on outsiders and marginalized individuals such as prostitutes, drug addicts, and homosexuals. His later work focused on spirituality, the occult, and psychic phenomena. His most popular works were two biographies on the American psychic Edgar Cayce; Stearn was a conference speaker for the Association for Research and Enlightenment and a proponent of Cayce's theories.