David Halberstam killed in car crash:

[speeder]

What a huge, gaping hole this leaves in our nation and the world of journalism, literature and culture. At least he got to live a full life, unlike his equally brilliant brother, Michael, who was murdered many years ago. They were both heroes of mine, and now I am so sad that I never got to meet him. Oh well, RIP.

[Joeaksa]

I have several of his book and he was very good. He will be missed...

[LakeCleElum]

WHO????

[cantdrv55]

Originally posted by LakeCleElum
WHO????

+1

[CJFusco]

He was a very good writer, mostly focusing on long essays and short journalistic books, most of which are about sports.

His book THE TEAMMATES, focusing on the relationships between Ted Williams, Bobby Doerr, Johnny Pesky, and Dom DiMaggio, is fantastic. It is a very sad day.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Halberstam graduated from Harvard University with a degree in journalism in 1955 and started his career writing for the Daily Times Leader in West Point, Mississippi. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, writing for The Tennessean in Nashville, Tennessee, he covered the beginnings of the American Civil Rights Movement.

In the mid 1960s, Halberstam covered the Vietnam War for The New York Times. While there, he gathered material for his book The Making of a Quagmire: America and Vietnam during the Kennedy Era. In 1963, he received a George Polk Award for his reporting at the New York Times. At the age of 30, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on the war. He is interviewed in the 1968 documentary film on the Vietnam War entitled In the Year of the Pig.

Halberstam put an enormous effort into his book about Kennedy's foreign policy decisions about the Vietnam War, The Best and the Brightest. Synthesizing material from dozens of books and many dozens of interviews, Halberstam focused on the odd paradox that those who crafted the U.S. war effort in Vietnam were some of the most intelligent, well-connected and self-confident men in America—"the best and the brightest"—and yet those same men were unable to imagine and promote any but a bloody and disastrous course in the Vietnam War.

Thousands of readers began The Best and the Brightest feeling that the U.S. must pursue the war in Vietnam until "victory" was achieved, but became convinced by Halberstam's book that the U.S. could not win and therefore should withdraw from Vietnam.

After publication of The Best and the Brightest in 1972, Halberstam plunged right into another "big" book and in 1979 published an informative book about some of the major media outlets in America. The Powers That Be gave compelling profiles of men like William Paley of CBS, Henry Luce of Time magazine, Phil Graham of The Washington Post—and many others.

Later in his career, Halberstam turned to the subjects of sports, publishing The Breaks of the Game, an inside look at the Bill Walton and the 1978 Portland Trailblazers basketball team; an ambitious book on Michael Jordan in 1999 called Playing for Keeps; and on the pennant race battle between the Yankees and Red Sox called Summer of '49.

After publishing two books in the 1960s, Halberstam published three books in the 1970s, four books in the 1980s, and six books in the 1990s. He published four books in the 2000s and was on a pace to publish six or more books in that decade before his death. In the wake of 9/11, Halberstam wrote perhaps the most sensitive and insightful book about that tragedy, detailing Engine 40, Ladder 35, in the tome, Firehouse.

In 1980, an escaped convict from New York, Bernard C. Welch, Jr., murdered Halberstam's brother, Michael J. Halberstam, a Washington, D.C. cardiologist.[1] Halberstam refused to comment publicly about this incident.


[edit] Death
Halberstam was killed April 23, 2007 in a traffic accident in Menlo Park, California near the Dumbarton Bridge.[2] He was a passenger in a car—driven by a journalism school student—broadsided by another vehicle while making a left turn across opposing traffic from California State Route 84 (Bayfront Expressway) westbound to California State Route 114 (Willow Road) southbound.[3] Expressways in California are highways with at-grade intersections.

Halberstam had been in the San Francisco Bay Area for an event at UC Berkeley on Saturday, April 21.[4] At the time of his death, Halberstam had just finished a book about the Korean War called The Coldest Winter, due out in 2007. He was on his way to interview NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Y.A. Tittle for his next book, The Game, about the 1958 NFL Championship between the Baltimore Colts and New York Giants. He lived in New York City.

[WolfeMacleod]

Originally posted by LakeCleElum
WHO????

Wikipedia is my friend...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Halberstam

Dang. Dan beat me to it.

[ikarcuaso]

Halberstam was in the passenger seat of a Camry driven by a Cal student. The driver was attempting to make a left turn at an intersection when the car was struck by an Infiniti traveling at a high rate of speed. Halberstam's side of the car took the brunt, and he died at the scene. He was on his way to do some research for an upcoming book. Halberstam spoke at Cal just this past Saturday. Tragic, a great loss. RIP.

[speeder]

Originally posted by LakeCleElum
WHO????

When it came to living American writers, they don't get more famous than him. Now of course he's dead. Maybe you guys should hit a library or a Barnes and Noble some time. Or not.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Originally posted by speeder
....Maybe you guys should hit a library or a Barnes and Noble some time. Or not.

I couldn't agree more. I used to read a LOT. Probably a book every week to a week and a half. I still read much more than most people but not as voraciously. Now I read books much less in part because of the advent of the internet, iPod, etc. Many, many more sources for news and information.

Some none-too-bright guy here posted a thread last week titled something like, "I ACTUALLY read a book"...like it was remarkable. It's remarkable that people think its remarkable to read a book.

RIP David Halberstam

[David]

Originally posted by Dan in Pasadena
Some none-too-bright guy here posted a thread last week titled something like, "I ACTUALLY read a book"...like it was remarkable. It's remarkable that people think its remarkable to read a book.

I don't want to get off the topic of this tragic loss, but calling someone not-to-bright for not reading books doesn't sound so bright. I don't read many books, am I not-so-bright? Most other engineers I work with don't read many books, are they not-so-bright? Sorry for the rant, I just don't like being judged for behavior different from one's own.

[Tim Hancock]

Do workshop manuals, enthusiast magazines and Trade A Plane count?

[RallyJon]

Yeah, I just wait for the TV adaptation. That doesn't mean I'm not bright. Who needs books anyway? Books don't have beer commercials like TV shows do, so there's no contest.

Hunter Thompson and now Halberstam. Damn.

[LakeCleElum]

Originally posted by speeder
When it came to living American writers, they don't get more famous than him. Now of course he's dead. Maybe you guys should hit a library or a Barnes and Noble some time. Or not.

I read as I get time, maybe 6 or 8 books/year. I have a large variety interests and subscribe to a lot of magazines. Always seem to have a backlog of reading those before I feel I can start a book. I do hit a library sometimes, doen't mean I know the names of all the thousands of authors...

[cantdrv55]

Reading is overrated.

[tabs]

I love David Halbershams work. Very level headed, immensily readable and unbiased. He just told it as it was.

If U want a good take on a subject read his work. I will miss him as well.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

I read 4-6 books a month and have never heard of Halberstam before today. AND I'm an engineer.

[speeder]

Originally posted by cantdrv55
Reading is overrated.

Try it sometime. It will make you a better person.

[jorian]

Halberstam's "The Reckoning" was a great book. Great for car guys as it chronicles the Japanese invasion of Detroit and its subsequent effect on American society. He was a fan of digression, often introducing secondary characters and stories that made the whole richer. It also made the books alot longer!

The guy researched like mad, often moving to the country he was writing about. He was also a contributor to many diverse magazines. Recent article in Vanity Fair on W for you Bushies. I'm sorry to hear of his passing.

[widgeon13]

I was just thinking of rereading "The Best and the Brightest", this will give me some momentum on that project.