David Halberstam

The sudden and unnecessary death of journalist and author David Halberstam gave me a real jolt. (News reports state that he died in a car crash when his grad student driver made a left turn in front of an oncoming car).

I was initially surprised to hear that Halberstam was 73 until I reflected that he made his name writing some of the first accurately pessimistic reports from Vietnam for the NYT in the early 1960's. Nonetheless, Halbertsam's stentorian voice and driven energy made him seem younger. At the time of his death he was on his way to interview Y.A. Tittle for a book about the great 1958 NFL title game between the NY Giants and Baltimore Colts. (The game was so good that Gino Marchetti remained on the sideline to watch the game despite a broken leg.)

One of my favorite authors, in later years Halberstam alternated between serious books about society and politics and lighter, but still excellent works about sports. A personal favorite was The Best and the Brightest, the somewhat ironically titled book about the bright young men of the Kennedy Administration that led the country in the quagmire (a word that Halberstam essentially introduced into the American lexicon with his book The Making of a Quagmire).

In The Powers That Be Halberstam told the fascinating story of the US media and its growing power from 1940 to 1970 - a tale that seems quaint today.

His truly untimely death is just a damned shame. He wasn't done writing and we weren't done reading.