"A patent medicine tycoon, a creatively zany editor, and a mysterious graffiti artist named Bozo Texarino conspired to launch Robert Manning in the word trade more than half a century ago, and he's never had the time or inclination to look back - until now." "The Swamp Root Chronicle is the story of a distinguished career in journalism and public affairs. It is a rollicking tale, mostly happy, sometimes poignant, told by a man who found the practice of journalism to be not only a high calling but a way of "being paid to have fun."" "His journey of discovery takes Manning from a small city in upstate New York to encounters with many of the great events and dominant personalities of our time. From the White House during the final days of FDR and the coming of the nuclear age to the United Nations in its tumultuous early days and the creation of the state of Israel, Time and Life magazines in their heyday, campaigning with Adlai Stevenson, travels as a foreign correspondent, inside the administration of John F. Kennedy as an Assistant Secretary of State, and then for sixteen years as editor in chief of the prestigious Atlantic Monthly." "Before the journey is over, the reader shares the pleasure of many personal encounters - drinking, fishing, and talking with Ernest Hemingway in Cuba; covering the great racehorse, Native Dancer; ruminating about life and art with Henry Moore; the pleasures and tribulations of working for the press lord Henry Luce and his then-powerful magazines; glimpses of Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan, and Nikita Khrushchev; breakfasts with John F. Kennedy; and an insider's look at both the Kennedy and the Johnson administrations." "Manning's chronicle is compelling not only for the events and people he tells of but for the telling itself. It is a combination of fascinating anecdote and a prose style that brings to mind the charm of Russell Baker's Growing Up and the bite of H. L. Mencken's Newspaper Days. Reading The Swamp Root Chronicle is almost as much fun as living it obviously has been for Robert Manning."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved