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Take A Trip To Paris And The Boxing Ring

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By ROGER K. MILLER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 15, 2009

"A.J. Liebling: The Sweet Science and Other Writings." Edited by Pete Hamill (Library of America, $40)

A.J. Liebling is such a good writer that when he gets into subjects that really engage me I come up only occasionally for air. If you get into this splendid collection of journalism at its best, check your oxygen supply first, for the same can happen to you.

Abbott Joseph Liebling, universally known as Joe, wrote almost exclusively for The New Yorker for the last 28 years of his life (1904-1963). Last year the estimable Library of America brought out a volume of World War II correspondence he did for the magazine; here it follows up with an equally winning volume encompassing five previous books.

"The Sweet Science" (boxing) and "Between Meals" (French food, and the French) are wonderful books displaying the enthusiasm and deep curiosity he brought to whatever subject he took on. It is in the other three books, however, that the trademark joy and brio really come out in his writing.

With two of them it is because they deal with the rogues, scalawags, scamps and scoundrels who delighted his soul: "The Earl of Louisiana" - Earl Long, three times governor of Louisiana - and "The Jollity Building," a vivid account of the "petty nomads of Broadway" in the 1930s and '40s, characters who are not far removed from Damon Runyon's "Guys and Dolls" in both behavior and speech.

The third, "The Press," deals with the subject that probably most aroused his passion: journalism, specifically newspapers, especially New York newspapers. Indeed, because they are intimately concerned with his beloved native New York City, the latter two are most typical of Liebling, the man and writer.

It is not surprising that, to a man who remarked that "freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one" and "people everywhere confuse what they read in newspapers with news," the decline of newspapers was a favorite subject. Some of this has a certain period flavor, as almost no American cities have competing newspapers anymore. Indeed, we are coming to the point where some fair-sized cities won't have a single newspaper.

Some people today rejoice at this, holding that the "liberal press" is only getting the comeuppance it deserves. Liebling is at pains to show that the reverse has been true: Overwhelmingly newspapers have been owned by wealthy businessmen whose hearts and pocketbooks belong to conservative causes, and their newspapers reflected this bias.

In a 1960 piece, "The Big Decision," Liebling wrote, "The disappearance of newspapers, accelerating the obsolescence of the printed word, would be a misfortune for a lot of us." Amen, Joe. Amen.

Roger K. Miller, a newspaperman for many years, is a novelist and freelance writer, reviewer and editor.

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