Reporting Always

October 19, 2015
This enticing volume of 32 selected works from Ross's tenure at the New Yorker is filled with gems written over the course of the veteran staff writer's seven-decade career. The collection, which is organized into categories such as "Players," "Youngsters," and "Big Cheeses," prioritizes subject over chronology and shows the consistency of Ross's reporting over the years. Several pieces deal with actors and directors. Ross captures Julie Andrews, for example, at the start of her stage career in 1954. She follows Maggie Smith and Judi Dench when they arrive in New York City to promote the 2005 film Ladies in Lavender, carefully observing as the dames navigate a series of newspaper interviews and television appearances. Ross also imbues less famous individuals with punch and personality. In a piece from 1995, he reports on 10th graders who attend private high schools on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. The teenagers are blunt and strong-willed, a subculture unto themselves. Writing about celebrities, Ross shows how they can be like the rest of us; focusing occasionally on seemingly mundane folks, she reminds readers that ordinary is not necessarily dull.

June 15, 2015

One doesn't casually undertake a collection of the best and most influential pieces Ross has published in The New Yorker; she's been a staff writer there since 1945. In the articles and "Talk of the Town" pieces presented here, readers will recognize her emblematic sense of pacing and eagle eye as she takes us into the hotel rooms of Ernest Hemingway, John Huston, and Charlie Chaplin; the afterschool hangouts of Manhattan private-school children; Robin Williams's living room; and more.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from October 15, 2015
One result of the dearth of men available to work in the U.S. during WWII was the hiring, for the first time, of women reporters at the New Yorker. One of these was Lillian Ross, hired in 1945 to write for the Talk of the Town section. Ross went on, of course, to write longer pieces, especially profiles, over the next 60 years. This invaluable collection brings together 32 of those pieces, which are presented in five sections: Players, Writers, Youngsters, New Yorkers, and Big Cheeses. We go along with Ross as she follows Hemingway in 1950 through a string of encounters in New York in her famous profile, How Do You Like It Now, Gentlemen?; as she accompanies a young Julie Andrews to see her name in lights for the first time; as she makes fun of the Red Scare in Hollywood in Come In, Lassie!; as she interviews wealthy Republicans at the National Convention in 2004 in The Money Honeys. Reading Ross is enlivened by Ross' own description, in her introduction, of her goal: to write each piece as if it were a miniature movie. Ross is credited with inventing fly on the wall journalism and with being one of the earliest practitioners of what came to be called narrative nonfiction. This isn't the first collection of Ross' work, but its time span makes it an invaluable one. Foreword by current New Yorker editor David Remnick.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

November 1, 2015

Lillian Ross worked at The New Yorker at a time when it was difficult for women to get reporting jobs covering subjects outside of homemaking and beauty. Hired by the magazine in 1945, Ross (Here But Not Here) started out as a writer for the famous "Talk of the Town" column and branched out to reporting on politics and social issues. Her profiles on such notable figures as Ernest Hemingway, Robin Williams, and the Beatles provide rich details about their lives and creative works. Unlike many celebrity interviews today, Ross's pieces paint vivid and insightful portraits of her subjects without resorting to criticism, hyperbole, or sensationalism. This collection of profiles is among several retrospective compilations and biographical works that were published this year in celebration of The New Yorker's 90th anniversary. VERDICT Aspiring journalists will benefit from studying Ross's narrative pieces, which offer a master class in journalism. Fans of The New Yorker will also enjoy reading articles that are as fresh today as when they were originally printed.--Donna Marie Smith, Palm Beach Cty. Lib. Syst., FL

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.