User talk:Phyllis Kluger

Dear Wikipedia editors:

I respectfully but strongly object to the existing version of my husband Richard Kluger’s Wikipedia biography. It is carelessly written, contains a number of inaccuracies (e.g., he never worked for “several small newspapers,” only large metropolitan ones and a national financial magazine), and in no way reflects the critical acclaim that his books have widely received over four decades. Instead, his Wikipedia entry dwells on two of the very rare negative comments (about “Seizing Destiny”) that his books have received (see Book Review Digest for the years in which any of his books has been published and the extensive review excerpts listed on his website, www.richardkluger.com), and inaccurately implies that his work has generally been given mixed notices. Moreover, about one-fourth of his biographical entry is inappropriately devoted to me, his wife, and the article mistakenly implies I was instrumental in the writing of his books, as if we generally functioned as a writing team. I feel my submitted revision (see immediately below) of the Richard Kluger entry is a fairer and more accurate rendering of his career and hope Wikipedia will approve this substitution.

Phyllis Kluger (talk) 18:44, 8 August 2017 (UTC)Sincerely, Phyllis Kluger//1440 Walnut St #8, Berkeley CA//(510) 525-7444[reply]

Hello. Your version was not acceptable, it is entirely unsourced. As you have a conflict of interest you should not be editing the article at all, however if you believe there are errors you can request edits on the talk page of the article and they will be reviewed by a neutral editor--Jac16888 ^Talk 16:01, 18 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Richard Kluger (born 1934) is an American author who, after working as a New York journalist and book publishing executive, turned in mid-career to writing widely lauded works on U.S. social history. His two best known books are “Simple Justice,” generally regarded as the definitive account of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 landmark decision outlawing racially segregated public schools, and “Ashes to Ashes,” a critical history of the cigarette industry and its lethal toll on the public’s health, which won the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction in 1997.

Eaely Life and Family Born in Paterson, N.J., in September 1934, Kluger is the son of David (a New York businessman) and Ida Kluger and grew up in Manhattan living with his mother and older brother Alan after his parents divorced when he was seven years old. He graduated from the Horace Mann School and Princeton University, where he won honors as an English literature major, but his principal interest was the undergraduate newspaper, The Daily Princetonian, of which he served as the chairman in 1955-56. [fn. “The Writings of Richard Kluger,” biography section of www.richardkluger.com and Who’s Who in America entries from 1964-2016] He withdrew from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, at which he had been the New York Times campus correspondent, to join The Wall Street Journal as a copy editor and married the former Phyllis Schlain of South Orange, N.J. Adter launching and operating a weekly newspaper in Rockland County, N.Y., for two years, he worked as a reporter for the New York Post and Forbes magazine before becoming the literary editor of the New York Herald Tribune and its Book Week review section. When the Tribune went out of business in 1966, Kluger entered the book industry, serving as executive editor of Simon and Schuster, editor-in-chief of Atheneum, and publisher of Charterhouse Books, hiw own imprint in conjunction with David McKay.

Writing Career As a moonlighting author, Kluger published two novels, “When the Bough Breaks” and “National Anthem,” satirizing American social mores, to friendly reviews. Moved by the social upheavals sweeping across the U.S. in the 1960s, Kluger left book publishing and devoted six years, starting in 1968, to researching and writing “Simple Justice,” (1976) an 800-page history of the Supreme Court’s most famous 20th century decision, Brown v. Board of Education, the catalyst of the 1960s civil rights movement. The book chronicles the struggles of the case’s victimized plaintiffs, their conflicted communities, and embattled lawyers, then portrays the behind-the-scenes interaction among the nine justices before arriving at their unanimous verdict. The massive work wasHailed by The Nation magazine as “a monumental accomplishment” [fn. Maurice Ford, The Narion, Dec. 27, 1975], by The New York Times as “enthralling…. It is not the unusual dramatic derail that matters so much as its comprehensiveness – the breadth and sweep of the narrative” [fn. Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times Feb. 3, 1976],and by the Harvard Law Review as “an extraordinary research effort and a major contribution to our understanding of the Supreme Court” [fn. Edward N. Beiser, Harvard Law Review, vol. 89, no. 8 (1976)]. A finalist for the National Book Award in history, “Simple Justice” was placed by the New York Law Journal’s literary critic at the top of his list in an article titled “The Ten Best Law Books.”[fn. Daniel J. Kornstein, The New York Law Journal, Mar. 15, 1993]

          Kluger’s second nonfiction work, “The Paper: The Life and Death of the New York Herald Tribune”(1986), was also a National Book Award finalist. The Boston Globe called it “probably the best book ever written about an American newspaper” [fn.J. Anthony Lukas, The Boston Globe,Oct. 12, 1986]; the Columbia Journalism Review praised it as “a brilliant achievement in its thoroughness and warmth” [William K. Zinsser, Columbia Journalism Review, Nov.-Dec. 1986).

Blending the financial, medical, legal, and political aspects of his next subject, the tobacco industry and the smoking and health controversy, Kluger conducted hundreds of interviews including probing exchanges with corporare officers to produce “Ashes to Ashes” (1996). A Pulitzer Prize winner for general nonfiction, it was described by New York Times Book Review as “a great battleship of a book – majestic…guided with discerning literary skill and armed with an abundance of revealing information.” The Washington Post said it was “an awesome feat of reporting as history.” [fn. Daniel J. Kevies, New York Times Book Review, May 12,1996] Kluger went on to write three other, generally well received works of history, dealing with the relentless expansion of America’s national boundaries, a tragic mid-19th century clash between white settlers and tribal natives in territorial Washington, and the 1735 trial of John Peter Zenger and the origins of press freedom in the New World [fn. “Critical Response” entries in “The Writings of Richard Kluger,” www.richardkluger.com]. Of his six novels, the most widely read were “Members of the Tribe” and “The Sheriff of Nottingham,” both anchored in historical events. He also co-authored two novels with his wife Phyllis, a fiber artist and herself the author of two books on needlework design, who often assisted him on the research for his historical works. [fn. www.phylliskluger.com] The Klugers have two sons and six grandsons and have lived near San Francisco since 2003.

Bibliography

[pickup existing Bibliography but add at the end of Non-Fiction:]

INDELIBLE INK (2016): The Trials of John Peter Zenger and the Birth of America’s Free Press

[correct Fiction to read:] WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS (1964) NATIONAL ANTHEM (1969) MEMBERS OF THE TRIBE (1978) STAR WITNESS (1979) UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES (1982) THE SHERIFF OF NOTTINGHAM (1992) BEETHOVEN’S TENTH (to be published 2018) Co-authored with Phyllis Kluger GOOD GOODS (1982) ROYAL PONCIANA (1987) under pseudonym Thea Coy Douglass

Phyllis Kluger (talk) 18:44, 8 August 2017 (UTC)Phyllis Kluger[reply]