About the Author

Mark Whitaker is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir, My Long Trip Home, and Smoketown. The former managing editor of CNN Worldwide, he was previously the Washington bureau chief for NBC News and a reporter and editor at Newsweek, where he rose to become the first African-American leader of a national newsweekly.

Reviews

"Smoketown brilliantly offers us a chance to see this other black renaissance and spend time with the many luminaries who sparked it as well as the often unheralded journalists who covered it...It's thanks to such a gifted storyteller as Whitaker that this forgotten chapter of American history can finally be told in all its vibrancy and glory." -- "The New York Times Book Review"

"[A] rewarding trip to a forgotten special place and time...With the publication of Mr. Whitaker's enjoyable and long-overdue time trip back to Smoketown, he and Simon & Schuster have given the Hill District and its talented ghosts the national props they've always deserved."-- "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette"

"A thoroughly researched celebration of the black community and culture in Pittsburgh from the 1920s through the 1950s. Pittsburgh's black residents, Whitaker argues, offered cultural contributions that significantly shaped black history--and the nation. With the diligence of a seasoned anthropologist, Whitaker spotlights the city's stunning feats of black achievement and resilience through the lens of his extensive cast of influencers and icons. While some of the names may be unfamiliar, each subject's narrative is a nuanced portrayal meant to challenge our country's often narrow, dismissive version of black history. Cultural heavyweights such as boxer Joe Louis are treated as historical catalysts rather than extraordinary oddities. Black history, as evident in the cultural renaissance of Pittsburgh, is not defined by oppression. Despite the setbacks of systemic racism and discrimination, black excellence flourishes regardless of the white gaze." -- "Bookpage"

"Pittsburgh was one of the country's citadels of black aspiration in music, sports, business and culture. This is the world affectionately summoned back to life with zest and passion by Mark Whitaker in Smoketown. There's something close to enchantment to be found in the stories Whitaker unpacks piece by piece, name by glittering name. Black excellence, black talent and black achievement were of such incandescence in Pittsburgh for most of the late century's first half that one imagines them piercing through the thickest mesh of soot and smog draping the city during its coal-and-steel heyday. . . . Some of these stories have had books of their own. Others seem poised for books of their own. For now, this one, fashioned with love and rigor, provides these stories a sturdy, substantial home."-- "USA Today"

"Terrific, eminently readable . . . fascinating . . . Smoketown will appeal to anybody interested in black history and anybody who loves a good story. In short, anybody."-- "The Washington Post"

"Mark Whitaker has given Pittsburgh's wondrously rich black culture its due at long last. Smoketown is illuminating history and an absolute delight to read."--David Maraniss, author of Once in a Great City: A Detroit Story

"Mark Whitaker says his remarkable mid-twentieth century Pittsburgh "was a black version of the story of early twentieth-century Vienna." Mr. Whitaker is so riveting a storyteller that the reader even wonders if Belle Epoque Vienna had the equivalent of a Billy Eckstine, Mary Lou Williams, Billy Strayhorn, Joe Louis, or an August Wilson."--David Levering Lewis, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of W.E.B. Du Bois

"That Smoketown is a joy to read shouldn't obscure the seriousness of its intentions. In vividly recreating the mid-twentieth-century heyday of black Pittsburgh, an almost magical locale for journalism, sports, music, politics, and business, Whitaker is also offering an alternate version of African-American history. This is a story of strength, pride, and achievement, where racism is never absent but also never more powerful than the strong will of his large, fascinating cast of characters."--Nicholas Lemann, author of The Promised Land: The Great Migration and How It Changed America