John Leonard is the mixed media critic for CBX News Sunday Morning, reviews televison for New Yrk maazine and reviews books for Harpers and The Nation. He has been the editor of the New York Times Book Review and literary co-editor of The Nation. His books include Lonesome Rangers, When the Kissing Had to Stop, and The Last Innocent White Man in America.
Eighty-one years ago, the Nation published a series of 49 articles on each of the then 48 states and Washington, D.C., that were later collected in two volumes. That book's contributors included notables such as W.E.B. Du Bois (Georgia), Sinclair Lewis (Minnesota) and Willa Cather (Nebraska). Now, Leonard, a noted reviewer, editor and writer (The Last Innocent White Man in America, etc.), has edited an impressive new collection of 55 original essays for this new century. Leonard includes Puerto Rico, and California has two essays (North and South), New York three (New York City, Long Island and Upstate). An impressive host of writers, styles and structures are as diverse as the subjects. Michael Tomasky ponders West Virginia's sense of cultural insularity as a state teetering between North and South; Donald Hall mourns the sudden loss (from natural causes) of New Hampshire's emblem, the Old Man of the Mountain; and Walter Kirn details the severity of Montana's economic privation. The book is organized alphabetically by state, and reading from start to finish entails a series of interesting jumps, e.g., from Georgia to Hawaii or from Colorado to Connecticut. This choice is wise, for it allows each state, and each writer, to stand out. Because the project commenced in 2001, references and reactions to the September 11 attacks are myriad. One of the more poignant of these reflections comes in Frank Conroy's piece on Iowa. He writes, "Iowans may be saddened... but they are not afraid. Not even remotely." (Nov. 15) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
In the early 1920s, the Nation asked 49 of the country's leading intellectuals, writers, and activists to write about the "state of their state" for a book, These United States: Portrait of America from the 1920s, that provided a snapshot of the country in the Jazz Age. (One of the 48 states at the time got double treatment.) Now, over 80 years later, the Nation has asked a contemporary group to do the same thing. The new book features an eclectic mix of essays from writers such as Frank Conroy (Iowa), Tony Hillerman (New Mexico), Nikki Giovanni (Tennessee), Molly Ivins (Texas), and Annie Proulx (Wyoming). Most talk about what makes their state special along with its unique challenges and how it relates to the broad country as a whole. In addition to the 50 states, New York City (Marshall Berman), Washington, DC (William Greider), and Puerto Rico (Rosario Ferr?) are represented. Although it includes a brief "About the Contributors" section at the end, the book would have benefited from a concise bio of the person at the beginning of each essay. Nevertheless, this is an innovative book, both informative and entertaining, that provides a unique look at 21st-century America. Recommended for academic and larger public libraries.-Robert Flatley, Kutztown Univ., PA Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
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