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A Crooked Line celebrates an age when print journalism changed lives and made the world a better place. That era may be winding down, but this perceptive book makes the case for why incisive writing will always matter.
Over the course of his 40-year career, Michael Shapiro has reported from more than 20 countries, writing for National Geographic, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and many other top publications. But the itinerant writer’s life, while rewarding, has never been easy.
Shapiro worked as an investigative reporter and staff writer for San Francisco Bay Area newspapers before letting go of a regular paycheck and setting out to share stories of people and places worldwide. The exhilarations of the open road, “afoot and light-hearted” as Whitman wrote, were tempered by the challenges of freelancing, from making a living to working with heavy-handed editors.
His stories put people first: For a feature about Puerto Rico’s recovery after Hurricane Maria, he visited farmers who spoke of shifting from exporting produce to growing food for local people. His profile of a Yosemite photographer, who climbed Half Dome after being diagnosed with cancer, brought the man’s big-hearted humanity to the fore.
Shapiro is known as a travel writer, but his work goes far beyond global dispatches. In this book he shares stories of:
- saving Sunset magazine’s priceless archive of Western life (including photos made by Ansel Adams) after Time Inc. told staffers to toss everything into a dumpster
- an investigation into the U.S. government’s attempt to conceal the circumstances of pro football star and soldier Pat Tillman’s death during the war in Afghanistan
- writing a tribute about environmental hero Jane Goodall just hours after she died
- how the Grateful Dead’s ecstatic songs celebrate the wonders of nature.
Several chapters cover themes familiar to journalists and others who work for themselves. Among them: collaboration, independence, rejection and compensation. A glossary defines insider journalism terms such as hed, dek, slug, lede, nut graf, and kill fee.
Renowned for his books of conversations with writers and artists, A Sense of Place and The Creative Spark, Shapiro has interviewed David Sedaris, Amy Tan, Smokey Robinson, Joan Rivers, Frances Mayes and Peter Matthiessen. In this volume, he tells the story of how he convinced a reluctant Paul Theroux to agree to an interview and shares an in-depth dialogue with poet and philosopher David Whyte.
Getting an interview and executing it well is the work of a diplomat, and there aren't many people who can do it. Shapiro is a pro at it—which this book shows.
A Crooked Line highlights Shapiro’s best journalism and includes behind-the-scenes anecdotes about how he pitched stories and got assignments worldwide. Postscripts detail what happened afterward; some include letters from people he wrote about, sharing what his coverage meant to them.
After his story about Welsh bard Dylan Thomas was published in The Washington Post, Shapiro received a handwritten letter from a former customs official who said he had admitted Thomas into the United States on the fateful 1953 trip from which the poet would never return. Months after the Yosemite photographer succumbed to cancer, his widow wrote a heartfelt email to Shapiro telling him that his writing made her feel she was “spending time with Kirk again.”
Due to the dramatic changes in the journalistic landscape, a career like Shapiro’s couldn’t begin today. Yet the skills he honed as a journalist—empathetic listening, concise and evocative writing, and a keen sense of what matters—remain as relevant as ever. The tales and insights in A Crooked Line provide a timely affirmation of journalism’s enduring power to illuminate the human experience. This penetrating book reminds us that whatever life path we choose, it’s vital to make it our own.
“Holy moly. That is a great story. Shapiro hit it out of the park. Impressive. It's worthy of Outside at its best. I know. I was editing there at the time.” —Tim Cahill on Shapiro’s story, “Half Dome the Hard Way,” which is included in the book
More Praise for Michael Shapiro
On The Creative Spark, winner of the 2021 Independent Publisher Book Award
"Questions are knowledgeable, probing, and thoughtful leading to moments as when Melvin Seals recalls his hesitancy to join The Jerry Garcia Band as 'a church boy walking into a world of all these skeletons. The artists’ discussions are organic and sometimes amusing, and their inclusion is guided by Shapiro’s admiration of his subjects." —Foreword Reviews
"Michael Shapiro is a genius at doing interviews, not just writing them but getting all of the famous people to talk to him." —Elaine Petrocelli, owner, Book Passage bookstore
"The cumulative effect of The Creative Spark is really much bigger than a bunch of individual interviews. I feel filled up, not overfull, but satisfied and moved by all of these people and their collective experiences. It’s really a portrait of life writ large, with the compelling undercurrent that these 'famous people' are real people like the rest of us. These are people living their lives, pursuing what most profoundly interests them, and by doing so, marvelous stuff happens. It’s like alchemy; something magical occurs. Something real gets created and shared, and we’re all the better for it." —Larry Habegger, Executive Editor, Travelers’ Tales
On A Sense of Place
"Illuminating, entertaining, and insightful." —Chicago Tribune
"Shapiro has done his homework, seeming to know the books as well as their authors do. He elicits philosophies of travel (Jan Morris says, 'Grin like a dog and run about the city') as well as homely advice (Tim Cahill: 'Never go shark diving with a guy that’s only got one arm')." —The Washington Post
"Hearing some of the great travel writers talk about their craft is certainly instructive for readers and writers alike. Most enjoyable are Shapiro’s interviews with some of the standard bearers: Arthur Frommer, Eric Newby, Peter Matthiessen and Jan Morris." —The New York Times
"Big-minded, big-hearted, progressive and compassionate." —The San Francisco Chronicle
Glossary: Journalism shorthand and insider vocabulary
Chapters:
How the mystique of Wales gave strength to a legendary writer: With Welsh legends and landscapes as her muse, Jan Morris circled the globe and reinvented travel writing
Yellowstone in Winter: Cross-country ski trip from base camp of yurts offers rare wilderness immersion at popular national park
Topic: The Great Leap
Sound Full of Rainbows: Grateful Dead songs evoke splendor of natural world
Half Dome the Hard Way: Photographer with cancer embarks on Yosemite climb to raise awareness about screening
Topic: Compensation
A Month of Sundays: Finding silver linings and cause for hope during early weeks of Covid pandemic
Toss Ansel Adams in a Dumpster: How a courageous cadre of Sunset magazine staffers defied Time Inc. and saved a priceless archive
Topic: Rejection
Paul Theroux’s Cape Cod: Peripatetic writer empowered by the place he and his family call home
Bad Jew: Writing a tribute honoring Jane Goodall on the holiest day of the Jewish year
In Search of Dylan Thomas: Seeking the elusive poet whose words brought Wales to the world
Topic: Obscenity
Debauchery in the Morning: Dervla Murphy, Ireland’s trailblazing author, traveled at a human pace
Know When to Fold ’Em: Poker player lays down four-of-a-kind in million-dollar tournament
On the Tequila Trail: Tracing Mexico’s refined spirit from agave fields to tasting rooms
Topic: Endings
The Trickster: Peter Coyote
Fran Lebowitz: Erudite Manhattan critic goes camping
Lewis Black: Giving voice to his fans
Topic: Pivoting from Prejudice
A Deep but Dazzling Darkness: Interview with poet David Whyte rejected after newly hired editor didn’t want conversation to include poetry
This Immeasurable Place: Generous farm-to-table cuisine so original that restaurant miles from nowhere feels like a mirage
Rough Seas, Rougher Response: Getting swept away by a sneaker wave on Kauai’s Napali coast triggers vitriol from some local Hawaiians
Topic: Conferences
The King of Hay-on-Wye: A self-appointed royal turns his castle into a bookshop and puts his town on the literary map
Produce for the People: A year after Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico, farmers find a sustainable way to grow for locals
White Whale: After years of trying, landing an interview with blues legend Buddy Guy
Topic: Awards
Never Let Go: Recalling when my father pulled me back from a watery abyss far from home
The Parade: Seeing our baby’s heartbeat then losing the pregnancy
Topic: Gifts and Ethics
The Gift: Grateful Dead artist Stanley Mouse
It’s Bingo Night, Bitch! Getting spanked, for a good cause, by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence
Don’t Be Sad: A farewell to a restaurant so good it made you cry
Epilogue