Calvin Trillin

About Alice

An anthology of previously uncollected essays, originally published in "The New Yorker," reflects the work of the eminent journalist's early career and traces his witness to the fledgling years of desegregation in Georgia.

And Other Dispatches from Fifty Years of Reporting on Race in America

Jackson, 1964

John Gregory Dunne

"In 1957, Roger "Denny" Hansen seemed a college hero for the ages: a charmer with a dazzling smile, a Rhodes scholar ... perhaps a future president, as his friends only half joked. But life worked out differently for Denny. After early jobs in government and journalism, his life increasingly took a downward turn. By middle age he was alone and unfulfilled; he committed suicide in 1991, at the age of fifty-five." "In this contemplation of his friend's life, Calvin Trillin attempts to chart the mysterious course of a career that had seemed full of limitless promise. He also embarks upon a provocative investigation of America in the 1950s - exploring the assumptions inherited by the "silent generation" as well as how those assumptions fared during the subsequent transformation of American society in the years that followed. Remembering Denny is not only a memoir of friendship, but also a meditation on our country's evolving sense of self."--BOOK JACKET.

Remembering Denny

In the 1970s, Calvin Trillin informed America that its most glorious food was not to be found at the pretentious restaurants he referred to generically as La Maison de la Casa House, Continental Cuisine. With three hilarious books over the next two decades--American Fried; Alice, Let's Eat; and Third Helpings--he established himself as, in Craig Claiborne's phrase, "the Walt Whitman of American eats." Trillin's three comic masterpieces are now available in what Trillin calls The Tummy Trilogy.

The Tummy Trilogy

An ordinary man, Murray Tepper unwittingly turns New York upside down when he engages in the normal activity of reading the newspaper in his car, which always seems to be parked in the same desirable parking spot in Manhattan.

A Novel

Tepper Isn't Going Out

Dispatches from a Life in the Press

Lede

further adventures of a happy eater

Alice, let's eat

Adventures of a Happy Eater

American Fried

True stories of sudden death in the classic collection by a master of American journalism "Reporters love murders," Calvin Trillin writes in the introduction to Killings. "In a pinch, what the lawyers call 'wrongful death' will do, particularly if it's sudden." Killings, first published in 1984 and expanded for this edition, shows Trillin to be such a reporter, drawn time after time to tales of sudden death. But Trillin is attracted less by violence or police procedure than by the way the fabric of people's lives is suddenly exposed when someone comes to an untimely end. As Trillin says, Killings is "more about how Americans live than about how some of them die." These stories, which originally appeared in The New Yorker between 1969 and 2010, are vivid portraits of lives cut short. An upstanding farmer in Iowa finds himself drastically changed by a woman he meets in a cocktail lounge. An eccentric old man in Eastern Kentucky is enraged by the presence of a documentary filmmaker. Two women move to a bucolic Virginia county to find peace, only to end up at war over a shared road. Mexican American families in California hand down a feud from generation to generation. A high-living criminal-defense lawyer in Miami acquires any number of enemies capable of killing him. Stark and compassionate, deeply observed and beautifully written, Killings is "that rarity, reportage as art" (William Geist, The New York Times Book Review). Praise for Killings "Riveting tales of murder and mayhem. . . . [Calvin] Trillin is a superb writer, with a magical ability to turn even the most mundane detail into spellbinding wonder. Armed with this wealth of material, he utterly shines. Every piece here is a gem."--The Seattle Times "What Mr. Trillin does so well, what makes Killings literature, is the way he pictures the lives that were interrupted by the murders. Even the most ordinary life makes a terrible noise . . . when it's broken off."--Anatole Broyard, The New York Times "Fascinating, troubling . . . In each of these stories is the basis of a Dostoevskian novel."--Edward Abbey, Chicago Sun-Times "The stories . . . are unforgettable. They leave us, finally, with the awareness of the unknowable opacity of the human heart."--Bruce Colman, San Francisco Chronicle "[Trillin] writes brilliantly. . . . These stories still hold up, as classics."--The Buffalo News "In his artful ability to conjure up a whole life and a whole world, Trillin comes as close to achieving the power of a Chekhov short story as can anyone whose material is so implacably tied to fact."--Frederick Iseman, Harper's Bazaar "I have a book for you true-crime addicts if you're caught up on the podcast Serial, the cascade on TV of 48 Hours and Dateline NBC episodes. . . . It's time to pick up Calvin Trillin's Killings."--The New York Times Book Review "Well-crafted and thoughtfully composed, lacking judgment and admonishment, these are a true piece of quality journalism, which clearly continues to captivate audiences."--Library Journal "With telling detail and shrewd insights, [Calvin Trillin] masterfully evokes the places and personalities that hatched these grim episodes."--Publishers Weekly

Killings

In a tribute to his late wife, Alice, and their relationship, the author celebrates the life of a remarkable woman who played a vital role in his life.

These vivid pieces, drawn from the renowned journalist's acclaimed "U.S. Journal" series from the "New Yorker" deal with the theme of sudden death, ranging from the murder of a Miami defense lawyer to a violent tragedy in an Iowa farm family

Ian Frazier

Vivian Gornick

Mark Salzman

Andrea Lee

Tobias Schneebaum

THEY WENT:TRAVEL WRITING PA (Writer's Craft)

In these fifteen essays the celebrated columnist and his family travel in search of the elusive treasures of Europe and the Caribbean, such as the best gelati in Italy Elysee

Travels with Alice

Presents a humorous ode to the 2012 presidential election that likens the campaign to a three-ring circus and includes riffs on figures ranging from Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich to Rick Perry and Rick Santorum.

The 2012 Presidential Campaign in Verse

Dogfight

BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Calvin Trillin's Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin. “Trillin is our funniest food writer. He writes with charm, freedom, and a rare respect for language.” –New York magazine In this delightful and delicious book, Calvin Trillin, guided by an insatiable appetite, embarks on a hilarious odyssey in search of “something decent to eat.” Across time zones and cultures, and often with his wife, Alice, at his side, Trillin shares his triumphs in the art of culinary discovery, including Dungeness crabs in California, barbecued mutton in Kentucky, potato latkes in London, blaff d’oursins in Martinique, and a $33 picnic on a no-frills flight to Miami. His eating companions include Fats Goldberg, the New York pizza baron and reformed blimp; William Edgett Smith, the man with the Naughahyde palate; and his six-year-old daughter, Sarah, who refuses to enter a Chinese restaurant unless she is carrying a bagel (“just in case”). And though Alice “has a weird predilection for limiting our family to three meals a day,” on the road she proves to be a serious eater–despite “seemingly uncontrollable attacks of moderation.” Alice, Let Eat amply demonstrates why The New Republic called Calvin Trillin “a classic American humorist.” “One of the most brilliant humorists of our times . . . Trillin is guaranteed good reading.” –Charleston Post and Courier “Read Trillin and laugh out loud.” –Time

Further Adventures of a Happy Eater

Alice, Let's Eat

Uncivil Liberties

Personal stories of Negro students who entered the University of Georgia in January, 1961 and graduated in June, 1963.

The Integration of Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes

An Education in Georgia

"The New Yorker's Calvin Trillin loves food while despising the tres haut Francophile gourmet -- the kind who can produce a dissertation on the proper consistency of sauce Bearnaise. Trillin knows that the search for good food requires constant vigilance particularly when outside the Big Apple. Not that Cincinnati and Houston and Kansas City (his hometown) lack magnificent places to eat -- if one can resist the importunities of those well meaning ignoramuses who insist on hauling you off to La Maison de la Casa House, the pride of local epicures too dumb to realize that the noblest culinary creations of the American heartland are barbecued ribs, fried chicken, hash browns and hamburgers. Trillin is ready to do battle for K.C.'s Winstead's as the home of the greatest burger in the USA. Generally, he advises, you will do fine if you avoid "any restaurant the executive secretary of the chamber of commerce is particularly proud of." Also, any restaurant with (ply)wood paneling and "atmosphere," where the food is likely to taste "something like a medium-rare sponge." This then is not a celebration of multi-star "restaurants" but of diners, roadhouses, eateries -- the kind that serve food on wax paper or plastic plates and to hell with Craig Claiborne. With tongue in stuffed cheek Trillin gives the finger to the food snobs, confessing his secret vices with fiendish glee and high good humor"--Kirkusreviews.com.

True stories of sudden death in the classic collection by a master of American journalism “Reporters love murders,” Calvin Trillin writes in the introduction to Killings. “In a pinch, what the lawyers call ‘wrongful death’ will do, particularly if it’s sudden.” Killings, first published in 1984 and expanded for this edition, shows Trillin to be such a reporter, drawn time after time to tales of sudden death. But Trillin is attracted less by violence or police procedure than by the way the fabric of people’s lives is suddenly exposed when someone comes to an untimely end. As Trillin says, Killings is “more about how Americans live than about how some of them die.” These stories, which originally appeared in The New Yorker between 1969 and 2010, are vivid portraits of lives cut short. An upstanding farmer in Iowa finds himself drastically changed by a woman he meets in a cocktail lounge. An eccentric old man in Eastern Kentucky is enraged by the presence of a documentary filmmaker. Two women move to a bucolic Virginia county to find peace, only to end up at war over a shared road. Mexican American families in California hand down a feud from generation to generation. A high-living criminal-defense lawyer in Miami acquires any number of enemies capable of killing him. Stark and compassionate, deeply observed and beautifully written, Killings is “that rarity, reportage as art” (William Geist, The New York Times Book Review). Praise for Killings “Riveting tales of murder and mayhem. . . . [Calvin] Trillin is a superb writer, with a magical ability to turn even the most mundane detail into spellbinding wonder. Armed with this wealth of material, he utterly shines. Every piece here is a gem.”—The Seattle Times “What Mr. Trillin does so well, what makes Killings literature, is the way he pictures the lives that were interrupted by the murders. Even the most ordinary life makes a terrible noise . . . when it’s broken off.”—Anatole Broyard, The New York Times “Fascinating, troubling . . . In each of these stories is the basis of a Dostoevskian novel.”—Edward Abbey, Chicago Sun-Times “The stories . . . are unforgettable. They leave us, finally, with the awareness of the unknowable opacity of the human heart.”—Bruce Colman, San Francisco Chronicle “[Trillin] writes brilliantly. . . . These stories still hold up, as classics.”—The Buffalo News “In his artful ability to conjure up a whole life and a whole world, Trillin comes as close to achieving the power of a Chekhov short story as can anyone whose material is so implacably tied to fact.”—Frederick Iseman, Harper’s Bazaar “I have a book for you true-crime addicts if you’re caught up on the podcast Serial, the cascade on TV of 48 Hours and Dateline NBC episodes. . . . It’s time to pick up Calvin Trillin’s Killings.”—The New York Times Book Review “Well-crafted and thoughtfully composed, lacking judgment and admonishment, these are a true piece of quality journalism, which clearly continues to captivate audiences.”—Library Journal “With telling detail and shrewd insights, [Calvin Trillin] masterfully evokes the places and personalities that hatched these grim episodes.”—Publishers Weekly

The popular syndicated columnist offers a collection of droll verse dealing with diverse subjects ranging from Saddam Hussein to the Philadelphia Phillies, along with essays about his development as a poet inspired by an impatient muse. Reprint. National ad/promo.

Calvin Trillin

Books

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