Word: readings
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Vincent (Personal History) Sheean. Yet none matches him for sheer scope, reportorial zest, or, most notably, the gift of popularizing remote places and difficult subjects. Says Critic Clifton Fadiman: "Gunther is a born teacher; he doesn't miss a fact-trick. His books are almost too easy to read; because of that, they seem superficial. But he's taught us a hell of a lot about our world, in primer terms. He's drawn the maps for us. He did for us what H. G. Wells did years...
...reporting safari for Inside Africa, Gunther awoke to another nightmare: he was going blind. With cataracts closing over both eyes, he explored the darkening continent for 10^ months and 40,000 miles without even a weekend off, ground out nine magazine articles on the road. Unable to read his minute reporter's scribble, he could never have finished the assignment if willowy, tough-fibered Jane had not been along. She scrawled notes on interviews, digested reams of background material, took thousands of photographs for Gunther to pore over back in Manhattan...
...spare six months of his two-year writing time for the two operations that eventually restored almost complete vision through bottle-thick spectacles. Against dwindling sight and funds, Gunther, a hunt-and-peck typist, had his typewriter equipped with outsize keys, used ever stronger eyedrops that enabled him to read and write only for two hours at a stretch. Says Jane: "The house was littered with magnifying glasses...
...Suckers. One key to a successful game, Yardley learned early, is to be observant, to study the others at the table until you know all their idiosyncrasies. "When players check, call or bet," says Yardley, "a man with a sensitive ear can detect a slight inflection of voice and read what it means." The earnest student scrutinized card sharps and suckers from Indiana to Chungking-and while he parted them from their cash, some of them came apart themselves. He was at Monty's Place in Worthington the morning a traveling salesman named Jake Moses sat in a "friendly...
...University of Denver postponed an athletic crisis by remembering that transfer students must wait a year before playing on varsity teams. Until someone read the rule book, the university golf team, which often practices at private clubs, faced a season of play restricted to public courses. A likely looking 19-year-old sophomore who had transferred from Doane College, Crete, Neb. seemed certain to make the team-and just as sure not to be welcome at Denver's private clubs. The promising golfer is named Nate Goldstein. He is a Negro...