Bob Vickrey - Editorial Columnist - A MESSAGE FROM BOB After beginning my working life as a journalist, I took a mere four-decade detour in the book publishing business and have now come full circle in my meandering career as a columnist for several Southwestern newspapers. When my college journalism professor spotted one of my recent columns in the Houston Chronicle, he wrote me a note that simply read: “What took you so long?” I’ve been writing columns on various subjects for my old employer during my days at Baylor, the Waco Tribune-Herald. The editors there have given me an incredibly free rein to write about a wide variety of subjects ranging from the world of book publishing, Heisman Trophy madness, personal profiles of the famous and the infamous, to disturbing issues like my expanding waist-line. After having been born and raised in Texas, I realized recently that I’ve now spent more than half my lifetime in Southern California. Once I had gotten a whiff of that Pacific breeze coming at me more than three decades ago, I knew that I had safely arrived “home.” However, I’m also quite conscious of my Texas roots and have been writing about some of that history in recent years. It seems there is a desire for every generation to find reconciliation with its past, and redefining and reclaiming those formative years brings us a clearer understanding of who we have become. I offer several stories of those formative years. Several columns appear here that ran in the Houston Chronicle and Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, as well as a couple from my local weekly paper, The Palisadian Post. I’ve also been writing for noted Los Angeles writer, Lionel Rolfe, and his literary website, Boryana Books.Recently, I have begun to recount the stories from those years in the publishing and bookselling business. As a field representative for the venerable old firm of Houghton Mifflin, a company steeped in the roots of American literary history, I worked with authors and booksellers throughout the Southwest and witnessed the dramatic changes in the bookselling landscape. Many of those stories of the sometimes painful evolution in the world of bookselling are chronicled here. I’ve attempted to capture a publishing era graced by a certain manner of old-fashioned courtliness, which may have been lost forever. This was an era defined by the closely inter-connected relationships between authors, editors, and staff members who collectively delivered the finished book to the marketplace. I’ve attempted in these essays to stir some publishing memories of days past and to relate some stories of the people who have been instrumental in providing such a rich and rewarding life in books. I’ve profiled some early influences in my career like David McHam, my college journalism professor, who continues to send me those encouraging notes all these years later as I have resurrected my writing life. I’ve written here about Larry McMurtry, an author who provided inspiration in my early growth as a reader and lover of books.As field representatives, we often played the role of “literary valet,” as we escorted our authors during their whirlwind promotional book tours. I’ve written about some of those experiences in my time spent with best-selling author Pat Conroy, children’s writer Bill Peet, and culinary stars like Helen Corbitt and Wolfgang Puck. I have also offered a salute to several writers with whom I’ve maintained a friendship and who have influenced my life in dramatic fashion. I have felt fortunate to have been involved in a golden era of publishing and having been afforded the opportunity to experience a charmed literary life inside the halls of a publishing house with historic roots. All in all, these are not uniquely a cohesive group of stories, but hopefully, you will find there are a few common threads that run throughout. I’ve tried to weave a connection to time and place, our culture, our influences, and perhaps foremost

A MESSAGE FROM BOB

After beginning my working life as a journalist, I took a mere four-decade detour in the book publishing business and have now come full circle in my meandering career as a columnist for several Southwestern newspapers. When my college journalism professor spotted one of my recent columns in the Houston Chronicle, he wrote me a note that simply read: “What took you so long?”

I’ve been writing columns on various subjects for my old employer during my days at Baylor, the Waco Tribune-Herald. The editors there have given me an incredibly free rein to write about a wide variety of subjects ranging from the world of book publishing, Heisman Trophy madness, personal profiles of the famous and the infamous, to disturbing issues like my expanding waist-line.

After having been born and raised in Texas, I realized recently that I’ve now spent more than half my lifetime in Southern California. Once I had gotten a whiff of that Pacific breeze coming at me more than three decades ago, I knew that I had safely arrived “home.” However, I’m also quite conscious of my Texas roots and have been writing about some of that history in recent years. It seems there is a desire for every generation to find reconciliation with its past, and redefining and reclaiming those formative years brings us a clearer understanding of who we have become. I offer several stories of those formative years.

Several columns appear here that ran in the Houston Chronicle and Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, as well as a couple from my local weekly paper, The Palisadian Post. I’ve also been writing for noted Los Angeles writer, Lionel Rolfe, and his literary website, Boryana Books.

Recently, I have begun to recount the stories from those years in the publishing and bookselling business. As a field representative for the venerable old firm of Houghton Mifflin, a company steeped in the roots of American literary history, I worked with authors and booksellers throughout the Southwest and witnessed the dramatic changes in the bookselling landscape. Many of those stories of the sometimes painful evolution in the world of bookselling are chronicled here.

I’ve attempted to capture a publishing era graced by a certain manner of old-fashioned courtliness, which may have been lost forever. This was an era defined by the closely inter-connected relationships between authors, editors, and staff members who collectively delivered the finished book to the marketplace.

I’ve attempted in these essays to stir some publishing memories of days past and to relate some stories of the people who have been instrumental in providing such a rich and rewarding life in books. I’ve profiled some early influences in my career like David McHam, my college journalism professor, who continues to send me those encouraging notes all these years later as I have resurrected my writing life. I’ve written here about Larry McMurtry, an author who provided inspiration in my early growth as a reader and lover of books.

As field representatives, we often played the role of “literary valet,” as we escorted our authors during their whirlwind promotional book tours. I’ve written about some of those experiences in my time spent with best-selling author Pat Conroy, children’s writer Bill Peet, and culinary stars like Helen Corbitt and Wolfgang Puck.

I have also offered a salute to several writers with whom I’ve maintained a friendship and who have influenced my life in dramatic fashion. I have felt fortunate to have been involved in a golden era of publishing and having been afforded the opportunity to experience a charmed literary life inside the halls of a publishing house with historic roots.

All in all, these are not uniquely a cohesive group of stories, but hopefully, you will find there are a few common threads that run throughout. I’ve tried to weave a connection to time and place, our culture, our influences, and perhaps foremost—the legacy of friendship.

Bob Vickrey

bob.vickrey10@gmail.com