HUNTING THE FAMOUS

FROM THE NEW BOOK JOURNAL:

http://newbookjournal.com/2013/10/hunting-the-famous-by-john-stapleton/

“Hunting the Famous” by John Stapleton

“Hunting the Famous” is a meditation on journalism by veteran news reporter John Stapleton.

Hunting the Famous by John Stapleton

Hunting the Famous, by veteran news reporter John Stapleton, is a meditation on journalism and writing which spans the decades from the late 1960s to 2009.

The book covers everything from the writer and journalist’s early years, saddled with a compulsion to write and not much else, to his years as a general news reporter on two of Australia’s best newspapers, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian.

Prior to becoming a staff reporter Stapleton’s unlikely promise to himself as a young man to live or die by the typewriter led to years of struggle as a freelance journalist. But what had at first seemed like a frustrating treadmill churning out pieces for music and lifestyle magazines allowed him to explore his obsession with books and writers. And to a string of encounters with some of the world’s most famous authors, including Gore Vidal, Dirk Bogarde, Paul Bowles, Joseph Heller, Al Alvarez, Anthony Burgess and Salman Rushdie.

Hunting the Famous also includes affectionate portraits of Australian writers such as novelist and essayist David Malouf, poet Vick Viidikas and hard drinking journalistic legends Jack Darmody and Joe Glascott.

As a news reporter Stapleton encountered and wrote stories about everyone from street alcoholics to Australian Prime Ministers, including Bob Hawke and Paul Keating. He covered thousands of stories, from the staple flood, drought, fire and natural disasters of the Australian bush to scenes of urban dysfunction in inner-Sydney.

“There were many more names I could have included, from writers Norman Mailer, Edmund White and Peter Ackroyd to Australian artists Brett Whitely and Margaret Olley, not to mention the endless string of musicians and entertainers that cross a general news reporter’s path,” John Stapleton says. “I could also have included quite a number of loving portraits of well known Australian journalists and photographers, many of whom I either worked with or got to know on the road, but if I had done so the book would have begun to seem like little more than a name dropping exercise and have been tedious if not obnoxious to read.

“Instead I made Hunting the Famous into a series of anecdotes, sometimes wistful, sometimes funny. In a sense it is meant to be the story behind the story, how much of my career felt on a subjective level, from the early dreadfully earnest and bewildering years to the final decades playing the role of crusty old newshound.”

Hunting the Famous covers a period of profound change within newspapers as the Information Revolution transformed the nature of the profession. This book is a must read interested in the craft of journalist and the operation of the media.

Author Name:: John Stapleton
Author Website:: www.asenseofplacepublishing.com
Book Title:: Hunting the Famous
ISBN:: 9781456616700
Publisher:: A Sense of Place Publishing
Release Date:: September 2013

For more information: www.asenseofplacepublishing.com

To purchase:

http://www.amazon.com.au/Hunting-Famous-John-Stapleton-ebook/dp/B00DEJZCEI

https://itunes.apple.com/au/book/hunting-the-famous/id662012223?mt=11

http://www.asenseofplacepublishing.com/famous.html

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/hunting-the-famous-william-john-stapleton/1115661294?ean=2940016419435