In Search of Willie Morris

Willie Morris, a talented and troubled writer and editor, helped to remake American journalism and wrote more than a dozen books, with several classics among them. A former Oxford Rhodes Scholar, Morris went on to become editor of the "Harpers" - America's oldest magazine - at the age of just thirty-two. Morris re-invented "Harpers", turning it from a slightly dusty magazine into the showpiece of New Journalism. With writers like Norman Mailer, David Halberstam and Larry L King, the author of this book, it became the magazine to read and the place to be in print. But he didn't stay there for long. Morris was a carouser - part of his charm, but also the cause of his downfall. In this wise, intimate portrait, King conveys the energy and activity of the years on top and the troubles, talents and mysteries of the man.