Lillian Ross

An anniversary edition of the classic Hollywood account follows the author's examination into Hollywood's language, customs, and preoccupations as learned during the 1950 production of Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage. Reprint.

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Francois Truffaut from The New Yorker, 1960-1976

From the inimitable veteran New Yorker journalist Lillian Ross—a stunning collection of Ross’s iconic New Yorker pieces. A staff writer for The New Yorker since 1945, Lillian Ross is one of the few journalists who worked for both the magazine’s founding editor, Harold Ross, and its current editor, David Remnick. Ross invented the entertainment profile. She was the first person to write journalism in “scenes” as novelists do, and her profiles are full of humor and details that bring her subjects alive on the page. Her style has been studied and imitated by numerous writers. But there is only one Lillian Ross: spirited, funny, factual, and unforgettable. Reporting Always collects a wide range of Lillian Ross’s New Yorker articles and “Talk of the Town” pieces spanning sixty years, bringing readers into Robin Williams’s living room; Harry Winston’s office; the afterschool hangouts of Manhattan private-school children; the hotel rooms of Ernest Hemingway, John Huston, and Charlie Chaplin; onto the tennis court with John McEnroe; and into the lives of many other famous and not-so-famous characters. Ross’s portraits are filled with rich details that reveal her subjects in amusing and perceptive ways. A foreword by David Remnick discusses Ross’s trademark style and her important place in the history of The New Yorker.

Writings from The New Yorker

Reporting Always

The Stranger. A Novel

The definitive sketch of one of America’s greatest writers. On May 13, 1950, Lillian Ross’s first portrait of Ernest Hemingway was published in The New Yorker. It was an account of two days Hemingway spent in New York in 1949 on his way from Havana to Europe. This candid and affectionate profile was tremendously controversial at the time, to the great surprise of its author. Booklist said, “The piece immediately conveys to the reader the kind of man Hemingway was—hard-hitting, warm, and exuberantly alive.” It remains the classic eyewitness account of the legendary writer, and it is reproduced here with the preface Lillian Ross prepared for an edition of Portrait in 1961. Ernest Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899, and to celebrate the centenary of this event, Ms. Ross wrote a second portrait of Hemingway for The New Yorker, detailing the friendship the two struck up after the completion of the first piece. It is included here in an amended form.

Portrait of Hemingway

Between 1960 and 1976, The New Yorker staff writer Lillian Ross wrote a series of articles for the magazine's "Talk of the Town" section covering François Truffaut's visits to New York: for The 400 Blows in 1960, The Soft Skin in 1964, The Wild Child in 1970, Day for Night in 1973, and Small Change in 1976. This book collects these articles together for the first time.Lillian Ross was a staff writer at The New Yorker. She wrote often about moviemakers-including Clint Eastwood, Federico Fellini, Akira Kurosawa, Oliver Stone, Tommy Lee Jones, Wes Anderson, and Francis Ford Coppola. She lived in Manhattan and passed away in 2017 at the age of 99.Perfect bound softcover. 40 pages."As modest in appearance as it is auspicious in substance."-Richard Brody, The New Yorker

François Truffaut by Lillian Ross

"From the inimitable veteran New Yorker journalist Lillian Ross--a stunning collection of Ross's iconic New Yorker pieces"--

From the inimitable New Yorker journalist Lillian Ross—“a collection of her most luminous New Yorker pieces” (Entertainment Weekly, grade: A). A staff writer for The New Yorker since 1945, Lillian Ross is one of the few journalists who worked for both the magazine’s founding editor, Harold Ross, and its current editor, David Remnick. She “made journalistic history by pioneering the kind of novelistic nonfiction that inspired later work” (The New York Times). Reporting Always is a collection of Ross’s iconic New Yorker profiles and “Talk of the Town” pieces that spans forty years. “This glorious collection by a master of the form” (Susan Orlean) brings the reader into the hotel rooms of Ernest Hemingway, John Huston, and Charlie Chaplin; Robin Williams’s living room and movie set; Harry Winston’s office; the tennis court with John McEnroe; Ellen Barkin’s New York City home, the crosstown bus with upper east side school children; and into the lives of other famous, and not so famous, individuals. “Millennials would do well to study Ross and to study her closely,” says Lena Dunham. Whether reading for pleasure or to learn about the craft, Reporting Always is a joy for readers of all ages.

Cougar’s Crossing “To read a book by Lillian Ross is to travel to another time and place with characters who quickly become family. Read this true-to-life novel to feel the essence of the rugged era on the Canadian prairies… raw, messy, inspired by hope and motivated by grit. Ross weaves a poignant drama of wounded love, jealousy and human emotion.” Corrine McConchie, Librarian Vancouver Excerpt from Iris Tuftin’s Editor’s Comment …Could this be ‘his’ remains, we wondered? The hated man who killed our Aunt Florence in 1921? …The facts were overwhelming – more fascinating than we ever imagined. Now the story of Cougar’s Crossing would have to be changed. We knew the truth – or most of it. A Historical Novel with a Mysterious Twist The loud, brash, irreverent Cougar Wright swore like a trooper and didn’t believe in a higher power than his own strength, but he loved his family and wanted them to join him in his struggle to tame the wilderness. His family’s dance with destiny in Alberta’s Northwest would shake his world and theirs.

Revised: Historical Novel from Real Life Adventure

Cougar's Crossing

For nearly 50 years, Lillian Ross has been writing remarkable literary journalism for The New Yorker. Her unerring "Talk of the Town" pieces and her incisive profiles have won her a legion of admirers. Many credit The New Yorker for inspiring the refinement of literary journalism, and Ross was an integral part of that effort. In that time, Ross has built up an arsenal of journalistic techniques, which she shares here in some detail. She discusses her feelings about journalism, praising her New Yorker colleagues (notably the late editor William Shawn) and offering her definition of journalism (factual reporting built of good writing and singular humor). The majority of the book is filled with Ross's deconstruction of some of her best-loved pieces, including 1949's "Come In, Lassie!" (about politics in the film business); 1950's "How Do You Like It Now, Gentlemen?" (a profile of Ernest Hemingway); and 1960's "The Yellow Bus" (concerning a group of tourists visiting New York City).

Reporting Back

Donald and Sadie MacIntosh emigrated west from Prince Edward Island in Eastern Canada, spending nearly four years on the Alberta prairies, where they gambled everything on raising their wheat crop. Between dust storms, hail, prairie fires, blizzards, and a difficult landlady, Donald and Sadie were beaten into submission. Loading their few possessions, they moved north in a railroad boxcar to the bushland to face new challenges. Meanwhile their family is burgeoning. By the time they reach the northern bush country, they have eight children. This story comes from the memoirs of these children as they grew up. The people they met and the conditions they endured made living in the North memorable, heartbreaking, and sometimes frightening, but there are tender and even laughable moments. This is the second book in the trilogy following The Gentle Gamblers.

A Canadian Historical Novel of Pioneer Adventure

The Tender Years

They braved the dark lean days of the Western Canadian Prairies to carve out a new life for themselves. The pot-o-gold for their labors was a stretch of black fertile soil alive with a sea of golden wheat. But would the tragedy of some unfulfilled dreams cause them to return to their Eastern roots?Brief Synopsis: This is a story about real people living through real events in Canadian history with often uncommon bravery.

Lillian Ross

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