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Article: The real founder of the New Journalism. (Murray Kempton; includes related article)
- Article from:
- The Washington Monthly
- Article date:
- April 1, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1994 Washington Monthly Company. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The first time I saw Murray Kempton was 39 years ago, in the summer of 1955, when he was covering the Emmett Till trial in Mississippi for the New York Post. I was 21 that summer, working as a reporter in a small town in the northeast part of the state, and I had decided to do a magazine piece for the old Reporter on the way different reporters covered the trial. I had subscribed to about a dozen different papers and clipped them every day, and although I was never able to pull the piece off, there was never any doubt about who was the most brilliant and lyrical writer covering the trial.
Every day it seemed there was one more of his columns in the Post, ...