Celestine Sibley Reporter Hardcover - 2001

From the publisher

The South's beloved journalist, Celestine Sibley, was best known for her charming slice-of-life columns for the Atlanta Journal Constitution and her twenty-five books. But at her heart, Sibley was considered first and foremost a hard journalist. In Celestine Sibley, Reporter, fellow AJC reporter Rich Eldredge collects the best of Sibley's ground-breaking reporting from her nearly sixty-year journalism career. The in-depth and chronological selection takes the best of the best from Sibley's days as a fifteen-year-old cub reporter at the Mobile Press beginning in 1932, through her work with the Pensacola News-Journal, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (ending in 1999). Sibley pounded the pavement on the city, military, cop, court, political, and Hollywood beats, demonstrating an astonishing variety of knowledge and journalistic acumen. Among the best of the best in this selection are Sibley's writing on notorious murder cases (resulting in overturned verdicts and television dramas); the so-called Double Governor controversy; Margaret Mitchell's accident, death, and funeral; the trial of James Earl Ray; Governor George Wallace's shooting; an interview with Eleanor Roosevelt; the 1976 Democratic Convention, and Jimmy Carter's inauguration. Hollywood interviews include Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable, Walt Disney, Fred Astaire, Charlton Heston, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Mercer, Henry Fonda, Joan Crawford, Eleanor Parker, and the "five-times-married damsel" Gloria Swanson. Those familiar with Sibley's steely eye and razor-sharp wit will know that Sibley's was not the typical regurgitation of studio press releases! For historical perspective and behind-the-scenes interest, each section is presentedwith commentary from Sibley's surviving peers discussing her style and giving remembrances of various news stories. Sibley frequently recalled those interesting early assignments in her later columns and Eldredge's well-researched introductory material draws heavily on Sibley's own words.