Interview with Jonathan Yardley,

Interview Summary

Jonathan Yardley was the book critic at The Washington Post from 1981 to December 2014, and held the same post from 1978 to 1981 at the Washington Star. In 1981 he received the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. From 1964 to 1974, Yardley worked as an editorial writer and book reviewer at the Greensboro Daily News; during this time, he was also a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, academic year 1968-1969, where he studied American literature and literary biography. From 1978 to 1981, he was the book critic at the Washington Star, receiving a Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism in 1981. In 1981, Yardley became book critic and columnist at the Washington Post. He was the author of several books, among them biographies of Frederick Exley and Ring Lardner. His memoir about his family, Our Kind of People, describes his parents' 50-year marriage and casts a wry eye on the American WASP experience. He edited H.L. Mencken's posthumous literary and journalistic memoir, My Life as Author and Editor. He has written introductions to books by Graham Greene, A. J. Liebling, Booth Tarkington and others. Yardley is known simultaneously as a scathingly frank critic and a starmaker. On December 5, 2014, Yardley announced his retirement as book critic of the Post.

Interview Keyword

Racism

Interview LC Subject

Griffin, John Howard, 1920-1980. Griffin, John Howard, 1920-1980. Black like me Civil rights movement--History--20th century Civil rights--United States--1950-1960

Interview Rights

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Interview Usage

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