When Robert Caro was a young reporter, he covered the story of a deaf man who had become so despondent he tried to kill himself by parking his car on the train tracks.
Reporters are trained to tell what happened. What happened was a story about rescuers and a car parked on the tracks.
But Caro had the instinct to see that the interesting story was not about a car on the tracks but about what had gone on inside a person to bring him to that situation.
Caro was lucky that an old editor helped him see the problem. Caro had collected the information that interested him and that would interest other readers. But he was telling a story about a car and train tracks. That story was far less interesting.
Caro said the experience of working with a good editor was like going to journalism school in a day.
I think every person who writes could tell a similar story.
• Source: Chris Heath, “Rifling Through the Archives With Legendary Historian Robert Caro”; Smithsonian Magazine, March 2025. It’s here:
Thanks for sharing this, Heber.
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ReplyDeleteYou're welcome. I've had Caro in mind since reading your posts on "The Power Broker."
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