Photo credit: Irene Upshur
You could call Myra MacPherson “The Collector.”
There were so many authors and Pulitizer award winners at her soiree for author Bill McPherson, you could also call her the new literary salon doyenne of Washington society.
Bill McPherson has been both a copy boy and has won a Pulitzer – a memorable journalist road trip.
After nearly two decades of being out of print, “Testing the Current” was published in a new edition Jan. 8 by New York Review Books – the reason for the MacPherson celebration. Testing the Current was published in 1984 to wide acclaim. Russell Banks wrote in the New York Times Book Review, “William McPherson’s first novel is an extraordinarily intelligent, powerful and, I believe, permanent contribution to the literature of family, childhood and memory.” The New York Times named Testing the Current one of 1984’s “Notable Books of the Year.” Wikepedia
Co-hosts Mary Bradshaw and Myra MacPherson
The author, a former editor at William Morrow & Co. and Book World’s first editor at The Washington Post, was joined by friends Roger Mudd, John Cochran, Ali and Mark Russell and the “Fab 80” other guests as MacPherson calls them.
In an interview with Matt Roth of The Chicago Tribune he told the writer: ” Yes, it’s extremely gratifying. I could say I’m thrilled, but that doesn’t seem like quite the right word. Amazed is more like it,” referring to the book’s release after so many years. “Fortunately, books never die, exactly. If there’s still a copy around, somebody may read it. I remember going to the public library when I was young, pulling out these totally obscure books and as often as not, finding something interesting.”
MacPherson was also nominated for a Pulitzer for her book: Long Time Passing: Vietnam and The Haunted Generation.”
