Myra MacPherson


Myra MacPherson is an American author, biographer, and journalist known for her books and articles about politics, the Vietnam War, feminism, and death and dying. Although her work has appeared in numerous publications, she had a long affiliation with The Washington Post newspaper. She was hired in 1968 by Post executive editor Ben Bradlee to write for the paper's Style section, and remained with the Post for over two decades until 1991. While there, she profiled the Watergate criminals, covered five presidential campaigns, women's rights issues and wrote a series on Vietnam veterans that led to her 1984 book Long Time Passing: Vietnam and the Haunted Generation. It was the first trade book to examine post-traumatic stress disorder and, according to Vietnam expert Arnold R. Isaacs, one of the first to "break the long national silence" about the war and remains one of the most moving and important works on the Vietnam bookshelf.” Joseph Heller, Catch 22 author, wrote: “MacPherson’s book belongs with the best of the works on Vietnam.”
Her 2006 biography of I.F. Stone, All Governments Lie! The Life and Times of Rebel Journalist I. F. Stone, won the 2007 Ann M. Sperber Award for media biography, and was a finalist for a 2008 PEN Center USA literary award; it was also named a best book and best biography of the year by the Boston Globe, Rocky Mountain News and BookList.com.
In 2016, All Governments Lie: Truth Deception and the Spirit of I. F. Stone, a 2016 documentary featuring today's best investigative reporters was based in part on her Stone book. The documentary premiered at the International Toronto Film Festival; Oliver Stone is the executive producer and veteran journalist Fred Peabody directed the film which showed internationally.
MacPherson’s latest book, The Scarlet Sisters: Sex, Suffrage and Scandal in the Gilded Age exposes Victorian hypocrisy on sex and women through the true story of two feminist sisters who broke all the rules in 1870 and fought for rights still denied women. "MacPherson's enchanting dual biography…the epilogue "hammers home that even men use women's bodies as political bargaining chips." - The Washington Post; “MacPherson brings these outrageous and inspiring women to brilliant life.” - History Book Club selection; "A lively account of the unlikely lives of the 'two most symbiotic and scandalous sisters in American History." New Yorker Website.
Her first book, The Power Lovers: An Intimate Look at Politicians and Their Marriages was an instant best seller when published by Doubleday in 1975.
She Came to Live Out Loud: An Inspiring Family Journey through Illness, Loss and Grief was published in 1999 and won health care hospice awards.
MacPherson has also written for the New York Times, numerous national magazines, and for blogs such as Salon.com, Huffington Post and Harvard’s Nieman Watchdog blog on journalism. She has been on the advisory board of the Harvard Nieman I.F. Stone Award. She continues her interest in helping young journalists through the I.F. Stone Award project and the Molly Award, given annually in remembrance of Molly Ivins.
While doing book research MacPherson has been a fellow at Rutgers University, a Ford Foundation fellow in Bellagio, Italy and a recipient of a Fulbright Grant to study in Japan.

Biography

The granddaughter of a coal miner, raised in a town of less than 1,000, MacPherson never stopped marveling at the ability to thrive in journalism, despite one’s background, and even in the Mad Man era of overwhelmingly white male colleagues. A few years after graduating from college she interviewed President Kennedy, for example. She credits her editors, Sid Epstein at the Washington Star and later Ben Bradlee at the Washington Post, for ignoring a long-established bias against women covering politics, sports and major news during the sixties.. And employment discrimination against women affected her early career. After writing for Michigan State University’s award-winning State News student daily, she looked for a job at the Detroit Free Press. The executive editor said he was sorry “but we have no openings in the women’s section.” MacPherson replied, “I wasn’t applying for the women’s section.” Looking aghast as if she had just said she had shot her mother, he sputtered, “we have NO women in the city room.” MacPherson took a job running copy to the printers from the editorial writers, working her way up to by-lined articles that led to a job at the Detroit Times, where she was assigned to the 1960 Indy 500. She was the only woman in the country covering it. She could not interview the racers in gasoline alley and was banned from the sports box. A male colleague quipped “How much does your editor hate you?”
As for females, she interviewed such disparate women as Helen Keller, Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, and the mother of famed serial killer Ted Bundy. She wrote about murderers and slain Civil Rights leader Medgar Evers, covered JFK’s funeral, Presidential campaigns and specialized in in-depth profiles of politicians, including a martini-drinking Fidel Castro. However even in 1969 she was banned from the sports box while the Miracle Mets won their smashing victory. When she wrote about the banning, and another women reporter sued, famed Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times sports columnist, Red Smith, wrote that it was about time such silly rules ended, thus paving the way for the vast number of women in sports media, including MacPherson’s daughter, Leah Siegel, who became a three-time Emmy award-winning ESPN producer. She had practically grown up in the sports box with her legendary sports writer father Morrie Siegel. Decades before, Morrie had introduced her mother to a host of sports characters and hangers on, including New York restaurateur Toots Shor who told MacPherson at an all-male-except-her dinner, "We're not interested in what you think, you're only here because of Morrie… As far as I am concerned all broads are a piece of raisin cake." The weird phrase meant nothing to her but it was enough to tell Toots off and to exit the restaurant.
MacPherson’s biggest joy are her two children, Leah, and Mike, who has had a fascinating career in politics. Leah inspired thousands as she battled breast cancer, while continuing her career and raising three toddlers. She left all who loved her in 2010. * Leah Siegel Obituary - Dallas, TX | Dallas Morning News
http://obits.dallasnews.com/obituaries/dallasmorningnews/obituary.aspx?n=leah-siegel&pid=144327129
But Myra felt like many mothers juggling children and careers; that she was never doing enough as a mother in a time when maternity leave was limited to a few weeks, for example. She continues to empathize with women today, one reason why pushing for women’s rights has been a long time effort. She met her second husband, liberal Florida State Senator, Jack Gordon, when she covered the Equal Rights Amendment for the Washington Post in 1977 and he was the only male sponsor. It turned out to be a great omen.

Selected periodicals

Books