Tom Wicker

A portrait of America's forty-first president chronicles George H.W. Bush's life from his New England roots and his decorated military service during World War II to his business success and political rise within the Republican party.

Set in today's South, Easter Lilly is the story of a stunningly beautiful black woman who is accused of murdering a white man she claims was about to rape her; a New York civil rights attorney who's come running to save her from a certain death penalty; a gentlemanly county prosecutor who happens to be the brother of the slain man; and a cast of characters whose language and body rhythms make the sexual heat and humidity of the South palpable. These characters tell the story themselves, Rashomon-like, rendering the death - and the events that precede and follow it - through their own eyes, and with their own voices, which are as different and as provocative as their individual views of the world. In a final courtroom scene, rivaled in intensity only by the killing itself, Wicker dares to leave us wondering: What, really, do we know about prejudice? And what is this thing we call justice?

For twenty-five years Tom Wicker wrote for The New York Times with passion, intelligence, and integrity, educating a generation of readers on important political and social issues of the day. Now, in Tragic Failure, this respected observer of America develops his ideas on the subject of race relations. Not until the civil rights movement of the 1960s, one hundred years after the abolition of slavery, were African-Americans able to achieve a semblance of racial equality. Yet the successes of the movement failed to translate into full racial integration or first-class citizenship for most blacks. The white backlash of the last several years and issues such as affirmative action, poverty, crime, unemployment, and welfare have made race the subtext for almost all political debate - the "dirty little secret" of American politics. This is a tragic failure of national proportions, which demands that America face these old questions with new answers. . Having been an eyewitness to the significant events of the last three decades, Wicker is informed by the perspective of history and the wisdom of years. His analysis is thoughtful, his suggestions bold and constructive - calling for, in particular, a new alignment of political allegiances. Tragic Failure is a timely, valuable contribution to the most pressing problem facing Americans today.

First cattle drive in California occurs with the help of Andrew Sinnickson.

Story about the chicanery and dirty tricks played by the candidates in a senatorial election.

In the alley on his way home from work, Derrick Shaw witnesses a murder. To save his life, he promises not to reveal the identity of the shooter, a former Tubman student. But Derrick feels sick and guilty about his vow of silence.

Morgan and Anderson came to Washington, D.C. each alone but together in youth and hope and yearning. When word reaches Morgan that Anderson has died, he wonders if he had finally resolved whether to be a live politician or a dead hero.

The author "explains two tragic ironies of contemporary American politics: Why John F. Kennedy, the popular President, could not reach his legislative goals, and why Lyndon B. Johnson, the consummate domestic politician, allowed his great consensus to disappear in the unpopular war in Vietnam."

Beneath the unforgiving, blazing heat of the African sun, two men and a woman embark on a savage hunt, one that will tear their safe safari apart, plunging them into the restless tides of a deadly civil war.

Julius Caesar / play by William Shakespeare -- Life of Caesar / biography by Suetonius; translated by Robert Graves -- Epitaph on a tyrant / poem by W.H. Auden -- News flash: political assassinations / news report by Tom Wicker -- Back there / television play by Rod Serling -- For Malcolm, a year after / poem by Etheridge Knight -- Eulogy to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. / speech by Robert F. Kennedy -- Agony of victory / feature article by William Oscar Johnson -- Tiger who would be king / fable by James Thurber.