Molly Ivins Popular Books

Molly Ivins Biography & Facts

Mary Tyler "Molly" Ivins (August 30, 1944 – January 31, 2007) was an American newspaper columnist, author, and political commentator, known for her humorous and insightful writing, which often used satire and wit to critique political figures and policies. Born in California and raised in Texas, Ivins attended Smith College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She began her journalism career at the Minneapolis Tribune where she became the first female police reporter at the paper. Ivins joined The Texas Observer in the early 1970s and later moved to The New York Times. She became a columnist for the Dallas Times Herald in the 1980s, and then the Fort Worth Star-Telegram after the Times Herald was sold and shuttered in 1991. Her column was subsequently syndicated by Creators Syndicate and carried by hundreds of newspapers. A biography of Ivins, Molly Ivins: A Rebel Life, was co-written in 2010 by PEN-USA winning presidential biographer Bill Minutaglio and W. Michael Smith. The Forbes Media Guide Five Hundred, 1994 said: Ivins's pithy assessments of politics and life at large crackle with broad Texas humor. Combining her talent for culling information with her razor-sharp wit, she throws a powerful knockout punch. ... Whether one agrees with her or not, Ivins's pen pierces both the brain and the funny bone. Early life Ivins was born in Monterey, California, and raised in Houston, Texas. Her father, James Ivins, known as "General Jim" because of his rigid authoritarianism (or sometimes "Admiral Jim" for his love of sailing), was an oil and gas executive, and the family lived in Houston's affluent River Oaks neighborhood. Ivins graduated from St. John's School in 1962. In high school, she was active in extracurricular activities, including the yearbook staff. She had her first pieces of journalism published in The Review, the official student newspaper of St. John's School, though she never wrote any of the political columns that would become her specialty later in life. Ivins later became co-editor of the arts and culture section of the student paper. In addition, she frequently participated in theater productions and earned a lifetime membership in Johnnycake, the drama club. Ivins enrolled in Scripps College in 1962, but was not happy there, and transferred to Smith College in 1963. During that time, she became romantically involved with Henry "Hank" Holland, Jr., a family friend and student at Yale whom she referred to as "the love of my life". After he was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1964, her friends would later say that she never seemed to find anyone else who could replace his memory. Some say that is why she never married. She spent her junior year at the Institute of Political Science in Paris and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history in 1966. She earned a master's degree from Columbia University's School of Journalism in 1967. Career While at Smith, Ivins spent three summers as an intern at the Houston Chronicle. Her jobs there included the complaint department as well as "sewer editor", as she put it, responsible for reporting on the nuts and bolts of local city life. After graduating from Columbia, she took a job in the Twin Cities at the Minneapolis Tribune, where she covered "militant blacks, angry Indians, radical students, uppity women and a motley assortment of other misfits and troublemakers". In 1970 Ivins left the Tribune for the city of Austin, Texas, hired by Ronnie Dugger, to be the co-editor and political reporter for The Texas Observer. She covered the Texas Legislature and befriended folklorist John Henry Faulk, Secretary of State Bob Bullock and future Governor Ann Richards, among others. She also gained increasing national attention through op-ed and feature stories in The New York Times and The Washington Post along with a busy speaking schedule inside and outside Texas. The Times, concerned that its prevailing writing style was too staid and lifeless, hired her away from the Observer in 1976, and she wrote for the Times until 1982. During her run there, Ivins became Rocky Mountain bureau chief, covering nine western states, although she was known to say she was named chief because there was no one else in the bureau. Ivins also wrote the obituary for Elvis Presley in The New York Times for the August 17, 1977, edition. Generally, her more colorful writing style clashed with the editors' expectations, and in 1980, after she wrote about a "community chicken-killing festival" in New Mexico and called it a "gang-pluck", she was recalled to New York City as punishment. When Abe Rosenthal, editor of the Times, accused her of trying to inspire readers to think "dirty thoughts" with these words, her response was, "Damn if I could fool you, Mr. Rosenthal." In late 1981, after receiving an offer from the Dallas Times Herald to write a column about anything she liked, Ivins left New York City for Dallas. Ivins wrote for the Dallas Times Herald for ten years and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize twice. By 1985 the editors had moved her to the paper's Austin bureau to reduce friction with Dallas city leaders. Her freelance work and speaking engagements continued to grow, and she hired Elizabeth Faulk, John Henry Faulk's widow, as a personal assistant. In 1991, her book Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She? was published, and spent 29 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Also in 1991, rival newspaper, The Dallas Morning News bought the Times Herald and closed it down. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram immediately made Ivins an offer and said she could stay in Austin. Ivins accepted, and wrote a column for the Fort Worth paper from 1992 until 2001, when she became an independent journalist. Her column, syndicated by Creators Syndicate, eventually appeared in nearly 400 newspapers nationwide. Ivins also remained a board member and contributor to the Texas Democracy Foundation, which publishes the Texas Observer in Austin. She also wrote for the Progressive, the Nation, Newsweek, Mother Jones, McCall's and Playboy. She has appeared on Nightline, PBS's MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour, National Public Radio’s All Things Considered and Talk of the Nation. Plagiarism allegations In 1995, humorist Florence King wrote an article in The American Enterprise claiming that Ivins had plagiarized King's work in a 1988 Mother Jones article.[1] Like Ivins, King—who was referred to as the "Queen of Mean" by National Review, which published her columns—pulled no punches in her writing. David Rubien, writing in Salon, described the incident: "In a 1995 article for Mother Jones on Southern manners and mores, she extensively quoted, with affectionate attribution, statements from Florence King's book Southern Ladies and Gentlemen. But for some careless reason Ivins still fails to comprehend, she left the attribution off a few King statements." Ivins had also included her own words in a quotation she attributed to King. Ivins w.... Discover the Molly Ivins popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Molly Ivins books.