Into The Story: A Writer’s Journey Through Life, Politics, Sports and Loss

Here, in Into the Story, is the first collection of the work of David Maraniss, one of the most honored and versatile writers of his generation. As a reporter and editor at The Washington Post for more than three decades, and as the author of many best-selling and critically acclaimed books, Maraniss has treated his readers to a master’s class in nonfiction writing, using deep reporting, evocative detail and a singular sensibility to bring fresh perspective on people, places and events.

The 32 stories in this collection cover a rich array of topics, ranging from seminal moments in modern history to intimate personal reflections, while covering the main obsessions of the author’s career – politics, character, sociology, race, sports and loss. Maraniss begins his writer’s journey by hopping on a bus named Desire and pondering the misunderstanding of human souls while riding through decaying New Orleans. He ends it by staring out on the hypnotizing wake of a car-ferry crossing Lake Michigan on an achingly sweet summer morning as he escorts his late parents across the water to their final resting place.

In his biographical work, Maraniss, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and historian, is known for his ability to examine the forces that shape lives and explain why people act as they do. His character studies in this collection are wide and deep. Bill Clinton is revealed through his childhood not in Hope but in Hot Springs. Al Gore is examined through his years as an investigative reporter. Jesse Jackson is seen through his uneasy relationship with Martin Luther King Jr. Barack Obama is viewed anew through the dreams from his mother, not his father. Vince Lombardi is portrayed through his most trying football game, the Ice Bowl. The essence of Muhammad Ali is discovered long after his golden days in the ring. And the meaning of Roberto Clemente is found in his death.

In mastering the craft of nonfiction narrative writing, Maraniss has followed a simple mantra: Go there, wherever ‘there’ is. Be flexible. Avoid assumption and attitude as much as possible. Fit yourself into the story, not the other way around. And always look for the universal in the particular, searching for details that will bring a story alive and connect the event to readers. These were the skills he brought to all the stories in this collection, but most heart-wrenchingly to the accounts of loss – his narratives of the tragedies of September 11 and Virginia Tech, as well as an ambush in Vietnam and the accidental death of his little sister.

The worlds of newspapers and books are changing at dizzying speed, Maraniss reflects in his introduction, and it is uncertain how his craft will change and what platforms will be used to present writing in the future. But what he holds most important is the interplay of two ideas.

“The first is that the sifting of fact and truth from the chaff of unprocessed information or misinformation will always be essential. The second is that humans will always have a need to explain themselves through story. It is that combination that makes up what I do as a nonfiction narrative writer.”

It’s why he’s Into the Story.