Hirsch, James S. 1962–

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Hirsch, James S. 1962–

PERSONAL:

Born July 27, 1962, in St. Louis, MO; son of Ed and Gloria Hirsch; married Sheryl Phillips (in marketing), November 1, 1997; children: Amanda Rose, Garrett Lee. Education: Studied journalism at University of Missouri; University of Texas, M.A.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Needham, MA. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Journalist. New York Times, New York, NY, news staff/reporter, 1986-89; Wall Street Journal, New York, NY, reporter, 1989-98; Close Concerns, principal.

WRITINGS:

Hurricane: The Miraculous Journey of Rubin Carter, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2000.

Riot and Remembrance: The Tulsa Race War and Its Legacy, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2002.

Two Souls Indivisible: The Friendship That Saved Two POWs in Vietnam, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2004.

Cheating Destiny: Living with Diabetes, America's Biggest Epidemic, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2006.

Managing editor of diaTribe patient e-newsletter.

SIDELIGHTS:

In Hurricane: The Miraculous Journey of Rubin Carter, former New York Times and Wall Street Journal reporter James S. Hirsch presents a harrowing story of justice denied. "Hurricane" Carter, an African-American prizefighter from New Jersey, was wrongly convicted of three counts of murder in 1967 and sentenced to life imprisonment. Even after his conviction was overturned in 1976, he was convicted in a second trial and returned to prison.

In the 1960s, Carter was known for his activity in the black power movement. According to police, he and a companion shot and killed three whites in a bar in Paterson, New Jersey. Despite a lack of conclusive evidence, both men were convicted and imprisoned. Carter, lacking a formal education, nonetheless embarked on his own dogged legal campaign to gain freedom, with the help of members of a commune with whom he had stayed in Canada and celebrities such as Muhammed Ali.

Carter's case became what Karl Helicher in Library Journal called the "last cause celèbre of the Sixties Civil Rights-antiwar coalition." A song by Bob Dylan about Carter and an earlier book by Nelson Algren testified to the celebrity interest in his search for justice. A film released in 1999, The Hurricane, starring Denzel Washington, brought renewed attention to Carter's story in the media. Carter was vindicated in 1985 when a federal judge overturned his conviction, and the charges were eventually dropped.

Helicher noted that readers of Hirsch's book will be convinced that Carter's case was a "miscarriage of justice." Wes Lukowsky in Booklist found that "those who blindly believe in our legal system … will be devastated by the State of New Jersey's single-minded determination to keep Carter behind bars," calling attention to the "Kafkaesque aspects" of Carter's "frightening and inspirational" story. A London Times critic called Hirsch's book "an engrossing account of an appalling episode" that sheds important light on "Rubin Carter's humanity" and on the controversy surrounding the death penalty.

Riot and Remembrance: The Tulsa Race War and Its Legacy is the story of one of the worst race riots in U.S. history. In 1921, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Dick Roland, a black teenager, was riding an elevator with elevator operator Sarah Page. Although what exactly happened in the elevator is unclear, something made Page scream. Roland was subsequently arrested for assault. Although Page did not press charges against Roland, the Tulsa Tribune newspaper fanned the flames of racism with the headline, "To Lynch a Negro Tonight." At a demonstration by seventy-five armed blacks at the county courthouse, fighting broke out, prompting thousands of white rioters to invade Greenwood, the black section of Tulsa. The riot left as many as 300 people dead, thousands homeless, and most of Greenwood completely destroyed. A Kirkus Reviews critic called Riot and Remembrance "absorbing and horrendous at the same time: an important contribution to American History."

Hirsch's Two Souls Indivisible: The Friendship That Saved Two POWs in Vietnam finds two American officers, Fred Cherry and Porter Halyburton, sharing a cell in a Hanoi prison. The account tells how the two were tortured and pitted against each other by the Vietnamese, but ultimately, how it brought the two of them closer together in friendship and helped them survive the ordeal. Edwin B. Burgess, writing in Library Journal, described the book as "excellent," and a contributor to Publishers Weekly dubbed Hirsch's book "well-researched, cleanly and clearly written."

Cheating Destiny: Living with Diabetes, America's Biggest Epidemic also tells a tale of survival, albeit one against an internal enemy. Diabetes, as Hirsch explains, is at epidemic levels in the United States, with about twenty-one million people living with the disease. For Hirsch, telling this story was personal as he, his brother, and his son are all diabetic. Writing in Library Journal, Kathy Arsenault noted that Cheating Destiny "makes its case with skillful writing and emotional impact." A Publishers Weekly contributor called the book "an informative and moving analysis," and a Kirkus Reviews critic deemed it "a provocative amalgam of staunch advocacy, personal experience, and investigative reporting."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Black Scholar, fall, 2004, Maize Woodford, review of Two Souls Indivisible: The Friendship That Saved Two POWs in Vietnam.

Booklist, December 1, 1999, Wes Lukowsky, review of Hurricane: The Miraculous Journey of Rubin Carter, p. 659; October 15, 2006, Donna Chavez, review of Cheating Destiny: Living with Diabetes, America's Biggest Epidemic, p. 14.

Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 2001, review of Riot and Remembrance: The Tulsa Race War and Its Legacy, p. 1738; September 1, 2006, review of Cheating Destiny, p. 887.

Library Journal, January, 2000, Karl Helicher, review of Hurricane, p. 126; May 1, 2004, Edwin B. Burgess, review of Two Souls Indivisible, p. 126; September 15, 2006, Kathy Arsenault, review of Cheating Destiny, p. 79.

Midwest Book Review, February 1, 2007, review of Cheating Destiny.

Mother Jones, March-April, 2002, Neil Henry, review of Riot and Remembrance, p. 81.

New York Times, January 21, 2002, Janet Maslin review of Riot and Remembrance, p. B11.

Publishers Weekly, January 31, 2000, Daisy Maryles and Dick Donahue, "Hurricane Force," p. 20; January 7, 2002, review of Riot and Remembrance, p. 58; April 5, 2004, review of Two Souls Indivisible, p. 56; September 11, 2006, review of Cheating Destiny, p. 48.

Seattle Times, December 1, 2006, Steve Weinberg, review of Cheating Destiny.

Times (London, England), March 25, 2000, Walter Ellis, review of Hurricane, p. 22.

Washington Post Book World, January 7, 2007, Sara Skiaroff, review of Cheating Destiny, p. 5.