Volume 41, Number 9 · May 12, 1994
A Class Act
By Garry Wills
Rebellions, Perversities, and Main Events
by Murray Kempton
Times Books, 736 pp., $27.50
My late friend Charles Ives, a conservative columnist for the Baltimore Sun, was so modest that he signed his writings 'C.P. Ives,' lest anyone think he presumed relationship with the composer, whom he revered. His modesty made him reluctant to boast that he had received a letter of profuse thanks from Murray Kempton, whose journalism he also revered. Ives had met, at some Baltimore function, Kempton's mother, a stalwart of that 'shabby genteel' class Kempton has described, in various places, with rueful semi-affection. When Ives said it was an honor to meet Kempton's mother, she responded with surprise. How could a good fellow-conservative like Ives admire her raffish and radical son's work? Kempton was soon writing to Ives a heartfelt letter expressing gratitude for indicating to his mother that he was not entirely a traitor to his class.
Review, 2615 words
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