The Detective: And Other True Stories (The Stacks Reader Series) Kindle Edition

"I could not have known, when I met Walt Harrington more than forty years ago, that he would become one of the foundational touchstones for the genre writers now known as "literary journalism," "narrative journalism," and "long-form narrative nonfiction." An acutely rigorous observer and charismatic listener, he has spent a career crafting unforgettable narratives that grow organically from his reporting. A writer's writer whose words sing of human truth, Harrington's own writing-along with his teaching, speaking and textbooks-have helped to shape the form as we know it today." - Steve Weinberg is the author of 10 nonfiction books, a professor emeritus of the Missouri School of Journalism, and a former executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc.

"As a newspaper reporter, and later, during the late 1980s and into the 1990s, as a staff writer for the Washington Post Magazine, Walt Harrington found his lane and flourished, creating his own brand of New Journalism, which would later be codified in a popular textbook. Authored by Harrington and published in 1997, Intimate Journalism has been assigned for more than 20 years to thousands of undergraduate and graduate journalism students. Generations of long-form writers working today have spent time studying the advice and techniques of this master craftsman." -Alex Belth, curator of EsquireClassic.com and editor of The Stacks Reader Series.

"For years, I've been marveling at Walt Harrington's work and wondering how he did it. Not only is he a brilliant writer; he's a true master of the craft." - David Finkel, Pulitzer Prize and MacArthur Award winner.

"A compelling and important book . . . It's been a long time since I have read anything as moving, and inspiring, as the passages about the relationship between Harrington and his father." -The Washington Post on The Everlasting Stream

"This beautifully written book is about life's true values . . . Read it and count your blessings."-President George H. W. Bush on The Everlasting Stream

"A message in a bottle floated out to white America about black America's remarkable diversity and resilience." -New York Newsday on Crossings

"Mr. Harrington adds the skill of an engaged reporter, a personal stake in his subject and the ability to find fresh voices to talk openly about themselves and multi-racialism."-The New York Times on Crossings

"This book is an example of what happens when a top-notch writer, laboring in solitude with purity of purpose, puts the right words in the right order." - Madeleine Blais, Pulitzer Prize winner, author, Uphill Walkers: Portrait of a Family on Acts of Creation

"Walt Harrington's gracefully nuanced prose, full of feeling and finely observed detail, wonderfully conveys the world of craftsmen in all its artful integrity. In the grand tradition of Tracy Kidder, John McPhee and Joseph Mitchell, Harrington offers us a fascinating and enduring homage to men at work." - Barry Siegel, Pulitzer Prize winner, director of the Literary Journalism Program, University of California, Irvine on Acts of Creation