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Jimmy Breslin on JFK’s Assassination: Two Classic Columns

thedailybeast.com · 3,812 words · saved by 1 readers

Jimmy Breslin’s classic column on JFK’s assassination captured the tragedy’s human side for a nation in shock and grief. In the days after President Kennedy’s assassination, the legendary columnist Jimmy Breslin set the standard for literary journalism written in the wake of tragedy. His columns for the New York Herald Tribune became instant classics, precisely because he chose to cover the unexpected human stories at the heart, but on the periphery, of the breaking news. Published below with Breslin’s permission, his iconic column from those tumultuous days. “A Death in Emergency Room One” chronicles Nov. 22, 1963, from the attending emergency-room surgeon in Dallas. You can also read his other, “It’s an Honor” which has become a staple of journalism schools because Breslin sidestepped the media circus and covered the president’s burial from the perspective of the gravedigger at Arlington National Cemetery. These columns are true short stories, history written in the present tense. ‘A

In the days after President Kennedy’s assassination, the legendary columnist Jimmy Breslin set the standard for literary journalism written in the wake of tragedy. His columns for the New York Herald Tribune became instant classics, precisely because he chose to cover the unexpected human stories at the heart, but on the periphery, of the breaking news. Published below with Breslin’s permission, his iconic column from those tumultuous days. “A Death in Emergency Room One” chronicles Nov. 22, 1963, from the attending emergency-room surgeon in Dallas. You can also read his other, “ It’s an Honor

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