Raines, Howell 1943–

(Howell Hiram Raines)

PERSONAL:

Born February 5, 1943, in Birmingham, AL; son of W.S. (a builder) and Bertha Raines; married Susan Woodley (a photographer), March 22, 1969; married second wife; wife's name Krystyna; children: Ben Hayes, Jeffrey Howell. Education: Birmingham-Southern College, B.A., 1964; University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, M.A., 1973.

ADDRESSES:

Home—St. Petersburg, FL. Agent—Russell & Volkening, Inc., 551 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10017.

CAREER:

Writer, editor, and journalist. Birmingham Post-Herald, Birmingham, AL, reporter, 1964-65; WBRC-TV, Birmingham, AL, staff writer, 1965-67; Tuscaloosa News, Tuscaloosa, AL, reporter, 1968-69; Birmingham News, Birmingham, AL, film critic, 1970-71; Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta, GA, political editor, 1971-74; St. Petersburg Times, St. Petersburg, FL, political editor, beginning 1976; New York Times, Atlanta bureau chief, beginning 1979, London bureau chief, 1987-88, Washington bureau chief, 1988-93, editorial page editor, 1993-2001, executive editor, 2001-03. Guest on television programs, including the Colbert Report.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Pulitzer Prize for "Grady's Gift," a personal reflection published in the New York Times Magazine, 1992.

WRITINGS:

(Contributor) Herbert Alexander, editor, Campaign Money (nonfiction), Free Press (New York, NY), 1976.

Whiskey Man (novel), Viking (New York, NY), 1977, reprinted, University of Alabama Press (Tuscaloosa, Al), 2000.

My Soul Is Rested (oral history), Putnam (New York, NY), 1977.

Fly Fishing Through the Midlife Crisis (memoir), Morrow (New York, NY), 1993.

The One That Got Away (memoir), Scribner (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor to periodicals, including the Atlantic Monthly and the Guardian (Manchester, England).

SIDELIGHTS:

Once the top editor of one of America's stalwart newspapers, Howell Raines is a Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist, prominent memoirist, and noted editor. During nearly a quarter-century career with the New York Times, Raines served as chief of many of the paper's satellite bureaus, as editor of the Times' influential editorial page, and as finally as the executive editor. In 2003, Raines resigned from the paper in the aftermath of a scandal in which a young reporter, Jayson Blair, was proven to have engaged in systematic, long-term plagiarism and fabrication in the stories he wrote and published in the Times. In a lengthy article in Atlantic Monthly, Raines explained his perspective and took responsibility for the errors in the Blair case. However, under Raines's guidance, the New York Times had entered a new phase of prosperity, increasing circulation, reenergizing its mission, and winning a prestigious and record-breaking assortment of seven Pulitzer Prizes in 2002.

Raines is an avid fisherman, and two of his significant works of memoir and self-analysis reflect the wisdom and trappings of dedicated anglers. In Fly FishingThrough the Midlife Crisis, published in 1993 as Raines turned fifty years old, provides Raines's reminiscences on his initiation into the fishing culture, and includes ruminations on notable fishing gear as well as genuine angling tips. Along with the fishing advice, however, comes more serious discussion, as the author addresses some of the most significant themes confronting men at midlife: "mortality, loyalty (and divorce, its near cousin), and betrayal of friends and the true self," noted a reviewer in Publishers Weekly. Much of the book centers on Raines's friendship with Dick Blalock, an irascible, overweight, deeply involved expert fly fisherman who served as Raines's guide and mentor. Hal Espen, writing in the New York Times Book Review, called the book "funny, sweet, rueful and charming, an antic paean to fishing lore and the companionable pleasures of the foolish business of casting a line with like-minded fools, some of them holy." For Raines, those who fish are seeking an experience that is transcendental, even magical. "It's hard to find books that fall into that category as well," concluded Jim Tharpe in Nieman Reports, "but when Raines is at his best in this book it's a word that comes to mind."

"Whatever else one might say about Howell Raines, the truest thing about the erstwhile editor of the New York Times is that he is one heck of a writer," commented Frank Wilson in the Philadelphia Inquirer. "Every sentence on every page of his new memoir, The One That Got Away, is beautifully shaped and cadenced." The One That Got Away, written in the aftermath of his departure from the New York Times, covers Raines's ideas on journalism, his professional defeat, and the irreplaceable joys of fly fishing in native streams as well as far-flung waters. In his work, Raines proves that he is a "lovely and witty writer whose guiding metaphors involve the fly-fisherman's mantra of catch and release and whose ultimate thesis is the glory of unplanned circumstances, including those of a romantic variety," remarked James Warren in Washington Monthly. "Skillfully drawing parallels between the deceptions practiced by fishermen, journalists, and politicians, Raines describes his love of the unpredictability of fishing and of life," observed Booklist reviewer Vanessa Bush. Throughout the book, noted a Kirkus Reviews contributor, Raines "comes across as self-deprecating and learned, fierce and confident; his writing is as brisk and bracing as the early-morning air on a remote salmon stream."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Raines, Howell, Fly Fishing Through the Midlife Crisis, Morrow (New York, NY), 1993.

Raines, Howell, The One That Got Away, Scribner (New York, NY), 2006.

PERIODICALS

American Prospect, October 7, 2002, Nicholas Confessore, "Bad News: What the Right Doesn't Understand about Howell Raines," p. 12.

Atlantic Monthly, May, 2004, Howell Raines, "My Times."

Booklist, January 1, 2006, Vanessa Bush, review of The One That Got Away, p. 21.

Kirkus Reviews, February 15, 2006, review of The One That Got Away, p. 174.

New York, May 8, 2006, Philip Weiss, "Fishing with Howell," profile of Howell Raines, p. 36.

New York Times Book Review, June 11, 2006, Hal Espen, "I'd Rather Be …," review of The One That Got Away, p. 18.

Nieman Reports, winter, 1993, Jim Tharpe, review of Fly Fishing Through the Midlife Crisis, p. 72.

Philadelphia Inquirer, July 5, 2006, Frank Wilson, review of The One That Got Away.

Publishers Weekly, August 23, 1993, review of Fly Fishing Through the Midlife Crisis, p. 55.

Time, May 29, 2006, Lev Grossman and Richard Lacayo, "Five Memoirs That Are Worth Your Time," review of The One That Got Away, p. 71.

Washington Monthly, June, 2006, James Warren, "Big Fish Story: In Howell Raines's Telling, His Only Mistake Was Caring Too Much," review of The One That Got Away, p. 36.

ONLINE

Slate,http://www.slate.com/ (May 13, 2003), Jack Shafer, "Defending Howell Raines: He Didn't Catch Jayson Blair. You Didn't Either," profile of Howell Raines.