Michael Olesker - Böcker

In this collection of newspaper columns written for the "Baltimore Sun" and "The News American" since the 1970s, the author aims to capture the essence of Baltimore - big city with the heart of a small town.

In Journeys to the Heart of Baltimore, veteran journalist Michael Olesker writes of the American melting pot-particularly Baltimore's-in all its rollicking, sentimental, good-natured, and chaotic essence. The stories come from neighborhood street corners and front stoops, playgrounds and school rooms, churches and synagogues, and families gathered around late-night kitchen tables. "Think of this as a love letter across the generations," Olesker writes. The D'Alesandro political dynasty comes to life here, and so do the legendary Baltimore Colts Lenny Moore and Artie Donovan. The old East Baltimore ethnic enclaves nurture youngsters named Barbara Mikulski and Ted Venetoulis, and out of West Baltimore comes the future Afro-American newspaper publisher Jake Oliver. Journeys to the Heart of Baltimore is a delightful reminder of the nation's ethnic and racial mosaic, where a future mayor named Martin O'Malley and a future Baltimore County executive named Dutch Ruppersberger first learn about the melting pot. Boys from Baltimore's Little Italy, like John Pica, go off to fight a war in Italy when they know their allegiance is being tested.And a city struggles through racial convulsions, remembered by those such as John Steadman and Father Constantine Sitaris. "We overlap-or what's the point of America?" Olesker writes. "We compromise, we shed the garments of the past. But we simultaneously strain to hold onto yesterdays. It is the hunger of memory."

This is Michael Olesker's nostalgic reminiscence of 1958, the year the Baltimore Colts defeated the New York Giants in sudden-death overtime in a game that still grips the emotions of Baltimoreans. Olesker recaptures the city's love affair with the Colts in a series of thoughtful and colorful stories that give voice to such notable characters as Colts players Johnny Unitas and Art Donovan, politicians Tommy D'Alesandro and Jack Pollack, entertainers Buddy Deane and Royal Parker, sportscasters Chuck Thompson and Vince Bagli, and filmmaker John Waters. The Colts' Baltimore also traces the changing cultural landscape of the city just entering an age of revolution-a time when schools were being racially integrated, rock and roll played on the radio, and Baltimore was planning to renew the dilapidated downtown. Revealing warm ties between Baltimore and its beloved Colts, Olesker's writing makes the events of 1958 seem like only yesterday.

Front Stoops in the Fifties recounts the stories of some of Baltimore's most famous personalities as they grew up during the "decade of conformity." Such familiar names as Jerry Leiber, Nancy Pelosi, Thurgood Marshall, and Barry Levinson figure prominently in Michael Olesker's gripping account, which draws on personal interviews and journalistic digging. Olesker marks the end of the fifties with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. "It's as if millions will suddenly decide to act out their anxieties and their rage, as if Kennedy's murder exposed some hypocrisy at the heart of the American dream," he writes. Focusing on the period leading up to this turning point in U.S. history, Olesker looks to the individuals living through the changes that were just beginning to surface and would later come to prominence in the sixties. The fifties are often remembered with longing as a more innocent time. But it was also a suffocating time for many. Alongside innocence was ignorance. Olesker tells the story of Nancy D'Alesandro Pelosi, daughter of the mayor, who grew up in a political home and eventually became the first woman Speaker of the House.Thurgood Marshall, schooled in a racially segregated classroom, went on to argue Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka before the U.S. Supreme Court and rewrite race-relations law. Even the music changed. Olesker's doo-wop portrait of Baltimore is nostalgic, but it has a hard edge.

In Journeys to the Heart of Baltimore, veteran journalist Michael Olesker writes of Baltimore's melting pot in all its rollicking, sentimental, good-natured, and chaotic essence. The stories come from neighborhood street corners and front stoops, playgrounds and school rooms, churches and synagogues, and families gathered around late-night kitchen tables. The D'Alesandro political dynasty comes to life here, and so do Lenny Moore and Artie Donovan of the legendary Baltimore Colts. The old East Baltimore ethnic enclaves nurture youngsters named Barbara Mikulski and Ted Venetoulis, and out of West Baltimore comes the future Afro-American newspaper publisher Jake Oliver. Journeys to the Heart of Baltimore is a delightful reminder of the nation's ethnic and racial mosaic, home to a future governor named Martin O'Malley and a future US Representative named Dutch Ruppersberger. Boys from Baltimore's Little Italy, like John Pica, go off to fight a war in Italy when they know their allegiance is being tested. And a city struggles through racial convulsions, remembered by those such as John Steadman and Father Constantine Sitaris.

Front Stoops in the Fifties recounts the stories of some of Baltimore's most famous personalities as they grew up during the "decade of conformity." Such familiar names as Jerry Leiber, Nancy Pelosi, Thurgood Marshall, and Barry Levinson figure prominently in Michael Olesker's gripping account, which draws on personal interviews and journalistic digging. Olesker marks the end of the fifties with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. "It's as if millions will suddenly decide to act out their anxieties and their rage, as if Kennedy's murder exposed some hypocrisy at the heart of the American dream," he writes. Focusing on the period leading up to this turning point in U.S. history, Olesker looks to the individuals living through the changes that were just beginning to surface and would later come to prominence in the sixties. The fifties are often remembered with longing as a more innocent time. But it was also a suffocating time for many. Alongside innocence was ignorance. Olesker tells the story of Nancy D'Alesandro Pelosi, daughter of the mayor, who grew up in a political home and eventually became the first woman Speaker of the House.Thurgood Marshall, schooled in a racially segregated classroom, went on to argue Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka before the U.S. Supreme Court and rewrite race-relations law. Even the music changed. Olesker's doo-wop portrait of Baltimore is nostalgic, but it has a hard edge.