Calvin Trillin is the most wry of writers, though he himself says he long ago decided that reviewers trying to be kind by calling him “wry” really mean “almost funny.” That observation itself is pretty wry, by which we mean “funny, indeed.” He is also a crackerjack reporter and stylist, which makes anything he writes a pleasure to read.
His latest book, The Lede, is a collection of pieces he has written about the press over the past few decades, and taken together they offer as vivid a picture of journalism in the last 40 years as A. J. Liebling did for the profession in the mid–20th century. Plus, Trillin is wryer than Liebling.
