Myra Lea MacPherson | |
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Born | 1935 (age 81–82) estimated |
Residence | |
Education | BA, journalism, 1956 |
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Occupation | Journalist, writer |
Employer |
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Organization | National Abortion Rights Action League |
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Home town | Ann Arbor, Michigan |
Board member of | Hospice Foundation of America |
Spouse(s) |
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Children |
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Parent(s) | Douglas MacPherson |
Awards |
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Website | www |
Notes | |
Myra MacPherson (born circa 1935) is an American author, biographer, and journalist known for her books and articles about politics, the Vietnam War, feminism, and death and dying. Although her work has appeared in a number of publications, she had a long affiliation with The Washington Post newspaper. She was hired in 1968 by Post executive editor Ben Bradlee to write for the paper's Style section, and remained with the Post for over two decades until 1991. While there, she profiled the Watergate criminals and wrote a series on Vietnam veterans that led to her 1984 book Long Time Passing: Vietnam and the Haunted Generation. It was the first trade book to examine post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and, according to Vietnam expert Arnold R. Isaacs, one of the first to "break the long national silence" about the war.
Her 2006 biography of I.F. Stone, All Governments Lie! The Life and Times of Rebel Journalist I. F. Stone, won the 2007 Ann M. Sperber Award for media biography, and was a finalist for a 2008 PEN Center USA literary award.
Employment discrimination against women affected her early career. Restaurateur Toots Shor once told her, "We're not interested in what you think, you're only here because of Morris". And he said as far as I'm concerned – and [MacPherson has] never forgotten the phrase – "All broads are a piece of raisin cake". She reports that when she covered the Indy 500 in 1960, she was allowed in neither the press box nor gasoline alley.