Nat Hentoff (1925–2017)
Author of The Day They Came to Arrest the Book
About the Author
Nathan Irving Hentoff was born in Boston, Massachusetts on June 10, 1925. He graduated from Northeastern University in 1946. After several years with a Boston radio station, he moved to New York in 1953 and covered jazz for Down Beat until 1957. In 1958, he was a founding editor of The Jazz Review show more that lasted until 1961. He wrote for The New Yorker from 1960 to 1986, for The Washington Post from 1984 to 2000, and for The Village Voice from 1958 to 2009. During his freelance career, his work appeared in Esquire, Harper's, Commonweal, The Reporter, Playboy, The New York Herald Tribune, Jewish World Review, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Times. In 1995, he received the National Press Foundation's award for lifetime achievement in contributions to journalism. He wrote more than 35 books during his lifetime. His nonfiction works included The Jazz Life, Peace Agitator: The Story of A. J. Muste, The New Equality, Living the Bill of Rights, and Free Speech for Me - but Not for Thee: How the American Left and Right Relentlessly Censor Each Other. He wrote several memoirs including Boston Boy and Speaking Freely. In 1955, he co-edited with Nat Shapiro Hear Me Talkin' to Ya: The Story of Jazz as Told by the Men Who Made It. His young adult novels included Jazz Country, This School Is Driving Me Crazy, Does This School Have Capital Punishment?, and The Day They Came to Arrest the Book. He died on January 7, 2017 at the age of 91. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Works by Nat Hentoff
Free Speech for Me--But Not for Thee: How the American Left and Right Relentlessly Censor Each Other (1992) 159 copies
political life, A 3 copies
Thoreau, Walden, and Other Writings 2 copies
Discrimination in its cruelest form 2 copies
Insisting On Life 1 copy
The Jazz Life First Edition 1 copy
Associated Works
Reading Jazz: A Gathering of Autobiography, Reportage, and Criticism from 1919 to Now (1996) — Contributor — 205 copies
The John Coltrane Companion : Five Decades of Commentary (Companion Series) (1998) — Contributor — 22 copies
The American folk scene; dimensions of the folksong revival (1967) — Contributor, some editions — 16 copies
TO BE YOUNG IN BABYLON: A Dramatic Personal Account of Teen-Age Radicals — Introduction — 1 copy
Goin' West — Notes, some editions — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Hentoff, Nathan Irving
- Birthdate
- 1925-06-10
- Date of death
- 2017-01-07
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Place of death
- New York, New York, USA
- Cause of death
- natural causes
- Places of residence
- Boston, Massachusetts, USA
New York, New York, USA - Education
- Boston Latin School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Northeastern University (BA)
Harvard University - Occupations
- journalist
civil liberatarian
writer of adult and young adult fiction - Organizations
- Village Voice
New Yorker
Washington Post
Down Beat - Awards and honors
- American Bar Association Silver Gavel Award
Members
Reviews
The Essays of A. J. Muste by A. J. Muste
A collection of essays compiled and edited by Nat Hentoff, ranging across the career of one of the most respected conscientious pacifists in the United States in the 20th century, sometimes referred to as the "American Gandhi."
3807. The First Freedom The Tumultuous History of Free Speech in America by Nat Hentoff (read 26 Oct 2022) This book was published in 1980--more than 40 years ago--but I found it actually not out-of-date so far as I could tell. It names many cases but I was appalled that there is not a legal citation in the book. I know the author is not a lawyer but it would have been easy to make his book better by giving the legal citation of the many cases he refers to. The author was a strong and able proponent of free speech and he well sets out the case for free speech even if the speech is distasteful and repulsive. I think the legal situation as to free speech is still today as he indicates it was 40 years ago. Since it is over 70 years ago that I had a course in constitutional law and and it was not a big factor in the years I was a lawyer and judge I think I learned something by reading the book and so I am glad I did.… (more)
attacks on free speech from both left and right
I picked this up at the St. Vital Library book sale planning on releasing it during the Jazz Winnipeg Festival. It was written in 1976 so it is certainly not current but as a record of the 40s, 50s and 60s in jazz it is a great book. Nat Hentoff knew all the great performers he writes about: Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane and more. And his style is almost poetic. Makes me wish I lived in New York when the jazz scene was so vibrant.
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Statistics
- Works
- 48
- Also by
- 21
- Members
- 1,791
- Popularity
- #14,367
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 20
- ISBNs
- 117
- Languages
- 7
- Favorited
- 1