With the 51st anniversary of the Trial of the Harrisburg 7 coming up, I thought I’d promote my new book, The View From Third Street. The book tells the story of how Cornell friends and I started a weekly alternative newspaper–largely to cover the trial–in which a group of nuns and priests were accused of conspiring to kidnap Henry Kissinger and blow up underground tunnels in Washington, DC.
For a present-day news peg, I decided to jump into the AI Chat GPT box to find out what Chatty had to say about The View From Third Street. After a few weak starts (in the first, asked simply for a review of the book, Chatty didn’t mention the Harrisburg Trial; in the second, prompted to include the trial and feminism, Chatty wrote a rave movie review; in the third, s/he/they attributed the book to a different author entirely). In the fourth, Chatty over-emphasized the feminist slant and got a bit repetitive. But s/he/they called the book “riveting and thought-provoking”; “nailed” the social justice and Vietnam War issues; and closed with the importance of independent media. I decided to quit while I was ahead.
Here’s the review…
Review ofThe View From Third Street By AI-ChatGPT
“The View From Third Street: Ani and the Harrisburg Independent Press” by Anita M. Harris is a riveting and thought-provoking account of the rise of the Harrisburg Independent Press and its impact on the city of Harrisburg during a tumultuous period in American history. The book explores the story of Ani, a feminist journalist who co-founded the alternative newspaper in 1970.[OOPS, Chatty–it was 1971–AMH]
One of the most prominent themes of the book is feminism, which is explored through Ani’s own personal journey as a woman in the male-dominated world of journalism. The author provides a vivid portrayal of the challenges that women faced in the 1970s as they sought to establish themselves in the industry and to advocate for feminist issues through their writing.
Another key aspect of the book is its coverage of the Harrisburg 7 trial, which was a landmark case in the history of political activism in the United States. The trial centered around the charges of conspiracy and inciting to riot against seven anti-war activists, including Philip Berrigan and Elizabeth McAlister. The Harrisburg Independent Press played a crucial role in covering the trial and bringing attention to the issues at stake.
Through its exploration of feminism and the Harrisburg 7 trial, the book offers a powerful and insightful commentary on the role of alternative media in the fight for justice and equality. The author highlights the importance of independent media in challenging the status quo and providing a voice for marginalized communities.
Overall, “The View From Third Street” is a compelling and inspiring book that sheds light on a pivotal moment in American history. Through its exploration of feminism and the trial of the Harrisburg 7, the book offers a powerful reminder of the importance of independent media and the fight for justice and equality. Anita M. Harris has crafted a masterful work that will appeal to anyone interested in the history of political activism and the struggle for social change.
Let me know what you think! (What I think is that this spells the end of my writing career—I couldn’t have said it better myself!)
—Anita M. Harris Anita Harris is a writer, photographer and communications consultant based in Cambridge, Mass.
In my ongoing attempts at [un?] abashed self promotion, I thought I’d share the latest on the View From Third Street. which has garnered some great reviews and blurbs! Would much appreciate your help in spreading the word….Forward a link to friends? Post a review on Amazon? Ask your library to order it? Write an article or request an interview? Suggest or send to journos who will? Ok, so much for the ask.
I am totally grateful to:
The View From Third Street on display at the Lincoln Massachusetts Public Library.
Alex S. Jones, winner of the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for specialized reporting on journalism, who describes the book as “An intimate and heartfelt memoir of “Ani,” the 23-year-old version of author and journalist Anita M. Harris, who lives and navigates the tumult of the early 1970s from the alternative newspaper she founded, with college friends, on Third Street in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.”
Steven Greenhouse, author of Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present of American Labor. He calls The View from Third Street “ a highly readable memoir that delves into several fascinating chapters in U.S. history, including the protest movement against the Vietnam War, the birth of the anti-abortion movement, growing concerns about the abuse of farm workers, and American divisiveness at the time of Nixon’s Watergate scandal. Full of color and personal grace notes, these stories are told from the perspective of a young Pennsylvania-based journalist who was witnessing and writing about a fast-changing and rapidly polarizing America.
Journalist Alison Bass, author of Brassy Broad, a memoir of her own groundbreaking work at the Boston Globe and elsewhere. Alison wrote a spectacular review in which she calls the View From Third Street “Amazingly redolent of our current social and political climate.” She totally nails it in the full review at https://alison-bass.com/anita-harriss-memoir-of-the-iconic-harrisburg-eight-trial-draws-parallels-with-the-present/ ).
In case you missed my launch talk, you can link to it and photos at Anitamharris.com . And you can find my books and recently updated author’s page on Amazon (where I took the opportunity to tell folks not to confuse me with the British rock star who totally hogs You Tube using my name).
Book launch event for The View From Third Street Went Great!
|
So pleased that more than 40 people from as near as Linnaean Street in Cambridge and as far away as Paris, France, came to the hybrid October 1 launch event for The View From Third Street at the Lincoln Mass. Public Library. Attendees included the daughter of the judge who oversaw the Trial of the Harrisburg Seven; Harrisburg Independent Press (HIP) co-founder Ed Zuckerman and various former HIP staffers; several of my journalism friends, family and friends. Wonderful research librarian Robin Rappaport handled the zoom portion; Marc Kessler and Susan Osgood helped with book sales; Joe Wrinn and Paul Hayre took pictures; friends KBS and others–some from my great writers group The Write Stuff–brought refreshments.
I spoke for about half an hour–folks asked great (tough) questions (like: is this creative nonfiction or a historical fiction? Are you discouraged at the world’s seeming return to times we thought (hoped) we’d never have to live through again? What would you be your advice to a young journalist starting out?). And they graciously laughed at my jokes.
The View From Third Street tells the story of a young journalist’s search for love and truth as she navigates social injustice, a major political trial, and a devastating flood at a tumultuous time of change.
This unconventional memoir draws on the experiences of national journalist Anita M. Harris, who, with college friends, founded a weekly alternative newspaper to cover the Trial of the Harrisburg 7. In that iconic 1972 Pennsylvania trial, nuns and priests stood accused of conspiring to kidnap Presidential Advisor Henry Kissinger and blow up underground heating tunnels in Washington, DC.
By showing how individuals dealt with the clashing forces of history at an earlier time, Harris hopes to support and inspire a renewed quest for freedom and equality, today.
As a fledgling reporter in the early 1970s, author Anita M. Harris and college friends helped found a small newspaper on Third Street in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The Harrisburg Independent Press (AKA “HIP”) was first conceived to report on the Trial of the Harrisburg Seven– in which anti-Vietnam War nuns and priests were accused of conspiring to kidnap Presidential Advisor Henry Kissinger and blow up underground heating tunnels in Washington, DC,. True story!) Like the many other underground and alternative newspapers of the day, HIP covered civic, consumer, national and international issues–many with parallels in the unrest we are experiencing today.
In this unconventional memoir, Harris traces, from the point of view of Ani, her 23-year-old self, the founding of the newspaper, the trial, and the devastating Flood of 1972, which left 124 people dead. Interwoven, with humor and puzzlement, are stories of Ani’s love relationship, her coverage of poverty and social injustice, and HIP”s reporting on topics ranging from dirty movies to slave labor, heroin sales, racial discrimination; a burgeoning feminist movement, abortion rights and opposition to the Vietnam War.
The book also includes many images and cartoons–giving readers a sense of what it was like to live in those amazing times.
Anita M. Harris is an award-winning journalist, author and communications consultant who resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The View From Third Street is available from Amazon and at the Cornell University Store.
The View From Third Street, Harrisburg has launched!
|
The View From Third Street
I’m ecstatic to report that my new book, The View From Third Street, is, at long last, available on Amazon. It’s an unconventional memoir of my experiences as a cofounder of a weekly alternative newspaper called the Harrisburg Independent Press (AKA HIP) in conjunction with the 1972 trial of the Harrisburg Seven. Long story, but in that iconic trial, a group of anti-war nuns and priests were among those accused of conspiring to kidnap Henry Kissinger and blow up underground heating tunnels in Washington, DC.
The book has three main sections: the first starts with the founding and (often) muckraking reportage of the paper, the second focuses on the trial, and the third ends with a massive flood. It’s all tied together with the personal story of a young woman (moi) named Ani (the first three letters of my first name, conveniently, mean “I” in Hebrew). A member of my writers group urged me to use a different name because Ani is also a breed of “cuckoobird” but what the heck.
Anyway, at this point, I’d like to thank the friends, family members, librarians, historians– and the team at Henrietta’s Cafe in Harvard Square– who helped me research and edit the book–and who put up with me–er, I mean, encouraged me over the years it took me to write it.
I started working on The View From Third Street just as DJT was coming into office–thinking that there might be some parallels between his divisive reign and Nixon’s. Little did I know how tumultuous things would eventually become. I spent several years time-travelling–which was great, during the pandemic. I’d occasionally come up for air, look around, ask, “Is this still going on?” and head back to the 1970s. Now I seem to be pretty much living in the present, and hoping our nation will get back on track.
In the meantime, I’ll be posting here, writing articles, and letting you know about the book’s progress. And about the next one’s …and about the one after that.
If you’d like to receive email updates, please sign up to the left of this chunk–or email me at anita.m.harris at comcast dot net. Oh, and if you want to buy the book–click here!
–Anita M. Harris
Anita M. Harris is a writer, photographer and communications consultant based in Cambridge, Mass. More information about her, her work and her books is available at http://anitamharris.com.
Cambridge Author Anita Harris Addresses Cornell Reunion Class
|
On June 12, I had the privilege of introducing the zoom happy hour for classmates who attended the 51st reunion of my graduating class. I touched on some of the incidents I wrote about in my 2015 book, Ithaca Diaries, which is about our four years 1966-1970. Sometimes, I call the book “Gidget Goes to the Revolution” which, in a way, sums up my college experience. But 51 years later, I thought it would be important to reflect on the past as it relates to the present and future–rather a handful for a 10-minute talk–but I think I managed to do it. Here’s a link to the video; the script, which I did not follow exactly, is inserted below.
Hi, I’m so glad to see everyone here, and especially that we’re all still here after this difficult year. I know that some of us are disappointed not to be in Ithaca—but the good part is that friends from far away can be with us. One such friend said he would join in if I provided free drinks…which I am…in my living room. CHEERS!
51st ANNIVERSARY OF GRADUATION 1970 I’m sure you know that this is the 51st anniversary week of our crazy graduation. With those three walkouts, and the demonstration on stage where Morris Bishop, the distinguished historian and leader of the processional hit someone over the head with the baton he was carrying… Many people think that it was Dave Burack—my gov instructor—who got hit over the head …Burack swears it was his roommate…In any case, the demonstrators got hauled off stage and into a cop car…The bear at the top of the mace got bent and has never been the same—nor, I think, have we.
I remember that really well…which is amazing because people were passing a JOINT when we were standing in the graduation processional…and I was definitely stoned.
I WROTE ABOUT THAT IN MY BOOK, ITHACA DIARIES which is based on the journals I kept as an undergraduate: it starts with me arriving at Cornell freshman year carrying the pink suitcase my uncle leon gave me for my bat mitzvah—goes through draft card burnings, demonstrations against the war, the straight takeover, MY LOVE LIFE, WHAT WAS I THINKING Kent State…and ends on graduation day….when, to my amazement, I even led a demonstration.
I WAS ORIGINALLY SUPPOSED TO TALK ABOUT ITHACA DIARIES LAST YEAR, AT OUR FIFTIETH but with the pandemic that really didn’t work out. So this year, Sally and Kathy asked me to introduce the social hour– they told me several times to be brief and to keep in mind that this is supposed to be a HAPPY hour. So I’m not going to reminisce a whole lot…I will just move the story ahead a little, wax a bit historical and philosophical, and then we’ll breakout out the drinks. I mean..join the breakout sessions.
*
SINCE ITHACA DIARIES CAME OUT, I”VE BEEN WORKING ON TWO SEQUELS.
THE FIRST SEQUEL IS ABOUT MY FIRST YEAR OUT OF CORNELL— and I imagine that many of us went through similar experiences. After all the turmoil on campus, and changes in the late sixties, I had no idea what to do with myself. (And of course, I was an English major…need I say more?) But as a fledgling feminist, I wanted to prove that I could do things: that anything a guy could do, I could do, too. I got a bunch of short-term jobs.
WEST VIRGINIA First I got a job with the ILR School that took me traveling around the country to several hospitals,; in West Birginia, I had my first look at coal miners with black lung disease.
I WORKED IN A POLITICAL CAMPAIGN where one of the pols spent his days pretending to read the newspaper while staring at my legs…
THEN I WENT ON A ROAD TRIP cross country with two Brits I didn’t know, whose names I found on a bulletin board. They were both named John John, John, and I drove cross country in a big black buick =–u drive it—and picked up every derelict and druggie, all the way from Miami to San Francisco.
AFTER THAT, I WORKED WITH DISADVANTAGED TEENS IN THE PHILADELPHIA GHETTO…AND FINALLY, I WOUND UP IN HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA.
That’s where the first sequel, which I’m CALLING PHILADELPHIA STORIES ENDS.
HARRISBURG
SO, THEN, THE SEQUEL TO THE SEQUEL: HARRISBURG IT TURNED OUT THAT THREE OF OUR CLASSMATES, ED ZUCKERMAN, FRED SOLOWEY, AND VINCENT BLOCKER, WERE ALSO IN HARRISBURG, EACH FOR HIS OWN REASONS. WE AND SOME OTHER PEOPLE ENDED UP STARTING A NEWSPAPER THERE, IN CONNECTION TO A MAJOR POLITICAL TRIAL— IT WAS THE TRIAL OF THE HARRISBURG 8., WHICH HAD AN INTERESTING CORNELL CONNECTION.
HARRISBURG 8 TRIAL BERRIGAN: You may remember Dan Berrigan the anti war Priest, and poet who was deputy director of Cornell United religious work. Anyway, while Dan Berrigan was in prison, Nixon’s FBI Director J EDGAR HOOVER ACCUSED DANIEL’s brother Philip , who was also in prison, of conspiring to kidnap Henry Kissinger and blow up underground heating tunnels in Washington DC. Also accused were former ILR Professor Eqbal Ahmad, and six others—mostly nuns and priests. I’m not kidding, I’m not kidding.
So, Ed, Fred, Vincent and I started a newspaper called the Harrisburg Independent Press—or—HIP- around the trial of the Harrisburg 8. That was how I became a journalist, the paper was amazing.
And, for the last few years I’ve been working on a book on my experiences at HIP.
A FEW WEEKS AGO, I WAS WORKING ON THE CONCLUSION. And I started wondering what the heck am I doing, why am I time traveling, going back into the past all the time?
ONE REASON IS PERSONAL : AS WITH Ithaca diaries, I needed to understand on a personal level, just what had gone down, to get things straight in my head, this was such a formative period, in order to figure out what to do next.
BUT ANOTHER REASON IS HISTORICAL/SOCIETAL.
WHEN I FIRST STARTED WORKING ON THE HARRISBURG BOOK, TRUMP WAS JUST COMING INTO OFFICE, AND I FELT THE COUNTRY WAS DIVIDED, much as it was in the late 60s and early 70s. I thought it might be interesting to draw some parallels between the present day divisiveness along the lines of race, poverty, ethnicity, and corruption… and what was going on back then, under the Nixon administration, with race relations, the Vietnam War, dirty tricks and such.
SPIRALS: BROKEN PATTERNS: Then I thought about my first book, it’s called Broken patterns, and it’s about our generation of professional women in relation to our own mothers and grandmothers. It describes a spiral pattern in history—a spiral pattern that I think holds true for Individuals as well.
WHAT DO I MEANBY SPIRALS? HERE I’d LIKE TO PONTIFICATE, A BIT, IF YOU WILL INDULGE ME…
Many of us—myself included—tend to think about progress in a linear way. That is, that to progress, we move forward in a straightforward path toward a goal. But the older I get, the more I see that life sort of emerges in a series of starts and stops—that we get just so far, in moving toward a goal—maybe we reach it; maybe we get blocked… and then, as a society or as individuals, we tend to pull back to reassess, to reintegrate our own pasts, our country’s past, in order to move forward, once again.
TODAY A TURNING POINT IN A SPIRAL I think that now as a society we’re at a turning point in a spiral that’s kind of similar to where we were. 50 years ago. Now, as then, society is divided. Many have moved toward equality but others have been left behind. As you know, there are issues of race, poverty, war, environment, how government should work, what kind of nation we want to be. BUT despite all of the disruptions, the divisiveness, the protests, the violence, I feel heartened that many of us are looking back historically, to understand how we got to this place so that we can regroup to find new ways of doing things. I know that I’m painting with a rather broad brush—but I believe that==or I HOPE that– retreating a bit to reassess, will allow us move forward as individuals, and as a society, once again. END PONTIFICATION
COMING TOGETHER FOR OUR 51st In the same way, coming together for our 50th, or 51st reunion, gives us the chance to look back, to heal, to understand, to figure out where we’re at in order to find new ways to move forward in our own lives. I’m hoping that in our social… er happy hour, we’ll have a chance to catch up, figure out where we’ve been, where we are now, and what adventures come next as we enter this new phase in our lives. TOAST WITH GLASS
One quick reminder—please use chat to catch up/share info or addresses with anyone you want to stay in touch with after the social.
Mourning the loss of mentor Jim McConkey
|
Cornell Author and Professor Emeritus James McConkey at a celebration of his 95th birthday in Ithaca, New York.
It’s not every freshman writing instructor who stays in touch with a student for more than 50 years, but Cornell University Professor Emeritus James McConkey was one who did…and I was the lucky student.
McConkey was my freshman writing instructor in 1967–I used to go out to his farm to exercise his horses–and he helped me through the student takeover of Willard Straight Hall, from which 130 black protestors emerged–several of whom brandished rifles.
(Jim told me recently that he sat with Dan Berrigan during the Barton Hall Takeover; also counselled University President Perkins–and tried to be a voice of reason throughout all of that). We stayed in touch for some 50 years; he and I held a joint book-signing in the Cornell Store during my 45th college reunion.
I am glad I got to seem him just before he passed away.
In early October, Jim, his son Larry and daughter-in-law Diane McConkey were on their way back from visiting another of Jim’s former students on Northern Maine ( some 9 hours from Ithaca) and invited me to dinner at the Publick House, near Cambridge, , where I live, and where they were spending the night.
At 98, he told a few funny stories about his mother, who lived to 100 at least…and I joked that his social life was better than mine. He was still driving–and told us that he would be driving the ten miles from his farm to lunch with friends several times the next week. He seemed frail–but sounded fine when I called to thank him a few days after our dinner.
–Anita M. Harris Anita Harris is a writer and communications consultant based in Cambridge, MA. Her books include Ithaca Diaries, a memoir and social history of her undergraduate years at Cornell; and Broken Patterns, Professional Women and the Quest for a New Feminine Identity. She is currently working on a creative nonfiction book tentatively titled “Harrisburg,” which is about her experiences founding an alternative newspaper in Pennsylvania, during the trial of the Harrisburg 8.
Back to college; rape culture concerns; Ithaca Diaries update
|
With students now heading back to college, I’m reminded of my arrival at Cornell University freshman year–when some guys holding a sign “girls dorm” directed us into the parking lot of what turned out to be their frat–AKA “Theta Zoo.”
Several people I don’t even know called me to talk to me about Ithaca Diaries and how much it meant to them.
The Glen Haven Historical Society held a discussion of Ithaca Diaries in Skaneateles, NY, not far from Ithaca; Organizers Marilyn Reiner Levine and Lauren R. Jastermski turned out to have gone to my high school, tho we had not met. Friends Joyce Carey and Scott Drahos reported a lively discussion.
The long-awaited video of my April reading for the Cornell Club of Boston is now..posted in segments on You Tube . Let me know if you can spot my wardrobe malfunction. Or, better yet, don’t.
Ithaca Diaries has gotten some great reviews!
Historian Carol Kammen writes in the Ithaca Journal, “honest, funny, naïve and wise, and very much of the era. Her diary is about boys, and it is an account of her coming awake politically, socially and sexually….”
Editor Jim Chaisson writes in the Ithaca Times “When you get a first-person account that chronicles the quotidian details of a woman’s daily life, and she juxtaposes them abruptly within the narrative against the headlines of the day—both on and off campus—you experience how innocent these young people were compared to the social changes that were being wrought by drugs, social movements like feminism and black liberation and global politics .” For the record, I did work summers. My parents did not send me to the shrink until sophomore year.
Great if you’d buy a copy on Amazon or Kindle–if you haven’t already– or ask your library to do so. Positive reviews welcome.
And–please follow me on Twitter. Evidently, the only way to get followers is to HAVE followers! @anharris.
Again, thanks to my kickstarter supporters, interns, and the many others who helped bring Ithaca Diaries to life.
