6The Daily Tar Heel Wednesday, April 19, 1989
Tale of family history stuck in past
Pulitzer Prize-winning UNC alum
nus Jonathan Yardley pays tribute to
his parents, Helen and Bill Yardley,
in his book, "Our Kind of People:
The Story of an American Family."
Yardley, book critic and columnist
for The Washington Post, relives the
major events as well as the day to
day happenings in the lives of his
parents with the book. But while he
records these events in great detail,
he leaves many questions
unanswered.
Yardley begins the story of his
parents with the birth of his father,
William Woolsey Yardley, on Sept.
7, 191 1, and the birth of Helen Marie
Gregory on Nov. 22, 1913. Yardley
surrounds the tale of the two births
with commentary on the numerous
families that framed the background
of the two births: the Gregorys,
Ingersolls, Woolseys and, of course,
the Yardleys.
Some of this commentary is quite
interesting, such as the family tale of
Helen's grandfather, Orville Inger
soll, who at 7 years old stuck a willow
switch in the ground of the family
settlement at Delta, Mich., only to
witness the switch later grow into a
tree. However, the influx of names
and family stories often hinders the
. reader and distracts from the story. ,
Yardley relates the story of his
parents as they move from town to
town and as Bill changes from
headmaster of one private school to
another, culminating with Bill accept
ing the headmaster position at Chat
ham Hall in Virginia, a private school
for girls.
He gives the reader a detailed
account of the years the Yardley
family spent in Virginia, complete
with accounts of the family expenses
and the day-to-day activities of Bill's
job. This amount of detail can be
tedious at times, but it gives the reader
a sense of the couple as two individ-
Glenn O'Neal
Book
uals rather than as a unit. For
example, Yardley goes into great
detail over the extreme diligence Bill
displayed in collecting books for his
private library. For many years, Bill
spent most of his spare time finding
the books, cataloguing them and
making protective slipcases for his
collection. Such details give the
reader insight into the true character
of Bill Yardley.
Overall, the book reads well except
for the long passages where Yardley
becomes obsessed with genealogy.
The family history is nonessential and
tends to slow the pace of the book.
Another weakness of the book is
that Yardley introduces many family
members into the story, but doesn
tie them together in any fashion. He
mentions their relationship to Bill and
Helen but not to each other. For
instance, Jonathan describes the
conflict between Bill and his daughter
Sarah over her "different" lifestyle,
but he doesn't explain how the other
children view the conflict. He port
trays the family members as puppets
whose actions are results of their
relationship with their parents. Few
if any families act this way, and this
family setup is another barrier to the
reader.
The book's main value is not
actually the story itself but rather the
historical and sociological trends
traced in it. The Yardleys are not your
typical middle-class family, but they
are an excellent example of an upper
middle class family that is continously
trying to find its place in society. The
Yardley family is kept at arm V length
by the upper class because of its less
than extensive income, and the family
JONATHAN YARDLEY
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members distance themselves from where in limbo between the two social
the lower and middle classes because classes.
of their comfortable lifestyle. The
result is that the family lives some-
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But despite his ambitious efforts to
place his family in a historical
context, Yardley becomes lost in the
past, much like his father, and he
forgets the questions that need to be
answered in the present.
Jonathan Yardley will appear at
The Intimate Bookshop today for a
book-signing from 5 to 7 p.m. .
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High aims pay off
for UNC alumnus
Jonathan Yardley
By JESSICA YATES
Assistant Arts Editx
There is sometimes a difference
between being a superior writer
and a successful journalist. UNC
alumnus and Pulitzer Prize
winning author Jonathan Yatdley
chose to make excellence rather
than success his goal and has never
looked back.
The former Daily Tar Heel
editor has worked for such news
papers as The New York Times
and The Miami Herald and is
currently employed at the
Washington Post. He has also
written two books, the second of
which has recently been published.
Yardley entered UNC in 1957
after graduating from a New
England boarding school. He
majored in English, as he believes
"every aspiring journalist should,"
and took only one journalism
course during his college career.
The t)TH provided an outlet for
his inclination to write. He joined
the staff as a freshman and was
a columnist by his sophomore
year.
"I was notorious for writing
about the time my dog gave birth
to a litter of puppies under my
desk," he said. "The story had
extremely vivid detail that made
a lot of girls really squeamish."
In the spring of his junior year,
Yardley was elected DTH editor.
With the Kennedy-Nixon presi
dential race, the scandal over the
suspected gambling habits of then
UNC basketball coach Frank
McGuire and the activities of the
civil rights movement, "it was an
exciting year, to cover," he said.
During the spring of Yardley's
senior year, James Reston, then
the chief of The New York Times
Washington bureau, came to UNC
to speak. "I couldn't attend the
lecture, but I went to the question-and-answer
session and talked
with him," Yardley said. Reston
called him the next day to offer
him a yearlong internship.
Following his internship, Yard
ley wrote for The New York Times
in its week in review magazine. He
and his family moved to North
Carolina in 1964, where Yardley
immediately started working for
. The Greensboro Daily News.
He was awarded a Nieman
Fellowship in 1968. The award is
given to about 12 journalists
around the country and allows
them to go to Harvard to study
anything they want for a year.
"I studied American fiction,"
Yardley said, "and when I came
back, my interest was a lot
stronger in the literary aspects of
writing."
For several years, Yardley free
lanced book reviews for publica
tions such as The New York Times
and Life magazine. He took a job
in 1974 as book editor of The
Miami Herald. During this period
he wrote and published his first
book, "Ring: A Biography of Ring
Lardner." Lardner was a famous
writer of short stories and a sports
columnist in the 1920s.
Yardley joined The Washington
Star in 1978 as its new book editor
and won a Pulitzer Prize in 1981
for literary criticism.
His next job, which he still
holds, was with the Washington
Post. "I write book reviews and
a column about social and cultural
subjects," he said. Both of his sons
attended UNC: Jim graduated in
1986 and William is a member of
the class of 1989.
His gradual transformation
from news reporter to literary
journalist may seem surprising,
but, according to Yardley, it can
easily be explained. "I grew up in
a family with a long tradition in
the appreciation of books and
literature. My parents took it very
seriously. .
"I discovered in college that the
one thing I could do well is write."
Although he received very little
training in journalism, "in those
days, newspapers were willing to
take someone not necessarily
trained in journalism but trained
in themselves," he said
"I always gravitated to tiny
corners of journalism where writ
ing skill was valued more than
reporting skill, which is a talent
I really don't have. But I admire
people who can do it well."
Yardley will be in North Caro
lina for three days this week to
talk about his new book, "Our
Kind of People: The Story of an
American-Family."
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