Frye Gaillard did not set out to write this book. One day as he was thumbing through a cardboard box of his essays, columns, and profiles, he simply realized that he had done it. Each article told the story of a person standing against social injustice or exploring the pain and ambiguity of the human condition.
By blending interviews and stories of well-known figures like Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Sidney Poitier, Vine Deloria, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Jane Goodall with lesser-known heroes like Rabbi Abraham Heschel (who marched from Selma to Montgomery), Regina Benjamin (a Black doctor who was integral to the grassroots efforts of Katrina recovery), Kathy Mattea (who wrote powerful songs about coal mining and its real effects on the people of Appalachia), and Elyn Saks (who pioneered modern mental illness treatments while dealing with her own schizophrenia), Gaillard celebrates the people who have tried to make things better.
While many of Gaillard's subjects succeeded in what they were trying to do, others did not. Each story, however, contains a measure of inspiration. Against the backdrop of our turbulent time-our era of lesser angels on the rise-Gaillard asks, where would the rest of us be without them?
"Were it simply a collection of the best essays from one of America's great writers, Frye Gaillard's Heroes and Other Mortals would be a true journalistic and literary gift-compelling, beautifully-crafted profiles of crusading, committed people, some more well-known than others. But Heroes is much more than that. Even while writing unsparingly about some of life's darkest situations, Gaillard seek
Mark Ethridge
"Collected here are the greatest hits from decades of fearless, in-depth journalism on issues of race, culture, global politics, identity, and more. From Frye Gaillard's earliest essay on South Africa to his recent interview with the daughter of the infamous Governor George Wallace, this book serves as a testament to one of our country's most vital and clear-sighted writers. Gaillard is a writer c
Charlotte Pence, Director of the Stokes Center for Creative Writing
"A provocative collection of essays, interviews, profiles, and stories that illuminates the turbulent, pivotal moments of our shared past. . . . For a long time, I have been guided by the belief that good writing is good thinking, thinking that asks hard questions, reveals hidden patterns, and acknowledges the conundrum of truth-telling and hope. In so many ways, Heroes and Other Mortals is such a
