Indiana Hall of Fame newspaperman Ray Moscowitz’s new book is a collection of his favorite writings culled from five decades of work.
“A Journalist’s Journey” contains 50 news stories, features, editorials, columns and chapters from his previous books.
Topics range from grassroots politics to Watergate to the Middle East – from every-day folks to high-profile people to historical figures.
The book came about after some prodding from friends, Moscowitz said via phone from his Bloomington home.
“About four or five years ago a couple of people suggested I put together a book of the best stuff I had written,” he said. “I finally decided to do it.”
Moscowitz gives credit to his wife of 45 years, Barbara, for making the book possible.
“She kept scrapbooks of everything I wrote,” Moscowitz said.
He started going through the hundreds of pieces in the scrapbooks, trying to pick out 50 favorites.
The hardest part was getting the content from hard copy to electronic copy, he said.
Some could be scanned in to retrieve the text.
“Some pieces I just had to type in,” he said. “So it was labor intensive.”
A former student of Moscowitz’s formatted the book for him, and he self-published through CreateSpace, a subsidiary of Amazon.
Moscowitz said he enjoyed the process of going through his writing, which date from 1964 when he worked at the Frankfort Morning Times.
“I think one of the most interesting things is to read your stuff and see how your writing has evolved,” he said.
Moscowitz’s pieces, presented in chronological order, take readers from small-town Indiana to Chicago, Washington, D.C., London, the Middle East and beyond.
Several pieces emphasize government and politics, because they were central to Moscowitz’s career as a reporter, editor and corporate editorial director, he said. But there are several pieces on people, some major figures, others ordinary people who were fascinating in their own ways.
After spending 29 years with Nixon Newspapers, based in Peru, Ind., Moscowitz was inducted into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame in 2002.
The Ray Moscowitz Award, named for him by the HSPA Foundation, honors those who foster the advancement of the First Amendment. It recognizes journalistic achievement by reporters who open records or meetings or otherwise lift veils of secrecy.
