Final Draft

“A revelatory collection reminding us of what journalism used to be—and what it ought to be.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Throughout his twenty-five-year career, David Carr was noted for his sharp and fearless observations, his uncanny sense of fairness and justice, and his remarkable compassion and wit. His writing was informed both by his own hardships as an addict and his intense love of the journalist’s craft. His range—from media politics to national politics, from rock ‘n’ roll celebrities to the unknown civil servants who make our daily lives function—was broad and often timeless. Edited by his widow, Jill Rooney Carr, and with an introduction by one of the many journalists David Carr mentored, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Final Draft is a career-spanning selection of the legendary reporter’s writing for the New York Times, Washington City Paper, New York Magazine, the Atlantic, and more.

“Wit, style, empathy, tough questions—it’s all here, in this collection by the one-man journalism school that was David Carr . . . Final Draft allows us to read decades of David’s best reportage about corruption, racism, celebrity, addiction, disease, and his love for his family, his skills only outdone by his humanity.” —Jake Tapper, CNN Chief Washington Correspondent