Molly Ivins | |
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| Born | (1944-08-30)August 30, 1944 Monterey, California, U.S. |
| Died | January 31, 2007(2007-01-31) (aged 62) Austin, Texas, U.S. |
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| Education | Smith College Columbia Graduate School of Journalism |
| Period | 1967–2007 |
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Mary Tyler "Molly"Ivins (August 30, 1944 – January 31, 2007) was an American newspaper columnist, author, and political commentator, known for her humorous and insightful writing, which often used satire and wit to critique political figures and policies.
Born in California and raised in Texas, Ivins attendedSmith College and theColumbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She began her journalism career at theMinneapolis Tribune where she became the first female police reporter at the paper. Ivins joinedThe Texas Observer in the early 1970s and later moved toThe New York Times. She became a columnist for theDallas Times Herald in the 1980s, and then theFort Worth Star-Telegram after theTimes Herald was sold and shuttered in 1991. Her column was subsequently syndicated byCreators Syndicate and carried by hundreds of newspapers.
A biography of Ivins,Molly Ivins: A Rebel Life, was co-written in 2010 by PEN-USA winning presidential biographerBill Minutaglio and W. Michael Smith. TheForbes Media Guide Five Hundred, 1994 said:
Ivins's pithy assessments of politics and life at large crackle with broad Texas humor. Combining her talent for culling information with her razor-sharp wit, she throws a powerful knockout punch. ... Whether one agrees with her or not, Ivins's pen pierces both the brain and the funny bone.[1]
Ivins was born inMonterey, California, and raised inHouston, Texas. Her father, James Ivins, known as "General Jim" because of his rigid authoritarianism (or sometimes "Admiral Jim" for his love of sailing), was an oil and gas executive, and the family lived in Houston's affluentRiver Oaks neighborhood.[2] Ivins graduated fromSt. John's School in 1962. In high school, she was active inextracurricular activities, including the yearbook staff. She had her first pieces of journalism published inThe Review, the officialstudent newspaper of St. John's School, though she never wrote any of the political columns that would become her specialty later in life. Ivins later became co-editor of the arts and culture section of the student paper. In addition, she frequently participated in theater productions and earned a lifetime membership inJohnnycake, the drama club.
Ivins enrolled inScripps College in 1962, but was not happy there, and transferred toSmith College in 1963. During that time, she became romantically involved with Henry "Hank" Holland, Jr., a family friend and student at Yale whom she referred to as "the love of my life". After he was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1964, her friends would later say that she never seemed to find anyone else who could replace his memory. Some say that is why she never married.[by whom?][2] She spent her junior year at theInstitute of Political Science in Paris and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history in 1966. She earned a master's degree fromColumbia University'sSchool of Journalism in 1967.[3][4]
While at Smith, Ivins spent three summers as an intern at theHouston Chronicle. Her jobs there included the complaint department as well as "sewer editor", as she put it, responsible for reporting on the nuts and bolts of local city life. After graduating from Columbia, she took a job in the Twin Cities at theMinneapolis Tribune, where she covered "militant blacks, angry Indians, radical students, uppity women and a motley assortment of other misfits and troublemakers".[5]
In 1970 Ivins left theTribune for the city ofAustin, Texas, hired byRonnie Dugger,[6] to be the co-editor and political reporter forThe Texas Observer.[2] She covered theTexas Legislature and befriended folkloristJohn Henry Faulk, Secretary of StateBob Bullock and future GovernorAnn Richards, among others.[7] She also gained increasing national attention through op-ed and feature stories inThe New York Times andThe Washington Post along with a busy speaking schedule inside and outside Texas.[2] TheTimes, concerned that its prevailing writing style was too staid and lifeless, hired her away from theObserver in 1976,[8] and she wrote for theTimes until 1982. During her run there, Ivins becameRocky Mountain bureau chief, covering nine western states, although she was known to say she was named chief because there was no one else in the bureau.[9]
Ivins also wrote the obituary for Elvis Presley inThe New York Times for the August 17, 1977, edition.[10] Generally, her more colorful writing style clashed with the editors' expectations, and in 1980, after she wrote about a "community chicken-killing festival" in New Mexico and called it a "gang-pluck", she was recalled to New York City as punishment. WhenAbe Rosenthal, editor of theTimes, accused her of trying to inspire readers to think "dirty thoughts" with these words, her response was, "Damn if I could fool you, Mr. Rosenthal." In late 1981, after receiving an offer from theDallas Times Herald to write a column about anything she liked, Ivins left New York City for Dallas.[2]
Ivins wrote for theDallas Times Herald for ten years and was nominated for thePulitzer Prize twice.[2][11] By 1985 the editors had moved her to the paper's Austin bureau to reduce friction with Dallas city leaders.[2] Her freelance work and speaking engagements continued to grow, and she hired Elizabeth Faulk, John Henry Faulk's widow, as a personal assistant. In 1991, her bookMolly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She? was published, and spent 29 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Also in 1991, rival newspaper,The Dallas Morning News bought theTimes Herald and closed it down. TheFort Worth Star-Telegram immediately made Ivins an offer and said she could stay in Austin. Ivins accepted, and wrote a column for the Fort Worth paper from 1992 until 2001, when she became an independent journalist. Her column, syndicated byCreators Syndicate, eventually appeared in nearly 400 newspapers nationwide. Ivins also remained a board member and contributor to the Texas Democracy Foundation, which publishes theTexas Observer in Austin.[12]
She also wrote for theProgressive,the Nation,Newsweek,Mother Jones,McCall's andPlayboy. She has appeared onNightline, PBS'sMacNeil/Lehrer News Hour, National Public Radio’sAll Things Considered andTalk of the Nation.[13]
In 1995, humoristFlorence King wrote an article inThe American Enterprise claiming that Ivins had plagiarized King's work in a 1988Mother Jones article.[1] Like Ivins, King—who was referred to as the "Queen of Mean" byNational Review, which published her columns—pulled no punches in her writing. David Rubien, writing inSalon, described the incident: "In a 1995 article forMother Jones on Southern manners and mores, she extensively quoted, with affectionate attribution, statements from Florence King's bookSouthern Ladies and Gentlemen. But for some careless reason Ivins still fails to comprehend, she left the attribution off a few King statements."[14] Ivins had also included her own words in a quotation she attributed to King. Ivins wrote a letter of apology to King, but characteristically ended it with: "As for the rest of your observations about me and my work ..., boy you really are a mean bitch, aren't you? Sincerely, Molly Ivins, plagiarist."The American Enterprise published Ivins's apology and King's reply in a later issue.[15]
For more than three decades, Ivins struggled withalcoholism, described in herThe Nation obituary as an "occupational hazard" of journalism. In her notebooks, she wrote of her struggles, "I should like to think the biggest mistake I have made in the first 30 years of my life was to start drinking and keep drinking" and "I have wasted so much time by getting drunk ... I have jeopardized my job from drinking and failed in my responsibilities as a journalist."[16]
Late in her life, she took some steps to treat the condition, spending some time at a "drunk school"[clarification needed], then attendingAlcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings for the last year-and-a-half of her life.[17]
In 1999, Ivins was diagnosed withstage IIIinflammatory breast cancer. The cancer recurred in 2003 and again in late 2005. In January 2006, she reported that she was again undergoingchemotherapy.[18] In December 2006, she took leave from her column to again undergo treatment.[19] She wrote two columns in January 2007 but returned to the hospital on January 26 for further treatment.[20]
Ivins died at herAustin, Texas, home inhospice care on January 31, 2007, at age 62.[21]
After her death,George W. Bush, a frequent target of her barbs, said in a statement, "I respected her convictions, her passionate belief in the power of words. She fought her illness with that same passion. Her quick wit and commitment will be missed."[22]
The Molly Ivins Papers are at theDolph Briscoe Center for American History, while her personal library was donated to the Witliff Collections atTexas State University.[23]
From August 23 to October 28, 2012, actressKathleen Turner portrayed Molly Ivins in the playRed Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins by twin sisters and journalists Margaret and Allison Engel atArena Stage inWashington, D.C.,[24][25] and at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in Berkeley, California. Janice Engel (no relation[26]) produced and directed a documentary, "Raise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins," inspired by the play.[27][28][29][30]
Writing from an unabashedlypopulist perspective,[31] Ivins repeatedly described herself as a populist and, on some occasions, as aleft-libertarian.[32] Ivins peppered her columns with colorful phrases to create the "feel" of Texas. Her writings often employirony andsatirical humor to make a very serious point. For example, in her 1993 essay "Taking a Stab at Our Infatuation with Guns", she begins by saying:[33]
Let me start this discussion by pointing out that I am not anti-gun. I'm pro-knife. Consider the merits of the knife.
In the first place, you have to catch up with someone in order to stab him. A general substitution of knives for guns would promote physical fitness. We'd turn into a whole nation of great runners. Plus, knives don't ricochet. And people are seldom killed while cleaning their knives.
As a civil libertarian, I of course support the Second Amendment. And I believe it means exactly what it says: "A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." Fourteen-year-old boys are not part of a well-regulated militia. Members of wacky religious cults are not part of a well-regulated militia. Permitting unregulated citizens to have guns is destroying the security of this free state.
I am intrigued by the arguments of those who claim to follow the judicial doctrine of original intent. How do they know it was the dearest wish of Thomas Jefferson's heart that teen-age drug dealers should cruise the cities of this nation perforating their fellow citizens with assault rifles? Channelling?
When outraged by instances of what she considered malfeasance or stupidity on the part of public officials, she couched her argument in an air of stunned amusement. She enjoyed telling stories about theTexas Legislature, which she simply called "The Lege", calling it one of the most corrupt, incompetent, and funniest governing bodies in the nation. For example:
Practice, practice, practice, that's what Texas provides when it comes to sleaze and stink. Who can forget such great explanations as "Well, I'll just make a little bit of money, I won't make a whole lot"? And "There was never a Bible in the room"?[34]
In 2003, she coined the term "Great Liberal Backlash of 2003", and was a passionate critic of the 2003Iraq War.[35] She is also credited with applying the nicknames "Shrub" and "Dubya" toGeorge W. Bush. Ivins supportedaffirmative action and denounced President Bush for choosingMartin Luther King Jr.'s birthday to announce his opposition to the use of racial quotas at theUniversity of Michigan.[36]
Notable quotes[37] attributed to Ivins include:
In addition to these formal awards, Ivins said that she was particularly proud of two distinct honors—having theMinneapolis police force'smascot pig named after her, and being banned from theTexas A&M campus.[56]
Books by Molly Ivins, in chronological order:
(Source[57])
In 2019 a documentary calledRaise Hell: The Life and times of Molly Ivins was released.[58][59][60][61][62][63][64]
The MOLLY National Journalism Prize honors Molly Ivins' legacy.[65]
Ivins, is the subject of a one-woman play,Red Hot Patriot: The Kick Ass Wit of Molly Ivins, written by twin-sister journalists, Alison and Margaret Engels.[66]
If I say Molly Ivins is a populist, what does that mean? In the simplest terms, I suppose, it means that she allies herself, philosophically and politically, with "the people" and is suspicious of the powerful, of "elites."
The most widely syndicated liberal columnist in the country, Molly often brought the only voice of dissent to opinion pages all across the broad "red state" swath of the American heartland. Some of the vitriolic reactions appearing in this paper have been extraordinary, even by the deteriorated standards of American political discourse, so perhaps a few observations are appropriate. Ivins was quoted as saying, "I don't have an agenda, I don't have a program. I'm not a communist or a socialist. I guess I'm a left-libertarian and a populist, and I believe in the Bill of Rights the way some folks believe in the Bible."
What does not make me proud to be an American is a specific twist in the Jack Abramoff/Tom DeLay scandal—in fact, this makes me want to urp despite the fact that I have a strong stomach when it comes to political corruption. Practice, practice, practice, that's what Texas provides when it comes to sleaze and stink. Who can forget such great explanations as "Well, I'll just make a little bit of money, I won't make a whole lot"? And "There was never a Bible in the room"?
Molly Ivins, the Texas columnist, died of breast cancer on Wednesday. I first met her more than three years ago, when our book tours crossed. She was, as she wrote, 'a card-carrying member of The Great Liberal Backlash of 2003, one of the half-dozen or so writers now schlepping around the country promoting books that do not speak kindly of Our Leader's record.'
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