During Terry McDonell's four-decade career working at Esquire, Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated, Newsweek and a half-dozen other magazines, he edited an impressive number of literary lions, including Ernest Hemingway, Kurt Vonnegut and Hunter S. Thompson. In his perceptive and intoxicating memoir, The Accidental Life, McDonell proves his writing skills are equal to his legendary editing prowess.
McDonell forged friendships with most of the writers he edited, and The Accidental Life is filled with revealing anecdotes about their writing processes, their willingness to be edited and their private lives. Whether he is playing golf (after dropping acid) with Hunter S. Thompson and George Plimpton, taking Jann Wenner to court for not honoring his contract, or pitching a TV series to Aaron Spelling with Richard Price, McDonell is a captivating raconteur. McDonell also has a knack for astute and funny pegs for people: P.J. O'Rourke is "a pants-down Republican"; Helen Gurley Brown was "a feminist in fishnet stockings and a minidress"; and Jim Harrison "could look a bit weathered, but he was still handsome in the manner of a mahogany stump."
McDonell offers clear-eyed advice for those who want a career as a writer or editor. One salient bit possibly explains his successful friendships with those he edited: "Good editors, like doctors, develop a bedside manner." The Accidental Life is a supremely entertaining memoir that succeeds as both an instructional guide to writing and an insider's confessional about the outstanding writers he has known and edited. --Kevin Howell, independent reviewer and marketing consultant