Boston boy
By: Nat Hentoff.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Knopf
Published: 1986
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 175
Subjects: Hentoff, Nat -- Childhood and youth; Hentoff, Nat -- Homes and haunts -- Massachusetts -- Boston; Authors, American -- 20th century -- Biography; Jews -- Massachusetts -- Boston -- Biography; Music critics -- United States -- Biography; Journalists -- United States -- Biography; Jazz -- History and criticism; Boston (Mass.) -- Intellectual life -- 20th century; Boston (Mass.) -- Social life and customs
Genres: Biography.
Description: In his memoir, this iconoclastic writer on civil liberties, politics, and jazz, recalls what it was like growing up Jewish in Boston in the 1930s and 40s, shaped both by the ghetto and his indomitable desire for more. The reader follows him through his Roxbury neighborhood, witnessing as he organizes a successful strike at Sunday's Candies (the most coveted place of employment for Roxbury boys), gets booted out of Hebrew school (but bar mitzvahs nonetheless), and gets caught among gangs of "Irishers" beating up on "Yids." He goes on to graduate from Boston Latin School, work as an investigative reporter, and host his own radio jazz program, which leads him to Boston's hottest jazz club, the Savoy Cafe. It's here that he meets the black musicians and jazz aficionados that would become his mentors, in life as well as music.-Derived from book jacket.