This is the gritty story of one man’s life-long education in the school of hard knocks, as his journey took him from Harlem to the Marines, the Ivy League, and a career as a controversial writer, teacher, and economist in government and private industry. It is also the story of the dramatically changing times in which this personal odyssey took place.
The vignettes of the people and places that made an impression on Thomas Sowell at various stages of his life range from the poor and the powerless to the mighty and the wealthy, from a home for homeless boys to the White House, as well as ranging across the United States and around the world. It also includes Sowell’s startling discovery of his own origins during his teenage years.
If the child is father to the man, this memoir shows the characteristics that have become familiar in the public figure known as Thomas Sowell already present in an obscure little boy born in poverty in the Jim Crow South during the Great Depression and growing up in Harlem. His marching to his own drummer, his disregard of what others say or think, even his battles with editors who attempt to change what he has written, are all there in childhood.
More than a story of the life of Sowell himself, this is also a story of the people who gave him their help, their support, and their loyalty, as well as those who demonized him and knifed him in the back. It is a story not just of one life, but of life in general, with all its exhilaration and pain.
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Available in bookstores or Amazon.com
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“For those unfamiliar with Sowell’s devastation of Political Correctness, these letters offer a sampling and a peek at the human being behind it. For those familiar with his writing this little volume will strengthen their appreciation of his contribution to American intellectual life. In a way, Tom Sowell is the George Orwell of our time.”
—Jim Michaels, Editor Emeritus, Forbes Magazine
“I read everything with Tom Sowell’s name on it, no matter what the subject, and I’m never disappointed. Now we have 40 years of his letters to everyone from Milton Friedman to Vernon Jordan. Lo and behold, they’re every bit as scintillating as you might suspect. His letters are both readable and profound. Tom Sowell is amazing!”
—Fred Barnes, Executive Editor, The Weekly Standard
“A Man of Letters reveals some of the private side of the life and career of one of America’s true scholars. Sowell’s correspondence provides testimony to the real compassion that can only have its roots in hard-minded dispassionate analysis.”
—Dr. Walter E. Williams, John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics, George Mason University
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“Dr. Sowell and I are but five months apart in age yet, when I was a little boy, I would not have been allowed to play with him. Ironic, as throughout my adult life I have hung on his every word, believing him to be the brightest man I have ever known. These letters, over a span of forty-seven years, are a treasury of insight and reason. My only complaint is that he chose not to include any from earlier than 1960.”
—G. Gordon Liddy, Host, “The G. Gordon Liddy Show,” Radio America
“Nobody does a better job demonstrating the terrible unintended consequences of laws that were supposed to do good. Sowell’s provocative letters offer valuable insights about the man and his ideas.”
—Jim Powell, author of The Triumph of Liberty and other books
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Available on Amazon.com