'Ink into words and pictures'

 “A newspaper is lumber made malleable. It is ink made into words and pictures. It is conceived, born, grows up and dies of old age in a day.” – Jim Bishop

 

Born in Jersey City, NJ, on this date in 1907, Bishop dropped out of school after 8th grade, then studied typing and shorthand on his own in hopes of becoming a journalist.  In 1929, he was hired as a copy boy at the New York Daily News, the start of a 50-year career writing for newspapers and magazines. 

 

When not writing journalistically, Bishop began working on biographies and ultimately published half-a-dozen including the bestselling The Day Lincoln Was Shot, a book that took him 24 years to complete but ultimately sold over 3 million copies.  The book has been re-published in two dozen languages and made into two television specials and a feature-length movie.

 

Bishop also was a syndicated political columnist, book reviewer and critic, although the latter role concerned him, noting,  “A good writer is not, per se’, a good book critic, no more than a good drunk is automatically a good bartender."