Books by A J Liebling
“A.J. Liebling is my favourite of all the American writers who covered the Second World War. He is forgotten now, but he was an extraordinary jewel in The New Yorker’s crown. The book I’ve picked here will always stay with me. He writes absolutely beautifully.” Read more...
The Best Books by War Correspondents
James MacManus, Journalist
The Honest Rainmaker
by A J Liebling
A J Liebling was an old-time magazine journalist. This particular book was based on a bunch of articles about an old guy he knew, who went by the name of Colonel John R Stingo. He had gone through life doing a number of things, including rainmaking. He would go to farm areas of the United States and make contracts with farmers, about how he would make it rain. His entire rainmaking was based on actuarial principles. He worked out the frequency of precipitation and he would write very clever contracts – of the heads-I-win, tails-you-lose variety.
Interviews where books by A J Liebling were recommended
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1
The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract
by Bill James -
2
Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases
by Daniel Kahneman & Paul Slovic and Amos Tversky -
3
How Animals Work
by Knut Schmidt-Nielsen -
4
The Honest Rainmaker
by A J Liebling -
5
How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk
by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish
The best books on Statistics, recommended by Andrew Gelman
The best books on Statistics, recommended by Andrew Gelman
Award-winning statistician and political scientist Andrew Gelman says that uncertainty is an important part of life, and recognition of that uncertainty is itself an important step. He picks the best books on statistics.
The Best Books by War Correspondents, recommended by James MacManus
A war correspondent’s job is to be as close to the front line as possible and to provide as unbiased an account of a conflict as they can, explains the veteran journalist James MacManus. Here he selects five of the best books by war correspondents and explains why memories of that lifestyle now offer him literary inspiration.
