R.I.P., David Halberstam

Just heard some sad news: Noted journalist and author David Halberstam died Monday in a car crash. Halberstam, a Pulitzer Prize recipient who wrote more than 20 books, was 73.

Among Halberstam's many books was The Fifties, published in 1993. I got the chance to read that one for an American Studies grad course at USF.

"During a career that spanned more than half a century, Halberstam became one of journalism's elder statesman, bringing his trademark depth to topics as varied as the Vietnam War and the 1949 baseball pennant race," Lisa Leff writes in the AP obit.

Here's the NYTimes obit.

Writes Clyde Haberman, in the Times story: "Mr. Halberstam was killed doing what he had done his entire adult life: reporting. He was on his way to interview Y. A. Tittle, the former New York Giants quarterback, for a book about the 1958 championship game between the Giants and the Baltimore Colts, considered by many to be the greatest football game ever played."