Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, two of the most famous journalists of our time, who literally brought a president down with their typewriters, have finally been given their biography in Alicia C. Shepard’s Woodward and Bernstein: Life in the Shadow of Watergate. Fortunately for the St. Louis community, this award-winning journalist will be speaking at Left Bank Books Tuesday, Jan. 30 at 7 p.m.
Hailed as the most complete biography of the Watergate journalists, Life in the Shadow of Watergate delves into the lives of Woodward and Bernstein like never before, thanks to Shepard’s access to exclusive Watergate papers, hundreds of interviews and Mark Felt’s recent confession that he was, in fact, “Deep Throat,” the man who secretly fed Bob Woodward classified information for months. Essentially creating a twofold biography, Shepard reveals how utterly influential Watergate was for the lives of these two journalists.
The biography traces the lives of the journalists before their days at The Washington Post, until their current occupations, essentially picking up where All the President’s Men- the firsthand account of Nixon’s downfall- left off. Further, Shepard debunks some of the myths that arose from the popularity of President’s Men and the subsequent film, including the common misconception that Woodward and Bernstein single-handedly brought down Nixon without the help of their fellow journalists. Shepard claims that it was, in fact, the film version of President’s Men that led to the popularity of Woodward and Bernstein, giving them the label “Woodstein.”
Shepard also makes it clear that there were many differences between Woodward and Bernstein. Woodward was the workhorse, while Bernstein was the street-smart college dropout who had to crawl his way up the newsroom hierarchy.
One of the sections of the novel informs us that Woodward’s knack for investigation began as a young child, slyly making his way through the papers in his father’s office. Shepard also provides us with a description of the imaginative process that director Alan J. Pakula went through to create the film adaptation.
Pakula himself was compelled by Woodward and Bernstein’s interdependence, which he admits took some time to develop. “Both men initially felt that the other one was not loyal. Bernstein believed that Woodward would sell him out for an editor’s approval, and Woodward felt that Bernstein would sell him out to anyone in the newsroom whom Bernstein preferred . Woodward was eventually surprised that he could rely on Bernstein, that Bernstein was capable of hard work and worthy of his trust. Bernstein came to learn that Woodward . was not the establishment or a straight-arrow WASP,” Pakula said.
Unfortunately, no one except Woodward and Bernstein realized that their relationship was coming to an end with the completion of The Final Days, their follow-up to All the President’s Men, which detailed the collapse of Nixon’s presidency. The 30-something years following The Final Days saw Woodward and Bernstein turn into polar opposites. Woodward still works for The Washington Post and has authored and coauthored 12 books. Bernstein left the Post and has garnered more attention toward his social life and garish reputation.
Shepard writes regularly for People and the Washingtonian. She is a professor of journalism at American University in Washington, D.C. Shepard has earned three National Press Club awards for her media criticism in The American Journalism Review.
Left Bank Books is located at 399 N. Euclid Ave. in the Central West End. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Left Bank Books at (314) 367-6731 or visit www.left-bank.com.
