• The 9/11 Commission Report The 9/11 Commission Report From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch – October 18, 2004 The book begins, “Tuesday, September 11, 2001, dawns temperate and nearly cloudless in the eastern United States. Millions of men and women
• The 9/11 Commission Report
The 9/11 Commission Report
From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch – October 18, 2004
The book begins, “Tuesday, September 11, 2001, dawns temperate and nearly cloudless in the eastern United States. Millions of men and women readied themselves for work. Some made their way to the twin towers, the signature structures of the World Trade Center complex in New York.”
That’s the lead sentence in the official report of the 9/11 commission, a surprise best-seller that this week was honored with an even bigger surprise: a nomination for a National Book Award as the best nonfiction book of the year. The awards, among the top honors in American letters, will be presented Nov. 17.
Government reports usually are not praised for narrative drama and compelling prose. This one, like last year’s report into the shuttle Columbia tragedy, is different. In both cases, the commission members decided to make their work accessible to the greatest number of readers, and realized that the best way to do that was to make it interesting.
What a concept: Important writing doesn’t have to be boring writing.
Philip D. Zelicow, a University of Virginia historian who served as the commission’s executive director, parceled out the work to staff members, insisting on “direct and concise” writing that was “readable, but not dumbed down.” Some 80 staff members collaborated on the project, Mr. Zelicow said, with no one staff member serving as its guiding muse.
The 9/11 commission has four distinguished competitors for the nonfiction prize, won previously by such luminaries as Bruce Catton, Robert A. Caro and Gore Vidal. But as practitioners ourselves of the craft of collaborative writing, we’re hoping the $10,000 prize is split 80 ways.
