Margaret Mitchell considered the title ``Tomorrow is Another Day'' among others, before settling on ``Gone With the Wind.''
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So you if you can’t judge a book by its cover, can you judge it by its title?
If the early rumbling is any indication, a volcano has erupted over Mark Leibovich’s new book ``This Town’’ , which takes a hard look inside the nation’s capital, where the streets are paved with gold; assuming, of course, you’re on the right talk shows, rub the right elbows, and dance in the most powerful circles D.C. has to offer. Such blatant cynicism extends to reporters, bloggers, cable shows and members of the new media, who rather than representing dispassionate observers have become co-opted into the celebrity culture or carnival atmosphere that has become so endemic in Washington these days.
Since the book was released, the chief national correspondent for The New York Times’ Magazine has faced heaps of biting criticism from his contemporaries and members of the Washington elite, questioning his audacity for exposing the unwritten rules or codes of Washington reporting when he’s a member of the club himself.
``Washington has been transformed by wealth and the new media more than any other city in the world’’, Leibovich recently told Charlie Rose. As long as you gain a reputation for being a Washington insider, Leibovich reasons, you can hawk your services to any lobbying firm or media outlet for a pretty penny. Such a culture perpetuates a sense of mediocrity.
``This Town’’ doesn’t merely focus on reporters and the media but includes tough love critiques of the entire Washington elite, including the politicians themselves.
Washington is increasingly become a town where you come to get rich rather than devote yourself to a life of public service. This wasn’t true 20 or 30 years ago, Leibovich observed. Citing one example to the PBS host, Leibovich offers up Robert Gibbs, the former press secretary to President Obama, who since leaving his post in 2011, has racked up about $2 million in speaking fees.
Explaining just how corrupted the culture of Washington can be for any new arrivals, Leibovitch points out that Barack Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, who came to Washington as the 44th president of the United States, hoping to be an ``agent of change’’-in the end-fell victim to Washington changing him, more, much more, than Obama changed Washington. An extremely poignant commentary on the crippling culture in the nation’s capital. And many wonder why voters have become so cynical of Washington.
``Washington has become extremely self-satisfied at a time when the country has become increasingly dissatisfied’’ Leibovich informed Rose.
During his Charlie Rose interview, Leibovich said he thought about a number of titles for the book before settling on ``This Town.’’ Curious what other titles he considered, I immediately shot off an email to the Times’ national correspondent. He replied, writing that he kicked around a few titles: ``One was “Suck Up City” “You’ll Always Eat Lunch in this Town Again” was another. And also “The Club.”
This got me to thinking of other famous books whose authors pondered several titles before deciding on that one magical title that eventually propelled them into national and international best sellers.
Here, then, are some of my favorites:
Original Title: ``At This Point in Time''
Published Title: ``All The President's Men’’ (1974)
Authors: Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein
Original Title: ``Tomorrow is Another Day''; also ``Tote the Weary Load'', ``Milestones’’, ``Jettison’’, ``Ba! Ba! Black Sheep’’, ``None so Blind’’, ``Not in Our Stars'' and ``Bugles Sang True''
Published Title: ``Gone with the Wind (1936)
Author: Margaret Mitchell
Original Title: ``Before This Anger''
Published Title: ``Roots’’ (1976)
Author: Alex Haley
Original Title: ``Great White, ``The Shark’’, ``Leviathan Rising’’, ``The Jaws of Death.’’
Published Title: ``Jaws’’ (1974)
Author: Peter Benchley
Original Title: ``Catch-18’’
Published Title: ``Catch-22’’ (1961)
Author: Joseph Heller
Original Title: ``Four-and-a Half Years of Struggle against Lies, Stupidity, and Cowardice.’’
Published Title: ``Mein Kampf’’ (My Struggle)-1925
Author: Adolf Hitler.
Original Title: "Beyond the Birds and Bees"
Published Title: "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex’’ (But Were Afraid to Ask) -1969
Author: Dr. David Reuben.
Original Title: ``All’s Well That Ends Well''
Published Title: ``War and Peace’’ (1866)
Author: Leo Tolstoy
Original Title: ``Incident at West Egg''; also ``Among Ash Heaps and Millionaires'', ``Trimalchio in West Egg'', ```On the Road to West Egg'', ``Gold-Hatted Gatsby'' and ``The High-Bounding Lover''
Published Titles: ``The Great Gatsby’’ (1925)
Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
Original Title: ``First Impressions’’
Published Title: ``Pride and Prejudice’’ (1813)
Author: Jane Austen
Original Title of Play: ``The Moth’’ and ``The Poker Night’’
Published Title: ``A Streetcar Named Desire’’ (1947)
Author Tennessee Williams
Original Title: ``Mag's Diversion’’; also ``The Copperfield Disclosures’’, ``The Copperfield Records’’, ``The Copperfield Survey of the World as It Rolled’’ and ``Copperfield Complete’’
Published Title: David Copperfield (1849)
Author: Charles Dickens
Original Title: ``Alice's Adventures Underground’’
Published Title: ``Alice's Adventures in Wonderland’’ (1865)
Author: Lewis Carroll
Original Title: ``Paul Morel’’
Published Title: ``Sons and Lovers’’ (1913)
Author: D.H. Lawrence
Original Title: ``The Romantic Egotist’’
Published Title: ``This Side of Paradise’’ (1920)
Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
Original Title: ``Fiesta''; also ``The Lost Generation'', ``River to the Sea'', `` Two Lie Together'', and ``The Old Leaven''
Published Title: ``The Sun Also Rises’’ (1926).
Author: Ernest Hemingway
Original Title: ``Salinas Valley’’
Published Title: `` East of Eden’’ (1952)
Author: John Steinbeck
Original Title: ``Proud Flesh’’
Published Title: ``All the King's Men'' (1946)
Author: Robert Penn Warren
Original Title: ``Something That Happened’’
Published Title: ``Of Mice and Men (1937)
Author: John Steinbeck
Original Title: ``They Don't Build Statues to Businessmen’’
Published Title: ``Valley of the Dolls’’ (1966)
Author: Jacqueline Susann
Original Title of Poem: ``He Do The Police in Different Voices.’’
Published Title: ``The Waste Land’’ (1922)
Author: T.S. Eliot
Original Title: ``If Wishes Were Horses’’
Published Title: ``From Here to Eternity’’ (1951)
Author: James Jones
Original Title: ``Bar-B-Q?!’’
Final Title: The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934)
Author: James M. Cain
-Bill Lucey
July 18, 2013
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