Im grateful to Mario Cuomo for many things and for his countless expressions of friendship during the thirty-eight years I was privileged to know him. Among his many beneficences were the Introductions he wrote for my four previous anthologies for Fordham University Press. As Ive so often acknowledged, I am not at all deserving of his blessing, imprimatur, or generous friendship, especially when it comes to anything associated with scholarship, writing, or the mother tongue, the English language.
Two years after the governor left us we remember him as a deeply religious figure of insight, creativity, passion, and moral courage. As a lawyer, scholar, author, and governor of dazzlingly facile mind, he taught us how to think, how to write, how to feel, how to argue, and how to love.
This book, then, is meant only to resemble something of a letter to a friend I loved and admired. Call it a love letter if you will. And on this very subject, I was flattered beyond words to have received the following wholly undeserved piece, which was originally intended as a Foreword to a future book on which Im presently working and which is destined to be yet another anthology of interviews, editorials, musings, eulogies, and commentaries, my fifth such effort for Fordham University Press.
But this one is about Mario Cuomo, who has now departed for what Malcolm Wilson, the great Fordham orator (who also served as governor), once called another and, we are sure, a better world. And Im reminded that Mario spoke at several book parties that launched the publication of my earlier anthologies at the Maccioni familys iconic New York restaurant Le Cirque. At each star-studded event, several hundred showed up, including some real writers: Gay Talese, Peter Maas, Ken Auletta, Barbara Taylor Bradford, Richard Johnson, Phil Reisman, Emily Smith, Walter Cronkite, Cindy Adams, and Dan Rather. They came not to hear me but to be with Mario Cuomoexcept at the gathering for my most recent book, at which his wonderful and luminous daughter Maria Cuomo Cole filled in for her ailing dad. No one was disappointed as the graceful Maria read a lovely tribute to my poor literary work penned by her illustrious father.
And well before the publication of that next anthology I expect well have yet another lovely evening at Le Cirque provided by the Maccionis to mark the release of this memoir about Mario Cuomo, which my editors felt should take precedence over the planned anthology of interviews and commentaries. My only regret, of course, is that Mario himself wont be physically present for either one.
Please understand again that I imagine this book only as a memoir of a remarkable friendship, not as a formal biography. Nor is it intended as a political book. The following Foreword was actually written by Mario M. Cuomo himself for my next book. As you can see, Ive borrowed it for this love letter as yet another expression of that extraordinary friendship I treasure. It was his last gift to me. Im only sorry my writing, memory, and scholarship were not worthy of his friendship. Or of the great man himself.
BROTHER BILL
Bill OShaughnessys previous books were so good, I couldnt put them down.
His personal commentaries, written with casually elegant language, make you wish the whole country was hearing and reading his work. Actually, the whole world can now savor his genius thanks to the Internet and WVOX.com. He is a journalist, commentator, connoisseur, a strong political presence, and a forceful advocate of great causes.
During his remarkable fifty-year run as the permittee of WVOX and WVIP, OShaughnessy has used his great Gaelic gift of words, a sharp mind, deep conviction, and the capacity for powerful advocacy to inspire the fainthearted, guide the eager, and charm almost everyone he meets. As a broadcaster and author, he has written and spoken simple truths and powerful political arguments with a good heart.
As an interviewer, Bill OShaughnessy is a magic miner of fascinating nuggets coaxed from a host of extraordinarily interesting people, some of them celebrities and others previously undiscovered neighborhood gems. OShaughnessy is among a select few who create magic with their words. He always brings us a rich flow of genuine American opinions and sentiment.
Few people have as rich a talent for writing for the earCharles Kuralt and Charles Osgood, certainly. Also the late, legendary Paul Harvey. And Bill OShaughnessy.
He cant describe a scene as well as Jimmy Breslin. Hes not as easy a writer as Pete Hamill. But when hes on his game, Brother Bill is better than anyone on the air or in print.
We didnt always agree politically. But OShaughnessy has never lost his instinct for the underdog. He is a constant reminder of a Republican Party that was much better for this country.
Hes also an elegant, entertaining, and spellbinding speaker. He might have taken all these gifts and made himself a great political leader or a very rich captain of history. Instead, fifty years ago, he devoted himself to what then was a small and struggling radio station, and ever since then, thanks to his brilliance and dedication, hes created what has become his much-praised WVOX/Worldwide and the highly successful and innovative WVIP, where many different and emerging new voices are heard in the land.
Somebody said to me about his previous four books, Thats quite a body of good work OShaughnessy has put together, all while we were dazzled by his high style and glittering persona. I guess thats right. But it is not the body of work; its the soul of the work that I have always been more attracted to.
And thats what OShaughnessy does. He doesnt deliver homilies about it. Maybe he doesnt even know it fully. But he is a lover. He loves people. He loves understanding them. He loves not just the big shots, but he loves all the little people too. And you can see it, you can read it, you can
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