STAY OF EXECUTION - A Sort of Memoir

Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott. Very Good. 1973. First Edition; First Printing. Hardcover. Autograph; 312 pages; A wonderful association copy twixt two legendary Washington journalists. Inscribed and Signed by the author on the halftitle -- "To Mr. Rowland Evans, / with best regards and / much admiration. / Stewart Alsop / Washington, December, 1973" Clean and secure in original blue cloth binding with silver lettering at spine. In pp. 103-104, Alsop recounts his friend Evans' exorting him to attend "reportorial lunches" (often at the Metropolitan Club), getting together to exchange this and that bit of information, intelligence or gossip with such comrades as Arthur Schlesinger, Ray Cline, Jack English, Hy Raskin, or Winston Lord; intelligent men well-placed and well-informed. PROVENANCE: Rowland Evans was a provocative newspaper columnist, commentator and author who antagonized liberal politicians and championed conservative causes. He left Yale and enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1942 during World War II and was discharged in 1944 because of malaria. In 1963, Mr. Evans and Mr. Novak began writing ''Inside Report,'' an insider's view of politics that was published four times a week until Mr. Evans retired in 1993. Mr. Evans and Robert Novak began their work as columnists in the early 1960's, a time when newspaper columnists wielded outsize influence in national politics. The pair pioneered in transferring that influence to the medium of cable television with the political discussion program ''Evans & Novak'' -- carried on CNN from that cable network's beginning. Rowland Evans and his wife Kay (Katherine Winton Evans), also a respected writer and editor, were mainstays on the Washington social scene, hosting many memorable gatherings in their handsome Georgetown house -- to which flocked influential and remarkable people drawn from journalism, politics and general society over the decades from the 1960s to the 2000s. Both Evans and Novak became more predictably conservative over the years, particularly during the Reagan years. Reportedly, both columnists voted for JFK in 1960 and for Lyndon Johnson in 1964. Evans earned a place on Richard Nixon's infamous "Enemies List." Novak reported that Evans had JFK as a guest for the first dinner party the latter attended as President Elect. Kay and Rowland Evans has a particularly close friendship with Robert F. Kennedy, his wife Ethel and their family. Stewart J. O. Alsop (1914 – 1974) was an American newspaper columnist and political analyst. In World War II, Alsop was sent on a mission planned by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Alsop was parachuted into the Périgord region of France to aid the French Resistance. Alsop worked with and for the OSS for the rest of the war. He was later awarded the Croix de Guerre with Palm for his work. After the War, Stewart Alsop was co-writer, with his brother Joseph, of the thrice-weekly "Matter of Fact" column for the New York Herald Tribune. Stewart usually stayed in Washington and covered domestic politics, and Joseph traveled the world to cover foreign affairs. After the Alsop brothers ended their partnership, Stewart went on to write articles and a regular column for the Saturday Evening Post until 1968 and then a weekly column for Newsweek from 1968 to 1974. ; Signed by Author .