Holding onto Nothing

About the Book

HOLDING ONTO NOTHING is Gordon Bishop's first book, begun when he was 19 at the Iroquois Hotel in Manhattan and completed when he was 20 and working as a copywriter for a catalog house in Passaic, New Jersey.

In 1959, Mr. Bishop walked into THE HERALD-NEWS, Passaic, and got a job as a reporter. Soon after, he was writing his own general-interest column and winning awards: The New Jersey Press Association's Award for "Best Column" in 1965 and the NJPA's Award for "Best Reporting Against Deadlilne" in 1966.

A graduate of Rutgers University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, Mr. Bishop, as a student, became a good friend of his teacher, Paterson Poet Louis Ginsberg, father of the famous avant-garde poet Allen Ginsberg. As a result of their decade-long friendship, Mr. Bishop wrote two books on the Ginsbergs, the first a collection of essays (with pictures) entitled THE FIVE WORLDS OF ALLEN GINSBERG, and a biography, THE GINSBERGS: A FAMILY OF POETS, both of which are scheduled for publication later this year.

Mr. Bishop also co-authored a three-act play, THE PURPLE CANARY, dealing with corruption in public school systems and which was presented at the off-Broadway Midway Theater in Manhattan in 1963.

About the Author

He has produced 14 books over the past 45 years. He was electing into Who's Who in the World, and Who's Who in America. He has received 4 congressional commendations as a journalist, 15 state and national awards, NJ's 1st "Journalist-of-the-Year" 1986, nominated NJ Press association, nominated 5 times for the Pulitzer Prize, recipient of the Radio Club of America's "Excellence in Broadcasting" Internationally Syndicated columnist on the internet.

His latest book, Holding onto Noting, written when he was 18, is about his father and his family. His father died of a heart attache at 45 years old in 1956. When his father, a real estate broker, died in his arms, he left his home in New Jersey to study drama at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He did some commercials for television and magazines, and shared a room at the Iroquois Hotel, West 44th St., the same room where the actor James Dean lived for a year before making 3 popular movies and killed himself driving a racing car in September 1955. Dean had a strong impact on Bishop, as did author J.D. Salinger "Catcher in the Rye."