Includes coverage of the Harrisburg Seven Trial and the Hurricane Agnes Flood
of 1972
June 8, 2022—-Cambridge Common Press is pleased to announce the June launch of The View From Third Street.
Written by national journalist Anita M. Harris, The View From Third Street tells ofHarris’ post-college adventures in cofounding the Harrisburg Independent Press— an alternative newspaper published in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania throughout the 1970s.
HIP was conceived in conjunction with the Trial of the Harrisburg Seven—in which anti-Vietnam-war nuns and priests were accused of conspiring to kidnap Henry Kissinger and blow up underground heating tunnels in Washington, DC. (True story!)
Like the many other underground and alternative newspapers of the 1960s and 1970s, HIP covered civic, consumer, national and international issues–many with parallels in the unrest we are experiencing today.
In this unconventional memoir, Harris traces, from the point of view of Ani, her 23-year-old self, HIP’s founding, the Harrisburg Seven Trial, and the devastating Flood of 1972, which left 124 people dead. Interwoven, with humor and puzzlement, are stories of Ani’s love relationship, her coverage of poverty and social injustice, and HIP’s reporting on topics ranging from dirty movies to slave labor, heroin sales, racial discrimination, a burgeoning feminist movement, and abortion rights.
The View from Third Street includes rarely seen photos and cartoons from the early 1970’s, including several pages of photos taken during the Flood of 1972.
Harris wrote The View from Third Street to show how individuals impact and are impacted by clashing forces of history, she says. “I also aim to show how the journalistic search for truth can make a difference. I hope the book will provide support and inspiration for a renewed quest for peace and freedom, today.”
Harris notes with humor that the building at 1004. N. Third Street that housed HIP in the tumultuous early 1970s is now an ice cream shop called “Urban Churn.” And that although former Pennsylvania Governor Milton J. Shapp was her cousin, she is not related to Harrisburg’s 18th century founder, John Harris.
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After her experiences in Harrisburg, Harris went on to report for Newsday, WRFM Radio, and MacNeil Lehrer (now the NewsHour) of PBS. After completing a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard, she taught journalism at Harvard, Yale and Simmons Universities and authored two non-fiction books: Broken Patterns: Professional Women and the Quest for a New Feminine Identity (WSU Press) and Ithaca Diaries (Cambridge Common Press). She is currently managing director of the Harris Communications Group, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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For journalists: Harris is available for interview and would welcome reviews. She would be happy to provide downloadable pdfs or ebooks. Paperback review copies are currently on order.
The View From Third Street is available in paperback and ebook formats at Amazon $15.99. It may also be ordered via Cambridge Common Press (http://cambridgecommonpress.com) or by contacting anitamharris@comcast.net
ISBN 979-8-9862002-0-0
283 pages
6 x 0.71 x 9 inches
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Contact:
Anita Harris, Author/Publisher
Cambridge Common Press
Anita.M.Harris@harriscom.com
W. 617-576-0906
M. 617-504-5802