Category Archives: Dwight D. Sutherland, Jr.

Here’s the letter I wrote to the Kansas City Star in 1998 after its hatchet job on me… It predictably created a firestorm because I dared to criticize the Star, one of my law firm – Lathrop & Gage’s – … Continue reading →

One could argue that it isn’t sporting to heap further abuse on the Kansas City Star, circling the drain as they are… However, their violation of every known standard of fairness over the years when they had a monopoly here … Continue reading →

Anything which would double a television network’s audience is bound to get our attention… That is exactly what happened with PBS after it screened the popular series “Downton Abbey,” three years ago.  Naturally the elitist cultural gate keepers dismissed it … Continue reading →

“The Way We Live Now” was the memorable title of an Anthony Trollope novel from the 1870’s.  It would apply just as aptly to the books of a contemporary author, Thomas M. Caplan. I had the pleasure of meeting Caplan … Continue reading →

Anyone who has lived in any community of any size for any length of time inescapably realizes there is an “In Crowd.”  By that term, I mean the people who not only make the decisions (financially, politically, culturally), but set … Continue reading →

Once more I’m in the unhappy position of writing harsh things about someone whose work otherwise has my unqualified admiration… Readers may recall my earlier piece on Whitney Terrell’s ‘The King of Kings County,’ a brilliant novel of manners set … Continue reading →

The scene was exactly the same for both events—the former bank lobby that is the first floor of the downtown Kansas City Public Library at 10th and Baltimore. Somewhere between eight hundred and a thousand people were crowded into its … Continue reading →

Whitney Terrell teaches creative writing at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, his home town and my own. His second novel; “The King of Kings County” has as its backdrop the same social terrain as his first, the well received “The … Continue reading →

In Robert Penn Warren‘s classic novel about American politics, “All The King’s Men”, the author created the character ‘Willie Stark’. a brilliant but ruthless demagogue inspired by Louisiana’s Huey Long. Stark orders a journalist supporter to dig up dirt on … Continue reading →

I wrote this book review last fall before the author, Barnaby Conrad, Jr. died. His son, the book’s editor, Barnaby Conrad, III is my brother-in-law. When I spoke to Steve Paul, the book review editor at the Kansas City Star, … Continue reading →