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A Proud Memoir from 'The Prince of Darkness'

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Book Tour is a new Web feature and podcast. Each week, we present leading authors of fiction and nonfiction as they read from and discuss their work.

Robert Novak's new memoir, The Prince of Darkness, chronicles the columnist and commentator's singular career — in 2001, he received the National Press Club's Fourth Estate Award for lifetime achievement in journalism — and gives his take on the Washington political scene that has been his turf for five decades.

"The Prince of Darkness" is the nickname a fellow reporter gave Novak for his pessimistic outlook on the future when he was a young journalist covering politics at The Wall Street Journal.

Despite that moniker, Novak, who converted to Catholicism from Judaism 11 years ago, insists he has an optimistic view of his purpose: "The Lord has a mission for me, and I'm trying to fulfill it."

Optimist or no, Novak may be best known for his willingness to court controversy. He even calls himself "a stirrer-up of strife;" the phrase comes from Dante's Inferno, and Novak says it describes the "proper role for a journalist," even if it's not always a comfortable one.

He writes that his 2003 column revealing the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame — and the firestorm that followed — involved some particularly uncomfortable times.

"I came under constant abuse from journalistic ethics critics, from some colleagues, and especially from bloggers," Novak writes. "I have written many, many more important columns, but the one on the CIA leak case will forever be part of my public identity."

The author was again in the spotlight when he walked off the set of CNN's Inside Politics after a run-in with Democratic strategist James Carville. Novak says his 25-year relationship with the cable network had already been undermined by his part in the Plame affair, and he retired from CNN shortly thereafter. He's now a familiar face on Fox News and a commentator for Bloomberg News.

Novak follows his own brand of conservative politics. Born into a family who opposed FDR's New Deal, he nonetheless cast his vote for John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1960s. Now, while he believes in what he calls "limited government, low taxes, and individual economic freedom," he has drawn ire from hard-line Republicans for his stand against the war in Iraq.

Still, Novak stands proudly by his journalistic philosophy — namely, "to tell the world things people do not want me to reveal, to advocate limited government, economic freedom, and a strong, prudent America — and to have fun doing it."

And yes, he means "fun."

"For the sober-sided younger generations of journalists, having fun may seem unserious," he writes. "But ... I had a terrific time fulfilling all my youthful dreams and at the same time making life miserable for hypocritical, posturing politicians and, I hope, performing a service for my country."

This reading of The Prince of Darkness took place in July 2007 at the Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Linda Kulman
Linda Kulman, the editor of NPR.org’s weekly feature Book Tour, is an avid reader, veteran journalist and writer living in Washington, D.C. She worked as a senior writer at U.S. News & World Report for a decade, where she reported for every section of the magazine. Most recently, she covered religion and consumer culture. Kulman’s book reviews have appeared in The Washington Post and on NPR.org. She has collaborated on four non-fiction books, working with a variety of notable figures. Early on in her career, she worked for several years as a fact checker at The New Yorker. Kulman also earned a degree from Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism.