Common Ground (A Pictorial Review)

When David C. Scheper, former Harvard center turned attorney, was in Boston recently, he told me Common Ground by J. Anthony Lukas, was one of his favorite books, and asked me to describe how the Boston neighborhoods depicted in that book geographically relate to the parts of Boston with which he is more familiar.  Common Ground, a Turbulent Decade in theLives of Three American Families, won the Pulitzer in 1986 for its memorable depiction of three Boston families from very different backgrounds experiencing Boston school desegregation in the 1960s and 1970s.   My father, having worked with legendary judge W. Arthur Garrity in the U.S. Attorney’s Office (who later issued the decision that mandated school busing), was one of the first people Tony Lukas interviewed for the book, and I am very familiar with it.

Take a literary tour of Boston!

This map was a great idea but they should have asked me / readers for nominations! I can think of several books that should be on this list (not even including all the books affiliated with Concord). They did include Make Way for Ducklings and Joy Street but are missing Johnny Tremain and Maida and Mr. Bear Goes to Boston, and I would somehow have gotten in Lois Lowry's Anastasia, although I think she lives in Cambridge, and a mystery by Jane Langton. If I can include Cambridge, I would add Paper Chains and Death of a Harvard Freshman, first in a two book series I was crazy about.