My newspaper career began as a correspondent then a reporter for The Berkshire Courier weekly in Great Barrington.
Attending municipal meetings and taking notes on activities was interesting. I got to know elected officials and sometimes phoned for more information. But I didnât like making cold phone calls. Or interviews. Shy from birth.
Nevertheless, I questioned magicians and stamp collectors, cartoonists and auto mechanics, naturists and naturalists, museum curators and mystery writers. But Pulitzer Prize and Academy Award-winning composer Aaron Copland (1900-1990)? What would I ask him?
Copland was in the Berkshires in July 1980 for his usual stint at Tanglewood. My publisher, Alan Copland, was a cousin of Aaron and arranged a lunch for the three of us at Wheatleigh in Stockbridge. I have no recollection of what we ate before we retired to a side room.