Robert Sherrill

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Robert Sherrill is an American investigative journalist and longtime contributor to The Nation, Texas Observer, and many other magazines over the years including Playboy, the New Republic and the New York Times Magazine.^[1]

Sherrill was born in Georgia, and served on a merchant ship off Japan at the end of World War II. He was educated at the University of Texas, taught English at schools including Texas A&M University. A lasting influence was the Syracuse University philosopher T. V. Smith who preached a commitment to public service.

He was formerly a reporter for the Miami Herald, the Austin American-Statesman, the weekly Texas Observer, and Washington Post. As the Washington Correspondent and then Corporations Correspondent for The Nation, his efforts got him banned from the White House landed him on the master list of Nixon political opponents. He lived for a long time on Capitol Hill, and made friends with some lawmakers. He also worked for Isaac Stone as a staff writer for his weekly, but soon parted ways.

Sherrill has authored numerous books on politics and society, including his Hubert Humphrey biography The Drugstore Liberal (1968), Military Justice Is To Justice as Military Music Is To Music (1970), The Saturday Night Special (1973), The Last Kennedy (1976) and The Oil Follies of 1970-1980: How the Petroleum Industry Stole the Show (And Much More Besides) (1983). His biography of Lyndon Johnson, "The Accidental President", had a run on the best sellers list. He also wrote Gothic Politics in the Deep South and the textbook Why They Call it Politics: A Guide to America's Government.

Long a resident of Washington, D.C., he later moved to Tallahassee, Florida. In his latter years, his writing has principally been confined to book reviews.