Overview

As a young journalist at the Brazil Herald from 1979-81, Stephen G. Bloom spent his formative years working in Rio’s seedy Lapa district, surrounded by expatriates, drug runners, and pornographers. Bloom shares the wild, untamed history of this Brazil-based English-language newspaper in The Brazil Chronicles. The newspaper was a breeding ground for a different kind of storyteller — audacious risk-takers who told madcap tales of Amazon plantations, Confederate emigres, and lost Indian tribes. Several major journalistic talents cut their teeth at the Brazil Herald, including acclaimed New York Times correspondent Tad Szulc, Huffington Post CEO Eric Hippeau, and the notorious Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson.    Drawing from extensive research and over 150 interviews with his former colleagues, Bloom’s exploration of the Brazil Herald is both entertaining and academically rigorous. The book also doubles as a coming-of-age memoir, following the young Bloom as he embarks on his quest to be a reporter, relocating to an entirely new country where he did not speak the local language, to pursue under-the-radar stories. His firsthand experience with the Brazil Herald allows him to provide an insider, eye-witness account of the paper’s colorful history, transporting the reader to its sweltering newsroom and delving into the lives of its staff members.    Even as he weaves between personal narrative, history, and accounts from other reporters, it remains clear who the book’s main character is: the trailblazing newspaper itself.

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9780826223159

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Reviews

"""The Brazil Chronicles takes us into a magic place and time when spunky young men and women yearning for the life of a foreign correspondent could find it in all its glory -- and risks -- near the languid beaches of one of the world's most beautiful cities, Rio de Janeiro. Stephen G. Bloom gives us a young reporter's eyewitness account of Latin America's largest country at a tumultuous time, even as he revels in the work he loves, but as the mature observer he is today. Bloom also renders a deeply researched history of ""expat"" newspapers serving an important U.S. ally, including their role in Cold War propaganda. A fine read.""-- Mary Jo McConahay, author of Playing God: American Catholic Bishops and the Far Right and The Tango War: The Struggle for the Hearts, Minds and Riches of Latin America During World War II ""An entertaining and enlightening journey, this deeply reported narrative unfolds through the eyes of a relatable and passionate Bloom, the older and wiser narrator reflecting upon the choices of his younger self with humor, affection, and remarkable candidness. Embedded within this engaging true tale, Bloom tugs at universal themes: coming of age, identity, the pull of ambition, the power of instinct, and delightful explorations into human nature.""--Erika Hayasaki, University of California, Irvine, author of Somewhere Sisters ""In his fun and informative homage to life as an ex-pat on an English language newspaper in Rio, Stephen Bloom explores a world teeming with vitality that might otherwise have been lost to the dustbins of history. Unexpected treats abound. On its own the correspondence in the early sixties between staff writer Hunter S. Thompson and Phil Graham, publisher of the Washington Post, is worth the price of admission, but there is so much more to admire, to mull and to hail in this recreation of life in what the author calls a ""rogue's paradise"" as a ragtag group of itinerant journalists live the dream of creating a global-minded newspaper in Latin America. They may have been doomed, but they are never dull. Must reading for anyone who loves newspapers, scoundrels, visionaries and a taut tale well told."" -- Madeline Blaise, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, author of To the New Owners ""In 1979 when 28-year-old Berkeley grad Stephen Bloom showed up in Sao Paulo, desperate for a newspaper job. Staying around for two years until the expat journalism party wound down, meeting a cast of unforgettable characters he likens to Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters and gathering the yarns that he tells with such verve now in this combination history-memoir, Bloom then returned home to find the U.S. news business in the early stages of its own death spiral. The Brazil Chronicles is lively to the point of eliciting belly laughs."" -- Bradley K. Martin, author of Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty ""Part memoir, part cautionary tale about the hazards of trying to publish an English-language daily newspaper in a foreign country, Stephen Bloom's The Brazil Chronicles is both entertaining and instructive. With its cast of misfits-ranging from neurotic dreamers and ambitious novices to hard-drinking swashbucklers and smooth glad-handers--it reads at times like a real-life version of satirical novels about journalism like Evelyn Waugh's Scoop or George Gissing's New Grub Street. But it also zeroes in on the internal conflicts inherent to putting out any newspaper, such as tensions between the business and reporting sides, as well as others that are unique to working under a military dictatorship. I was in Rio de Janeiro at the same time as Bloom, and this book, an engaging combination of thorough research and personal anecdotes, is chock-full of uproarious stories that I had never heard until now. Who knew that Hunter S. Thompson did a stint in Brazil, perfecting the maniacal antics and style that later made him a literary star?""-- Larry Rohter, Brazil correspondent, Newsweek, 1977 to 1982, The New York Times, 1998 to 2008, author of Into the Amazon ""Steeped in facts and tropical heat, this memoir will make you young. A budding journalist in 1960s Brazil uncovers a world of expats and adventurers in a historically fraught time. Reading it made me want to have a caipirinha in Copacabana with this vivid storyteller.""--Andrei Codrescu, NPR commentator, author of Too Late for Nightmares: New Poems"

"""An entertaining and enlightening journey, this deeply reported narrative unfolds through the eyes of a relatable and passionate Bloom, the older and wiser narrator reflecting upon the choices of his younger self with humor, affection, and remarkable candidness. Embedded within this engaging true tale, Bloom tugs at universal themes: coming of age, identity, the pull of ambition, the power of instinct, and delightful explorations into human nature.""--Erika Hayasaki, University of California, Irvine, author of Somewhere Sisters"

"""The Brazil Chronicles takes us into a magic place and time when spunky young men and women yearning for the life of a foreign correspondent could find it in all its glory -- and risks -- near the languid beaches of one of the world's most beautiful cities, Rio de Janeiro. Stephen G. Bloom gives us a young reporter's eyewitness account of Latin America's largest country at a tumultuous time, even as he revels in the work he loves, but as the mature observer he is today. Bloom also renders a deeply researched history of ""expat"" newspapers serving an important U.S. ally, including their role in Cold War propaganda. A fine read.""-- Mary Jo McConahay, author of Playing God: American Catholic Bishops and the Far Right and The Tango War: The Struggle for the Hearts, Minds and Riches of Latin America During World War II ""An entertaining and enlightening journey, this deeply reported narrative unfolds through the eyes of a relatable and passionate Bloom, the older and wiser narrator reflecting upon the choices of his younger self with humor, affection, and remarkable candidness. Embedded within this engaging true tale, Bloom tugs at universal themes: coming of age, identity, the pull of ambition, the power of instinct, and delightful explorations into human nature.""--Erika Hayasaki, University of California, Irvine, author of Somewhere Sisters"

""Steeped in facts and tropical heat, this memoir will make you young. A budding journalist in 1970s Brazil uncovers a world of expats and adventurers in a historically fraught time. Reading it made me want to have a caipirinha in Copacabana with this vivid storyteller.""--Andrei Codrescu, NPR commentator, author of Too Late for Nightmares: New Poems ""The Brazil Chronicles takes us into a magic place and time when spunky young men and women yearning for the life of a foreign correspondent could find it in all its glory--and risks--near the languid beaches of one of the world's most beautiful cities, Rio de Janeiro. Stephen G. Bloom gives us a young reporter's eyewitness account of Latin America's largest country at a tumultuous time, even as he revels in the work he loves, but as the mature observer he is today. Bloom also renders a deeply researched history of ""expat"" newspapers serving an important U.S. ally, including their role in Cold War propaganda. A fine read.""-- Mary Jo McConahay, author of Playing God: American Catholic Bishops and the Far Right and The Tango War: The Struggle for the Hearts, Minds and Riches of Latin America During World War II ""In his fun and informative homage to life as an ex-pat on an English language newspaper in Rio, Stephen Bloom explores a world teeming with vitality that might otherwise have been lost to the dustbins of history. Unexpected treats abound. On its own the correspondence in the early sixties between staff writer Hunter S. Thompson and Phil Graham, publisher of the Washington Post, is worth the price of admission, but there is so much more to admire, to mull and to hail in this recreation of life in what the author calls a ""rogue's paradise"" as a ragtag group of itinerant journalists live the dream of creating a global-minded newspaper in Latin America. They may have been doomed, but they are never dull. Must reading for anyone who loves newspapers, scoundrels, visionaries and a taut tale well told.""-- Madeline Blaise, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, author of To the New Owners ""In this head-spinning ""celebration of what newspapers were and will never be again,"" you'll meet a rowdy assemblage of social-justice crusaders, swindlers, bon vivants, revolutionaries, CIA operatives, and itinerant journalists of all kinds, not to mention a world-famous bank robber, a future Hollywood star and a fledgling reporter named Hunter S. Thompson. And at the center of it all, banging away on his broken Olivetti typewriter in a dingy newsroom in Rio de Janeiro, is a marvelous storyteller named Stephen G. Bloom.""-- Miles Harvey, author of Registry of Lost Objects, King of Confidence, and The Island of Lost Maps ""In 1979 when 28-year-old Berkeley grad Stephen Bloom showed up in Sao Paulo, desperate for a newspaper job. Staying around for two years until the expat journalism party wound down, meeting a cast of unforgettable characters he likens to Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters and gathering the yarns that he tells with such verve now in this combination history-memoir, Bloom then returned home to find the U.S. news business in the early stages of its own death spiral. The Brazil Chronicles is lively to the point of eliciting belly laughs.""-- Bradley K. Martin, author of Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty ""Part memoir, part cautionary tale about the hazards of trying to publish an English-language daily newspaper in a foreign country, Stephen Bloom's The Brazil Chronicles is both entertaining and instructive. With its cast of misfits-ranging from neurotic dreamers and ambitious novices to hard-drinking swashbucklers and smooth glad-handers--it reads at times like a real-life version of satirical novels about journalism like Evelyn Waugh's Scoop or George Gissing's New Grub Street. But it also zeroes in on the internal conflicts inherent to putting out any newspaper, such as tensions between the business and reporting sides, as well as others that are unique to working under a military dictatorship. I was in Rio de Janeiro at the same time as Bloom, and this book, an engaging combination of thorough research and personal anecdotes, is chock-full of uproarious stories that I had never heard until now. Who knew that Hunter S. Thompson did a stint in Brazil, perfecting the maniacal antics and style that later made him a literary star?""-- Larry Rohter, Brazil correspondent, Newsweek, 1977 to 1982, The New York Times, 1998 to 2008, author of Into the Amazon ""Reading The Brazil Chronicles is like sitting with a bunch of foreign correspondents in some seedy bar drinking questionable local booze as they boast, brag, bust balls and raise hell between deadlines. In his two years in Brazil, Stephen Bloom rode the rails of newspaper's golden age, and witnessed the initial stages of print journalism's calamitous demise. This book is a newspaperman's account of a newspaperman's life and dreams. Filled with egos, ruthless competition, exaggeration and envy--elements of the air inside any newsroom--The Brazil Chronicles is a first draft of what newspapers once were, and an evergreen profile of the men and women who got off on the clack of typewriters, the smell of ink and the crazy adrenaline of deadlines."" -- Anthony DePalma, former New York Times foreign correspondent; author of The Cubans, The Man Who Invented Fidel, and Here ""An entertaining and enlightening journey, this deeply reported narrative unfolds through the eyes of a relatable and passionate Bloom, the older and wiser narrator reflecting upon the choices of his younger self with humor, affection, and remarkable candidness. Embedded within this engaging true tale, Bloom tugs at universal themes: coming of age, identity, the pull of ambition, the power of instinct, and delightful explorations into human nature.""--Erika Hayasaki, University of California, Irvine, author of Somewhere Sisters

"""Steeped in facts and tropical heat, this memoir will make you young. A budding journalist in 1970s Brazil uncovers a world of expats and adventurers in a historically fraught time. Reading it made me want to have a caipirinha in Copacabana with this vivid storyteller.""--Andrei Codrescu, NPR commentator, author of Too Late for Nightmares: New Poems ""The Brazil Chronicles takes us into a magic place and time when spunky young men and women yearning for the life of a foreign correspondent could find it in all its glory--and risks--near the languid beaches of one of the world's most beautiful cities, Rio de Janeiro. Stephen G. Bloom gives us a young reporter's eyewitness account of Latin America's largest country at a tumultuous time, even as he revels in the work he loves, but as the mature observer he is today. Bloom also renders a deeply researched history of ""expat"" newspapers serving an important U.S. ally, including their role in Cold War propaganda. A fine read.""-- Mary Jo McConahay, author of Playing God: American Catholic Bishops and the Far Right and The Tango War: The Struggle for the Hearts, Minds and Riches of Latin America During World War II ""In his fun and informative homage to life as an ex-pat on an English language newspaper in Rio, Stephen Bloom explores a world teeming with vitality that might otherwise have been lost to the dustbins of history. Unexpected treats abound. On its own the correspondence in the early sixties between staff writer Hunter S. Thompson and Phil Graham, publisher of the Washington Post, is worth the price of admission, but there is so much more to admire, to mull and to hail in this recreation of life in what the author calls a ""rogue's paradise"" as a ragtag group of itinerant journalists live the dream of creating a global-minded newspaper in Latin America. They may have been doomed, but they are never dull. Must reading for anyone who loves newspapers, scoundrels, visionaries and a taut tale well told.""-- Madeline Blaise, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, author of To the New Owners ""In this head-spinning ""celebration of what newspapers were and will never be again,"" you'll meet a rowdy assemblage of social-justice crusaders, swindlers, bon vivants, revolutionaries, CIA operatives, and itinerant journalists of all kinds, not to mention a world-famous bank robber, a future Hollywood star and a fledgling reporter named Hunter S. Thompson. And at the center of it all, banging away on his broken Olivetti typewriter in a dingy newsroom in Rio de Janeiro, is a marvelous storyteller named Stephen G. Bloom.""-- Miles Harvey, author of Registry of Lost Objects, King of Confidence, and The Island of Lost Maps ""In 1979 when 28-year-old Berkeley grad Stephen Bloom showed up in Sao Paulo, desperate for a newspaper job. Staying around for two years until the expat journalism party wound down, meeting a cast of unforgettable characters he likens to Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters and gathering the yarns that he tells with such verve now in this combination history-memoir, Bloom then returned home to find the U.S. news business in the early stages of its own death spiral. The Brazil Chronicles is lively to the point of eliciting belly laughs.""-- Bradley K. Martin, author of Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty ""Part memoir, part cautionary tale about the hazards of trying to publish an English-language daily newspaper in a foreign country, Stephen Bloom's The Brazil Chronicles is both entertaining and instructive. With its cast of misfits-ranging from neurotic dreamers and ambitious novices to hard-drinking swashbucklers and smooth glad-handers--it reads at times like a real-life version of satirical novels about journalism like Evelyn Waugh's Scoop or George Gissing's New Grub Street. But it also zeroes in on the internal conflicts inherent to putting out any newspaper, such as tensions between the business and reporting sides, as well as others that are unique to working under a military dictatorship. I was in Rio de Janeiro at the same time as Bloom, and this book, an engaging combination of thorough research and personal anecdotes, is chock-full of uproarious stories that I had never heard until now. Who knew that Hunter S. Thompson did a stint in Brazil, perfecting the maniacal antics and style that later made him a literary star?""-- Larry Rohter, Brazil correspondent, Newsweek, 1977 to 1982, The New York Times, 1998 to 2008, author of Into the Amazon ""Reading The Brazil Chronicles is like sitting with a bunch of foreign correspondents in some seedy bar drinking questionable local booze as they boast, brag, bust balls and raise hell between deadlines. In his two years in Brazil, Stephen Bloom rode the rails of newspaper's golden age, and witnessed the initial stages of print journalism's calamitous demise. This book is a newspaperman's account of a newspaperman's life and dreams. Filled with egos, ruthless competition, exaggeration and envy--elements of the air inside any newsroom--The Brazil Chronicles is a first draft of what newspapers once were, and an evergreen profile of the men and women who got off on the clack of typewriters, the smell of ink and the crazy adrenaline of deadlines."" -- Anthony DePalma, former New York Times foreign correspondent; author of The Cubans, The Man Who Invented Fidel, and Here ""An entertaining and enlightening journey, this deeply reported narrative unfolds through the eyes of a relatable and passionate Bloom, the older and wiser narrator reflecting upon the choices of his younger self with humor, affection, and remarkable candidness. Embedded within this engaging true tale, Bloom tugs at universal themes: coming of age, identity, the pull of ambition, the power of instinct, and delightful explorations into human nature.""--Erika Hayasaki, University of California, Irvine, author of Somewhere Sisters"

Author Information

Stephen G. Bloom worked as a reporter at the Los Angeles Times, Dallas Morning News, San Jose Mercury-News, and Sacramento Bee before becoming a professor at the University of Iowa. The author of six award-winning nonfiction books, including Postville; The Oxford Project; The Audacity of Inez Burns; Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes; and Tears of Mermaid, in 2020 he was named journalism professor of the year by the Society of Professional Journalists.

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