The James Logan Courier

James was working as a tenor sax sideman with jazz legend Jimmy Scott when he penned this book, which was written in hotel rooms, vans, airports and on New York City buses. He had been a journalist for eight years when at age 30, he quit his job as a Washington Post feature writer and moved to New York to pursue music. He slept on mattresses, played in blues bands, taught ESL to Polish refugees, and played weddings on Long Island. While struggling through self-described "unsettled angst" he came to realize that the key to his search lay behind the story of the most interesting person he'd ever known in his life -- and the person he loved the most -- his own mother. He set about interviewing Ruth McBride Jordan and searching out her mysterious past, a process that took 14 years and resulted in a book that is regarded as a landmark work and an American classic. Says McBride of The Color of Water: "If I had known so many people were going to read that book, I would've written a better book."

“Packy was overflowing with love for his fellow man. He had been a guest of the United States Government for twelve years, four months, and two days. But because he had served over 85 percent of his sentence and been a model prisoner, the parole board had reluctantly granted Packy his freedom as of November 12, which was only two weeks away.”