Buchanan, Edna interview

Permanent Link:: http://dpanther.fiu.edu/dpService/dpPurlService/purl/MBVM000010/00001

Material Information

Subjects / Keywords:: Oral histories -- Miami Beach (Fla.)
Miami Beach (Fla.)--History--20th century--Journalism
Miami (Fla.)--History--20th century--News Reporting
Genre:: Video Recordings
Spatial Coverage:: United States -- Florida -- Miami Beach
Coordinates:: 25.790858 x -80.138311

Scope and Content:: Edna Buchanan has had an illustrious career as a crime reporter and novelist. In 1986 she won the Pulitzer Prize for her "versatile" reporting of crime for The Miami Herald. Her training ground was as a "girl reporter" for the Miami Beach Sun. She talks about covering the society, police and city hall beats, often with overlapping stories. She became especially adept at reacting fast to breaking police news and tells of an incident in which she arrived on a crime scene and in her eagerness to report the story barged in on a crime in progress. She describes some of the pranks the Miami Beach Police played on her but how she was such a good sport she won their respect, which contributed to her later success. She talks about many colorful characters on Miami Beach and her quasi-friendship with the notorious “Murph the Surf” jewel thief.