The String Book of Ron Leys Journalist

Back in the day many reporters and columnists kept a folder or big envelope in a desk drawer. Whenever he or she wrote something that might impress a future prospective employer it was clipped and saved in this folder or envelope. This was known as a string book.The phrase was borrowed from the common term for free-lance writers who were paid by the column inch of published material. They were known as stringers from the old practice of pasting together their published stories in sort of a string which could then be measured and submitted for payment monthly or otherwise. Staffers on the other hand were paid by the week or for part-timers by the hour.In the fall of 1959 an English professor at the University of Wisconsin suggested that I consider becoming a professional writer. My career thus far had included a hitch in the United States Navy followed by several years as a construction worker and truck driver.Just before my GI Bill eligibility expired I enrolled at the UW. Taking the professor's advice I majored in journalism. I met a fellow journalist Marilyn Shapiro and we married.During the summer of 1961 I interned at The Rockford Morning Star in northern Illinois.On completion of college I became a full time reporter there.In 1969 I went to work for The Milwaukee Journal. I worked as a copy editor reporter nature columnist suburban editor and outdoor editor.I retired in 1991 although I wrote freelance columns for the Journal's Sunday magazine and later for an independent magazine The Wisconsin Outdoor Journal.When that ended it was over. It turned out that I only wrote for the money. When they stopped paying me. I stopped writing. Although it probably had more to do with losing an audience. That was always the point writing for readers.