"In the first biography of Johnson, Vincent Fitzpatrick draws upon a wealth of archival material to chronicle the writer's service in the American Expeditionary Force during World War I, his tenure at the Greensboro Daily News, his experience as the first professor of journalism at the University of North Carolina and his years in Baltimore with the Evening Sun.

Fitzpatrick analyzes Johnson's commentary on the Scopes trial, denunciation of the Ku Klux Klan, defense of President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, criticism of Senator Joseph McCarthy, and battles with the Republican Party during President Eisenhower's two terms. He was, to borrow his own phrase, a "disturber of the peace."".

"Fitzpatrick brings this controversial essayist, journalist, editor, historian, biographer, and novelist vividly to life in all his diverse roles. The long and lively career of Gerald Johnson, whom Adlai Stevenson extolled as "the critic and conscience of our time," proves a significant part of the American record in the twentieth century."--BOOK JACKET.