Finding Out the Whole Story

Peter L.W. Osnos ’60 was 14 years old when he first arrived at Cheshire Academy in January 1958. Having skipped eighth grade, he was a year younger than most of his peers living in Horton Hall, but that didn’t stop him from creating countless memories throughout his tenure at the school.

The late ’50s and early ’60s were a different time at Cheshire Academy. Arthur Sheriff was still headmaster at the then all-boys school. Ties and jackets were required, and classes were held on Saturday mornings. Osnos doubted he ever saw a newspaper, and he did not have access to a television. Students were prohibited from talking to town girls, and report cards were issued weekly.

Osnos, a longtime reporter, editor, and publisher—including founder of the publishing house PublicAffairs and former publisher of the Times Books imprint at Random House—detailed his time at Cheshire Academy, as well as the many experiences he had from birth to present day, in his memoir, “An Especially Good View: Watching History Happen.”

Looking back, Osnos said CA took him out of one world and brought him into another.

“Growing up in New York, I was part of a very much defined universe in New York City,” reflected Osnos. “...At Cheshire, I was in a world that was much more varied, with people from all over the country, literally all over the world. In retrospect, what I really think was important was the way Cheshire gave me the opportunity to know that not everything is easy and smooth.”

Maybe you, the reader, recall Osnos from the section in the library that dons his name. Since 2003, Osnos has donated books published by PublicAffairs—more than 350 to date—for students to enjoy, learn, and grow from.

Or maybe the name Osnos rings a bell if you are a member of the Class of 2003. Osnos returned to CA as the guest Commencement speaker that year. It was then when he compared the CA of 2003 to CA of 1958-1960, pointing out what was and what was not available to him on campus. The beginning of his address, in part, reflected, “Well, what has changed in these 40 years is not so much what we have in the world of information or entertainment and ideas, but how much of it … we have. And what this means is that each of you has a whole lot more choices and more responsibility for making them than your parents or grandparents did.”

Osnos’ career took him around the world, starting in Rhode Island and Washington D.C., and later to London, to Vietnam to cover the war, to the Soviet Union, back to D.C. during the Carter and Reagan eras, and to Great Britain when Margaret Thatcher was prime minister. At Random House and PublicAffairs, he published books written by four presidents ( Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump), and works about countless other political figures and well-known athletes, among others.

Osnos in Vietnam, 1971

As for the impetus behind his memoir, it all started with a conversation with a family member.

“My grandson said to me one day, about three to four years ago, ‘You should tell me about your family in World War II.’ I said, ‘It’s our family.’ And that’s when I realized if I didn’t get out there and find out the whole story, it was gone,” recalled Osnos. “But I decided not to do it just from memory, but to report most of this … The memoir was as much a reporting project as it was anything else.”

Osnos also incorporated a digital aspect to his memoir, found at www.anespeciallygoodview.com. There, readers can find images and documents relative to the content in the book, providing them with a deeper understanding of Osnos’ life.

Cheshire Academy’s chapter comes early in Osnos’ memoir, right before sections on his college careers at Brandeis University and later The Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University. It’s interesting to see what’s changed at CA, as well as to recognize that some things which were prominent in the 1960s—small class sizes, a diverse student body, and a student-centered educational model— remain true today.

Osnos had a crash course in life in the spring of 1960, during his senior year, when he was denied admission to the University of Pennsylvania. Osnos “ran away.” He left campus after stuffing his bed with pillows to appear as if he was there and boarded a bus to New Haven. “I had never been turned down from anything before,” Osnos reflected. “I was 16 or 17 years old, and I had to confront something that I had never had to before. I was rejected, and that really got to me.”

Being denied admission, and other challenging experiences—both academically and socially— helped Osnos to grow as an individual and learner. “I’ve always thought that for a young person to be challenged in those high school years, challenged by something that they didn’t expect, is actually a big plus.”

In “An Especially Good View,” Osnos recalls the names of former classmates, including Michael Smith, Robert Goldfine, and Joe Heaslip, the last of which Osnos considered his best friend while at CA. He also looks back upon his extracurriculars at CA, which remain similar to what is at CA today. He was the features editor of the school newspaper, worked on The Rolling Stone yearbook (which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year!), and served on the Christian chapel committee, Glee Club, and school band.

In the clubs section of The Rolling Stone circa 1960, Osnos is listed as feature editor for The Academy Review.

“I think (Cheshire Academy) gave me an education in two ways,” Osnos continued. “It gave me an education in the classroom, and it gave me an education in a way that’s important for high schoolers, which is how to deal with the world you find yourself in. All of us came from some place. The good thing about a place like Cheshire is people come from every place.”

"An Especially Good View" can be found at local bookstores, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.