Mark Whitaker is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir, My Long Trip Home, and Smoketown. The former managing editor of CNN Worldwide, he was previously the Washington bureau chief for NBC News and a reporter and editor at Newsweek, where he rose to become the first African-American leader of a national newsweekly.

Breaking Barriers

In an excerpt from ‘Cosby,’ biographer Mark Whitaker describes Cosby’s reaction to his friend Bob Culp’s death and his triumphant moment receiving the Mark Twain Prize.