﻿1
00:00:01,201 --> 00:00:17,250
♪ Book Lust theme music ♪

2
00:00:20,120 --> 00:00:22,522
-Hello and welcome back 
to Book Lust.

3
00:00:22,522 --> 00:00:23,990
I'm Nancy Pearl.

4
00:00:23,990 --> 00:00:27,961
My guest today is Brad
Bigelow, who is both a writer

5
00:00:27,961 --> 00:00:33,633
and an editor and an unearther
of books that he believes

6
00:00:33,633 --> 00:00:36,636
and I believe
should be reissued.

7
00:00:36,703 --> 00:00:39,706
Brad, thank you so much
for coming on the show.

8
00:00:40,373 --> 00:00:42,609
-Thank you so much for inviting
me, Nancy.

9
00:00:42,609 --> 00:00:44,044
This is such a treat.

10
00:00:44,044 --> 00:00:47,414
-I was really interested,
of course, in your brand new

11
00:00:47,414 --> 00:00:50,917
book, “Virginia Faulkner:
A Life in Two Acts,”

12
00:00:51,217 --> 00:00:54,220
because in many ways,
it seems to me that

13
00:00:54,587 --> 00:00:58,458
it encapsulates
your mission in life.

14
00:00:59,759 --> 00:01:02,762
Because Virginia Faulkner,
I certainly

15
00:01:02,762 --> 00:01:04,664
had never heard of her.

16
00:01:04,664 --> 00:01:08,735
And it turns out
when I read the book

17
00:01:09,002 --> 00:01:12,005
that she's
this fascinating woman

18
00:01:12,505 --> 00:01:17,343
who was seen by many
as the next Dorothy Parker.

19
00:01:17,644 --> 00:01:20,413
She was a...
she wrote a novel. She—

20
00:01:20,413 --> 00:01:23,416
I mean, she had this
fascinating life.

21
00:01:23,616 --> 00:01:26,619
And how come
I never heard of her?

22
00:01:26,653 --> 00:01:28,922
And how did you discover her?

23
00:01:30,523 --> 00:01:32,725
-Well, thanks for that.

24
00:01:32,725 --> 00:01:37,363
I know I've been writing about
neglected books for—

25
00:01:37,464 --> 00:01:39,132
I mean, it's been my passion,
honestly.

26
00:01:39,132 --> 00:01:39,866
I mean, I went to the

27
00:01:39,866 --> 00:01:42,001
University of Washington
there in Seattle,

28
00:01:42,001 --> 00:01:45,405
and I used to cruise up
and down the stacks

29
00:01:45,405 --> 00:01:47,006
of Suzzallo Library,

30
00:01:47,006 --> 00:01:50,009
which is an amazing world
resource.

31
00:01:50,110 --> 00:01:52,979
And just pulling out books
that I didn't recognize.

32
00:01:52,979 --> 00:01:55,715
And through that, I discovered

33
00:01:55,715 --> 00:01:58,718
early on, just
as an undergraduate, that I

34
00:01:58,952 --> 00:02:00,987
that there were a lot of books
in the world

35
00:02:00,987 --> 00:02:04,591
that were not the ones
that were on the course

36
00:02:04,591 --> 00:02:08,261
syllabus and the reading lists
or in the surveys.

37
00:02:08,928 --> 00:02:09,863
They were not,

38
00:02:09,863 --> 00:02:12,866
you know, the recognized
great works of literature,

39
00:02:13,032 --> 00:02:15,969
but they were still great
books,

40
00:02:15,969 --> 00:02:18,638
good reading experiences,
learning, well-written,

41
00:02:18,638 --> 00:02:20,106
well-crafted, whatever.

42
00:02:20,106 --> 00:02:22,242
And they just, you know,

43
00:02:22,242 --> 00:02:24,477
didn't have the good luck
of getting recognized.

44
00:02:24,477 --> 00:02:28,414
So for many years,
I kind of was on the hunt

45
00:02:28,414 --> 00:02:29,916
and have ever since
been looking

46
00:02:29,916 --> 00:02:33,720
for these kinds of books and
one that I had heard about,

47
00:02:34,387 --> 00:02:37,757
and this is probably 
almost 20 years ago,

48
00:02:38,791 --> 00:02:41,961
was this book called—and it
probably didn't show up well,

49
00:02:41,995 --> 00:02:46,466
but it's called “My Hey-Day,”
which is purported

50
00:02:46,499 --> 00:02:48,434
to be
the memoirs of a character

51
00:02:48,434 --> 00:02:52,205
named Princess Tulip Murphy,
as told to Virginia Faulkner.

52
00:02:52,205 --> 00:02:57,110
I read this book,
and it's become my habit

53
00:02:57,110 --> 00:02:59,012
whenever I read a book

54
00:02:59,012 --> 00:03:01,347
and I find it, you know,
particularly interesting,

55
00:03:01,347 --> 00:03:02,882
I will look a little bit

56
00:03:02,882 --> 00:03:06,853
about the author
and his or her story.

57
00:03:07,320 --> 00:03:09,155
And when I looked at
Virginia Faulkner,

58
00:03:09,155 --> 00:03:09,822
there was very

59
00:03:09,822 --> 00:03:12,058
little reference material
about her.

60
00:03:12,058 --> 00:03:15,061
But you do
see in one of these kind of

61
00:03:15,962 --> 00:03:18,932
assemblages of author

62
00:03:18,998 --> 00:03:20,934
biographies
that are in the reference

63
00:03:20,934 --> 00:03:23,703
sections
of a lot of libraries,

64
00:03:23,703 --> 00:03:25,905
there is a little,
you know, half

65
00:03:25,905 --> 00:03:29,409
page blurb
synopsis of her biography.

66
00:03:29,409 --> 00:03:34,314
And it said she went to
this school in Rome.

67
00:03:34,314 --> 00:03:36,416
She went to Radcliffe,

68
00:03:36,416 --> 00:03:38,418
she worked
for The Washington Post.

69
00:03:38,418 --> 00:03:40,453
She published several novels.

70
00:03:40,453 --> 00:03:41,988
She worked for MGM.

71
00:03:41,988 --> 00:03:46,259
She had a Broadway show,
and then she's an editor,

72
00:03:46,259 --> 00:03:47,193
editor in Lincoln,

73
00:03:47,193 --> 00:03:50,196
Nebraska, at the University
of Nebraska Press.

74
00:03:50,296 --> 00:03:51,297
And that seemed like

75
00:03:51,297 --> 00:03:55,134
such a strange left
turn to take in a career.

76
00:03:55,802 --> 00:03:58,938
I did no further research
at that point,

77
00:03:58,938 --> 00:04:00,473
but it always stuck
in my head.

78
00:04:00,473 --> 00:04:03,643
And when I went to

79
00:04:03,943 --> 00:04:06,512
I retired from NATO
and I went to grad school

80
00:04:06,512 --> 00:04:09,949
at the University of East
Anglia in Norwich, England,

81
00:04:10,783 --> 00:04:12,452
in a biography program.

82
00:04:12,452 --> 00:04:14,587
And I was looking for
subjects.

83
00:04:14,587 --> 00:04:18,124
Well, the pandemic hit
and all of these subjects

84
00:04:18,124 --> 00:04:19,959
I had been considering
that would have required

85
00:04:19,959 --> 00:04:22,061
archival research
I had to set aside.

86
00:04:22,061 --> 00:04:22,695
So I went back

87
00:04:22,695 --> 00:04:23,463
and looked at

88
00:04:23,463 --> 00:04:25,365
Virginia Faulkner
because a lot of stuff

89
00:04:25,365 --> 00:04:28,368
I could find online
and I found people

90
00:04:28,368 --> 00:04:31,904
I could contact who were
tremendous in sharing material.

91
00:04:32,372 --> 00:04:35,108
And I yeah,
I started to realize

92
00:04:35,108 --> 00:04:38,311
what an interesting life
this was

93
00:04:39,012 --> 00:04:42,448
over and above the value
of her writing, you know,

94
00:04:42,448 --> 00:04:44,984
and I think that was sort
of one of the breakthroughs

95
00:04:44,984 --> 00:04:45,952
that I had in writing

96
00:04:45,952 --> 00:04:49,822
this book was it's not a
traditional literary biography

97
00:04:49,822 --> 00:04:50,957
because I'm not really trying

98
00:04:50,957 --> 00:04:53,960
to show how
her life illuminated her work.

99
00:04:54,694 --> 00:04:57,096
She just had
an interesting story.

100
00:04:57,096 --> 00:04:57,897
And of course,

101
00:04:57,897 --> 00:04:59,432
part of her interesting story

102
00:04:59,432 --> 00:05:02,468
was the fact that she sort of
had a midlife crisis

103
00:05:02,468 --> 00:05:05,405
that involved dealing with her
alcoholism and depression.

104
00:05:05,405 --> 00:05:08,708
And that is probably
some of the reasons

105
00:05:08,708 --> 00:05:11,711
why she ended up back
in Lincoln, Nebraska.

106
00:05:12,078 --> 00:05:16,382
And I think quite remarkably
rebuilt her life.

107
00:05:16,382 --> 00:05:17,850
And I think that's

108
00:05:17,850 --> 00:05:19,619
one of the reasons
I wanted to call it “A Life

109
00:05:19,619 --> 00:05:22,922
in Two Acts,” as it goes
back to the F. Scott Fitzgerald

110
00:05:22,922 --> 00:05:26,292
quotation, which was included
in “The Last Tycoon,”

111
00:05:26,793 --> 00:05:30,763
about there are no second
acts in American lives, and

112
00:05:32,298 --> 00:05:33,599
that's simply untrue

113
00:05:33,599 --> 00:05:35,568
In the case of Virginia Faulkner.

114
00:05:35,568 --> 00:05:38,671
She and I think
is particularly relevant

115
00:05:38,671 --> 00:05:42,208
in terms of Fitzgerald's
use of that.

116
00:05:42,542 --> 00:05:45,511
You know, the fact that
that was his statement

117
00:05:45,945 --> 00:05:48,781
because he, of course,

118
00:05:48,781 --> 00:05:52,485
spiraled into alcoholism,
even though he wasn't drinking

119
00:05:52,485 --> 00:05:53,152
right at the end.

120
00:05:53,152 --> 00:05:56,989
But he ruined his health
and he ruined his career

121
00:05:56,989 --> 00:05:58,991
because he was an alcoholic.

122
00:05:58,991 --> 00:05:59,592
And there were

123
00:05:59,592 --> 00:06:01,427
many other writers associated

124
00:06:01,427 --> 00:06:02,195
with Hollywood

125
00:06:02,195 --> 00:06:05,198
in those days who followed
the same trajectory.

126
00:06:05,298 --> 00:06:08,401
And instead of going down
that path, Virginia Faulkner

127
00:06:09,001 --> 00:06:10,470
goes back to Nebraska.

128
00:06:10,470 --> 00:06:15,775
She takes a complete, totally,
you know, not very noteworthy job.

129
00:06:15,775 --> 00:06:17,777
In fact,
I quote a line that she tells

130
00:06:17,777 --> 00:06:18,945
with some writer that,

131
00:06:18,945 --> 00:06:21,948
you know, the writer will get
at the end of the project...

132
00:06:21,948 --> 00:06:25,051
The writer gets his
or her name on the cover.

133
00:06:25,351 --> 00:06:27,854
The editor just
gets older and more tired.

134
00:06:29,989 --> 00:06:32,859
And, you know, and she devoted

135
00:06:32,859 --> 00:06:35,862
she I mean,
she saw the opportunity to

136
00:06:36,696 --> 00:06:40,233
bring back numerous writers
and most notably

137
00:06:40,500 --> 00:06:44,070
the work of Willa Cather,
who she considered to be the—

138
00:06:44,103 --> 00:06:44,771
and she I mean,

139
00:06:44,771 --> 00:06:48,107
it was very much her mission
to bring Willa Cather back.

140
00:06:48,374 --> 00:06:50,476
Well, to bring Willa
Cather to the level

141
00:06:50,476 --> 00:06:52,812
of being recognized
as a great world writer.

142
00:06:52,812 --> 00:06:57,784
-I didn't know about your,
your degree in biography.

143
00:06:57,817 --> 00:07:00,787
What, what draws you to that?

144
00:07:00,787 --> 00:07:01,788
-That’s a good question.

145
00:07:01,788 --> 00:07:06,092
I think, for one thing,
I'm fascinated by other lives.

146
00:07:06,125 --> 00:07:10,596
I mean, I am in constant
really in

147
00:07:10,596 --> 00:07:13,599
in awe of the choices
people make

148
00:07:14,467 --> 00:07:17,403
because, you know, life
doesn't come with a roadmap

149
00:07:17,403 --> 00:07:19,372
or a set of instructions
no matter how

150
00:07:19,372 --> 00:07:22,375
many self-help books
get published every year,

151
00:07:23,142 --> 00:07:25,778
we don't have a map of

152
00:07:25,778 --> 00:07:28,781
how to navigate
our way through life.

153
00:07:28,848 --> 00:07:29,415
And so I

154
00:07:29,415 --> 00:07:32,552
always find it illuminating
to see how other people took

155
00:07:32,552 --> 00:07:33,920
on these challenges.

156
00:07:33,920 --> 00:07:37,557
-Are you thinking about doing
another another

157
00:07:37,557 --> 00:07:41,928
biography or like, constantly
think about somebody or.

158
00:07:43,229 --> 00:07:46,466
-I have a number of subjects
I'd like to deal with.

159
00:07:46,466 --> 00:07:50,603
I think the next book project
I'm working on at the moment

160
00:07:50,937 --> 00:07:53,973
is sort of more of a
I don't want to call it

161
00:07:53,973 --> 00:07:56,209
a group biography,
because a group biography

162
00:07:56,209 --> 00:08:00,179
typically implies that there's
a groupness to the authors.

163
00:08:00,446 --> 00:08:05,618
But I am a huge fan of what
are known as pre-code movies.

164
00:08:05,618 --> 00:08:07,653
The movies
that Hollywood produced

165
00:08:07,653 --> 00:08:10,790
in the first
five years of talking pictures

166
00:08:11,023 --> 00:08:13,926
when there was relatively
loose enforcement

167
00:08:13,926 --> 00:08:16,929
of the morality codes
and things like that.

168
00:08:17,530 --> 00:08:20,933
And the thing that I'm most
I mean, there's a lot of stuff

169
00:08:20,933 --> 00:08:23,936
written about pre-code movies
on the film side,

170
00:08:24,303 --> 00:08:28,474
but what no one seems to have
drawn attention to

171
00:08:28,508 --> 00:08:32,011
is the fact that at that time,
when movies

172
00:08:32,011 --> 00:08:36,682
went from silent
to sound, the studios

173
00:08:36,682 --> 00:08:40,486
needed films that they could
stuff full of dialogue.

174
00:08:40,786 --> 00:08:44,357
And that meant that they
at that time

175
00:08:44,590 --> 00:08:49,161
they used far more heavily
than any time afterwards,

176
00:08:49,161 --> 00:08:54,433
they used magazine stories,
Broadway plays and novels,

177
00:08:54,901 --> 00:08:58,271
and in many cases, the novels
or the writers

178
00:08:58,271 --> 00:09:01,574
responsible for those kind of
got played up as stars

179
00:09:01,574 --> 00:09:05,311
as much as the stars
on the screen.

180
00:09:05,711 --> 00:09:08,347
And then there was also
this period where there was

181
00:09:08,347 --> 00:09:08,781
I mean, this

182
00:09:08,781 --> 00:09:12,385
was the height of magazine
readership in America,

183
00:09:12,685 --> 00:09:15,488
you know, The Saturday
Evening Post and Liberty

184
00:09:15,488 --> 00:09:18,391
and Cosmopolitan
and all of these magazines

185
00:09:18,391 --> 00:09:20,226
that were coming out
every week

186
00:09:20,226 --> 00:09:24,397
stuffed full of short stories
and serialized novels.

187
00:09:24,664 --> 00:09:27,667
Newspapers
were serializing novels.

188
00:09:28,034 --> 00:09:31,871
And it's just that
sort of ecosystem that was

189
00:09:31,871 --> 00:09:35,908
going on at that unique period
where there are even

190
00:09:35,908 --> 00:09:40,513
I found cases where writers
on the payroll of Hollywood

191
00:09:40,513 --> 00:09:45,585
studios wrote novels that
got serialized in newspapers

192
00:09:46,819 --> 00:09:48,287
just to sort of provide

193
00:09:48,287 --> 00:09:51,290
another marketing outlet
for the movie.

194
00:09:51,691 --> 00:09:53,659
So that I find that's
an interesting one.

195
00:09:53,659 --> 00:09:56,829
And there's some interesting
writers of that period.

196
00:09:57,063 --> 00:10:00,032
Ursula Parrott is one
whose novel

197
00:10:00,633 --> 00:10:04,036
“Ex-Wife” has come back and been
pretty well celebrated

198
00:10:04,036 --> 00:10:05,938
because Marsha Gordon
has written

199
00:10:05,938 --> 00:10:08,975
a biography of Ursula Parrott,
who is a fascinating woman.

200
00:10:08,975 --> 00:10:12,878
But there were a lot of others:
Vina Delmar, Katharine Brush,

201
00:10:12,878 --> 00:10:15,648
Faith Baldwin;

202
00:10:15,648 --> 00:10:20,453
just a remarkable series
of writers who were extremely

203
00:10:20,453 --> 00:10:25,458
commercially successful
and popular and not junk,

204
00:10:25,458 --> 00:10:27,026
I would say,
I am not interested in it

205
00:10:27,026 --> 00:10:27,660
because they're junk,

206
00:10:27,660 --> 00:10:30,930
but so that's kind of my
I've got to still figure,

207
00:10:31,130 --> 00:10:31,897
as you can see,

208
00:10:31,897 --> 00:10:34,467
I haven't perfected
my elevator speech of that.

209
00:10:34,467 --> 00:10:37,003
(laughter)

210
00:10:37,003 --> 00:10:39,939
-Now I know I'm
glad you haven't perfected it,

211
00:10:40,172 --> 00:10:41,374
because that was

212
00:10:41,374 --> 00:10:43,976
that was just the kind
of thing I wanted to hear.

213
00:10:43,976 --> 00:10:47,313
Faith Baldwin was

214
00:10:47,313 --> 00:10:50,282
one of
those was one of those writers

215
00:10:50,483 --> 00:10:54,854
that is a little bit of a
a little bit of a shock.

216
00:10:55,254 --> 00:10:58,491
-I mean, yeah, she was,
I would say, quality-wise,

217
00:10:58,491 --> 00:11:03,396
she's on the bleeding edge
of the spectrum of formulaic,

218
00:11:03,396 --> 00:11:05,431
workmanlike prose junk,

219
00:11:05,431 --> 00:11:07,266
junk stuff
because she produced

220
00:11:07,266 --> 00:11:10,036
a phenomenal rate
and for decades.

221
00:11:10,036 --> 00:11:11,470
-Yeah. Yes.

222
00:11:11,470 --> 00:11:16,108
And did the studios then
bring in—like William Faulkner

223
00:11:16,609 --> 00:11:19,679
wrote, you know, wrote
for the movies and of course,

224
00:11:21,313 --> 00:11:23,182
you know,

225
00:11:23,182 --> 00:11:25,618
F. Scott Fitzgerald 
wrote for the movies.

226
00:11:25,618 --> 00:11:27,820
We know all about that.

227
00:11:27,820 --> 00:11:30,756
-There were many who,

228
00:11:30,756 --> 00:11:33,693
you know, came out
to Hollywood and stuck their

229
00:11:33,693 --> 00:11:36,095
toe in the water
and said, “Thanks,

230
00:11:36,095 --> 00:11:39,198
but I'm happy with my life
on the East Coast

231
00:11:39,799 --> 00:11:42,802
and I can make
plenty of money and

232
00:11:42,802 --> 00:11:44,036
I'm not going to do that.”

233
00:11:44,036 --> 00:11:47,039
But they were they're happy
to sell the film rights,

234
00:11:47,339 --> 00:11:49,675
but they let somebody else
do the adaptation.

235
00:11:49,675 --> 00:11:52,344
-Yeah. Oh, my gosh.

236
00:11:52,344 --> 00:11:52,812
Listen,

237
00:11:52,812 --> 00:11:54,580
we have to hurry up
and finish this

238
00:11:54,580 --> 00:11:57,216
so you can get to work on that
book.

239
00:11:57,216 --> 00:12:00,953
I think that's
a fascinating idea.

240
00:12:01,287 --> 00:12:05,124
-I don't see anybody has
kind of followed that thread.

241
00:12:05,357 --> 00:12:09,428
-No. -You know, and the studios
had literary editors

242
00:12:09,829 --> 00:12:13,833
who were sitting in New York
just ferociously reading books

243
00:12:13,833 --> 00:12:14,934
and writing reports

244
00:12:14,934 --> 00:12:19,939
and buying properties
because they were so desperate

245
00:12:21,774 --> 00:12:23,075
for material

246
00:12:23,075 --> 00:12:26,445
and the cycle was so fast.

247
00:12:26,445 --> 00:12:28,013
So like

248
00:12:28,013 --> 00:12:31,851
two of the best known actors
and terrific actors

249
00:12:31,851 --> 00:12:34,920
and actresses from that time,
Joan Blondell and James

250
00:12:34,920 --> 00:12:39,658
Cagney
were appearing in a play,

251
00:12:39,658 --> 00:12:43,229
actually
based on a German story.

252
00:12:43,229 --> 00:12:46,232
But it was a play in

253
00:12:47,533 --> 00:12:50,536
it was appearing on Broadway
called Penny Arcade,

254
00:12:51,203 --> 00:12:55,841
and it was picked up
as a property, and it came out

255
00:12:55,841 --> 00:12:58,110
like six months later
with the two of them.

256
00:12:58,110 --> 00:12:59,845
It was both of their first

257
00:12:59,845 --> 00:13:02,848
screen appearances in a movie
called Sinners' Alley.

258
00:13:03,916 --> 00:13:06,652
And yeah, I mean, it just like

259
00:13:06,652 --> 00:13:09,655
that cycle was happening
all the time.

260
00:13:10,356 --> 00:13:13,125
-I just finished recently
reading

261
00:13:13,125 --> 00:13:17,062
a novel called “The Original,”
which is and

262
00:13:17,196 --> 00:13:20,566
looks at a particular period
in Katharine Hepburn's life.

263
00:13:20,866 --> 00:13:23,702
And I think that it's a novel
that you would not

264
00:13:23,702 --> 00:13:24,937
be disappointed in.

265
00:13:24,937 --> 00:13:29,642
It's pretty wonderful because
it's that period in a way.

266
00:13:29,642 --> 00:13:32,311
And one of the things
that I didn't know

267
00:13:32,311 --> 00:13:35,748
is that The Philadelphia
Story was a play.

268
00:13:35,748 --> 00:13:39,518
-Yeah, Philip Barry. 
-And yes, and that Howard

269
00:13:39,518 --> 00:13:43,289
Hughes bought it
for Katharine Hepburn,

270
00:13:43,289 --> 00:13:46,692
and that's
what was her comeback film.

271
00:13:47,059 --> 00:13:49,929
So that all fits in so well.

272
00:13:49,929 --> 00:13:52,765
Oh Brad, you must do that.

273
00:13:52,765 --> 00:13:54,400
All right, so

274
00:13:55,668 --> 00:13:57,336
with with your

275
00:13:57,336 --> 00:14:00,339
your neglected books,

276
00:14:01,740 --> 00:14:04,009
writing about those books

277
00:14:04,009 --> 00:14:06,946
and choosing some books

278
00:14:06,946 --> 00:14:09,949
to be reprinted,

279
00:14:10,349 --> 00:14:12,184
do you have some interesting

280
00:14:12,184 --> 00:14:15,187
ones coming up?

281
00:14:15,421 --> 00:14:16,021
-Yeah.

282
00:14:16,021 --> 00:14:17,456
Well,
I'll probably let me highlight

283
00:14:17,456 --> 00:14:19,358
one that won't come out
until next year,

284
00:14:19,358 --> 00:14:22,561
and it's going to be
a real bear to produce.

285
00:14:24,697 --> 00:14:26,866
This is a book I came across.

286
00:14:26,866 --> 00:14:27,867
I was

287
00:14:27,867 --> 00:14:28,200
you know,

288
00:14:28,200 --> 00:14:28,868
I spend

289
00:14:28,868 --> 00:14:31,871
a ridiculous amount of time
looking at old book reviews

290
00:14:31,871 --> 00:14:34,707
and newspapers and magazines
and things like that.

291
00:14:34,707 --> 00:14:38,310
And as I said, it's often
the, it's often

292
00:14:38,310 --> 00:14:39,445
not the one that says

293
00:14:39,445 --> 00:14:42,481
this is a great novel
that catches my eye, right?

294
00:14:42,581 --> 00:14:44,149
I mean, sometimes it's
sort of like

295
00:14:44,149 --> 00:14:46,352
this is an odd way
to write a book,

296
00:14:46,352 --> 00:14:50,656
which sort of sets off my
spidey sense, so to speak.

297
00:14:51,724 --> 00:14:53,559
So I was looking and I saw

298
00:14:53,559 --> 00:14:55,327
this, and I want to
I want to say

299
00:14:55,327 --> 00:14:57,396
it was like
an Indianapolis newspaper.

300
00:14:57,396 --> 00:14:57,997
It was anyway,

301
00:14:57,997 --> 00:15:01,000
it was about a professor
who is giving a talk

302
00:15:01,967 --> 00:15:05,371
in, say, '37 and '38,
something like that

303
00:15:05,371 --> 00:15:08,674
about the great novels
of World War One.

304
00:15:09,575 --> 00:15:15,214
And he mentions or it's
mentioned in that article,

305
00:15:15,214 --> 00:15:17,283
that his assessment
of the best

306
00:15:17,283 --> 00:15:21,520
American novel of World
War One was Mary

307
00:15:21,520 --> 00:15:23,389
Lee's “It's a Great War!”

308
00:15:25,324 --> 00:15:27,192
And I went “huh”?

309
00:15:27,259 --> 00:15:29,695
I mean, I actually studied

310
00:15:29,695 --> 00:15:31,230
the literature of World
War One

311
00:15:31,230 --> 00:15:32,798
when I was an undergraduate,

312
00:15:32,798 --> 00:15:35,401
and I thought I knew it
pretty well right

313
00:15:35,401 --> 00:15:37,603
then, and numerous books
written about,

314
00:15:37,603 --> 00:15:39,538
you know, Paul Fussell's

315
00:15:39,538 --> 00:15:41,507
“The Great War
and Modern Memory”

316
00:15:41,507 --> 00:15:42,408
is one of the best,

317
00:15:42,408 --> 00:15:45,411
you know, works of sort of
historical criticism around.

318
00:15:45,978 --> 00:15:48,981
And it just completely drew
a blank.

319
00:15:48,981 --> 00:15:52,184
And I looked into it
and I found out that it was

320
00:15:52,184 --> 00:15:53,118
this novel written

321
00:15:53,118 --> 00:15:57,122
by an American woman who
had gone over with the YWCA

322
00:15:58,791 --> 00:16:00,092
to run

323
00:16:00,092 --> 00:16:03,562
canteens
for the GIs for the Doughboys

324
00:16:04,196 --> 00:16:07,199
and written a novel
that came out in ‘29.

325
00:16:07,199 --> 00:16:12,137
And it was actually considered
for the Pulitzer Prize.

326
00:16:12,137 --> 00:16:13,339
But the Pulitzer Prize

327
00:16:13,339 --> 00:16:16,642
committee backed off
because they were a little bit

328
00:16:17,242 --> 00:16:21,780
there was sort of pressure
from the American Legion and

329
00:16:23,115 --> 00:16:27,553
not to push, because it is
so candid about

330
00:16:28,220 --> 00:16:31,023
the reality of war
and the fact that not

331
00:16:31,023 --> 00:16:34,493
all of our soldiers
were were great heroes

332
00:16:34,493 --> 00:16:37,496
and that it was an ugly,
you know, experience.

333
00:16:37,696 --> 00:16:40,532
And so I tracked it down.

334
00:16:40,532 --> 00:16:42,001
It's quite a long novel.

335
00:16:42,001 --> 00:16:44,970
So it's like 600 pages long.

336
00:16:45,037 --> 00:16:47,439
I mean,
in impressionistic prose,

337
00:16:47,439 --> 00:16:50,542
in impressionistic prose,
so there's lots

338
00:16:50,542 --> 00:16:52,211
of ellipses in it,

339
00:16:52,211 --> 00:16:55,781
but it's very much stream
of consciousness as

340
00:16:56,281 --> 00:16:59,885
it's experienced by this woman
who is clearly a

341
00:16:59,885 --> 00:17:02,521
fictional counterpart
for Mary Lee, the author.

342
00:17:03,689 --> 00:17:04,189
But it's

343
00:17:04,189 --> 00:17:07,426
vivid and it's compelling.

344
00:17:07,693 --> 00:17:09,695
And, you know,
you don't feel like,

345
00:17:09,695 --> 00:17:11,730
my gosh, there's 600 pages.

346
00:17:11,730 --> 00:17:12,631
You're just—

347
00:17:12,631 --> 00:17:16,235
it's such an in-the-moment
kind of book.

348
00:17:16,268 --> 00:17:19,138
It is so terrific.

349
00:17:19,138 --> 00:17:21,807
And so it came out in '29.

350
00:17:21,807 --> 00:17:24,810
In '30, it got good reviews,

351
00:17:24,910 --> 00:17:27,546
certainly was considered
for the Pulitzer,

352
00:17:27,546 --> 00:17:30,349
but it just fell off
the face of the earth.

353
00:17:30,349 --> 00:17:33,352
It's been out of print
since 1930

354
00:17:34,153 --> 00:17:36,321
and and

355
00:17:36,321 --> 00:17:38,524
virtually
nobody knows about it.

356
00:17:38,524 --> 00:17:40,893
And so we're going
to bring that one back.

357
00:17:40,893 --> 00:17:43,729
And I you know, I think it's

358
00:17:43,729 --> 00:17:46,498
it's a good example
of the kinds of books

359
00:17:46,498 --> 00:17:48,100
that we're looking for.

360
00:17:48,100 --> 00:17:48,934
I look for

361
00:17:48,934 --> 00:17:53,539
for the Recovered Books series,
which is, first and foremost,

362
00:17:53,539 --> 00:17:56,542
it's a well-written,
well-constructed book.

363
00:17:57,309 --> 00:17:58,877
It's a compelling read.

364
00:17:58,877 --> 00:18:01,313
You know, it's a contemporary
reader can pick it up

365
00:18:01,313 --> 00:18:04,316
and not feel like
they're slogging through

366
00:18:04,550 --> 00:18:07,519
an outdated, archaic text.

367
00:18:07,519 --> 00:18:10,022
It's also something that

368
00:18:11,423 --> 00:18:12,591
fills what I

369
00:18:12,591 --> 00:18:15,661
would call a hole
in that jigsaw puzzle.

370
00:18:15,661 --> 00:18:17,529
And I know you're a big jigsaw
puzzle

371
00:18:17,529 --> 00:18:19,965
fan and and, you know, the

372
00:18:19,965 --> 00:18:20,632
the I

373
00:18:20,632 --> 00:18:23,735
look at many of these things
that we're doing as filling

374
00:18:23,735 --> 00:18:26,972
missing pieces in the jigsaw
puzzle of literature.

375
00:18:28,207 --> 00:18:30,042
You know, that the impression

376
00:18:30,042 --> 00:18:33,045
that the stuff
that you can find in print,

377
00:18:33,412 --> 00:18:37,549
the stuff that's covered
in the surveys of literature,

378
00:18:37,749 --> 00:18:39,084
that that's all there is.

379
00:18:39,084 --> 00:18:42,387
There is
such a misleading idea.

380
00:18:42,754 --> 00:18:47,292
-Is there a biographer, Brad,
that you always turn to

381
00:18:47,459 --> 00:18:50,829
with great anticipation
and are never disappointed?

382
00:18:51,630 --> 00:18:54,133
-Well, Robert Caro,
let's let's face it.

383
00:18:54,133 --> 00:18:55,334
-Yeah.

384
00:18:55,334 --> 00:18:57,369
-He's incredible.

385
00:18:57,369 --> 00:18:59,204
The research.

386
00:18:59,204 --> 00:19:01,440
You know,
I think there are many others.

387
00:19:01,440 --> 00:19:02,341
I mean, a series

388
00:19:02,341 --> 00:19:04,109
that I would love to see
come back

389
00:19:04,109 --> 00:19:08,213
is the series that Van Wyck
Brooks did in the thirties

390
00:19:08,213 --> 00:19:09,781
and forties and fifties.

391
00:19:09,781 --> 00:19:10,649
I think it was called

392
00:19:10,649 --> 00:19:14,620
“Makers and Finders,” or “The
Flowering of New England,”

393
00:19:14,620 --> 00:19:16,121
“New England Summer.”

394
00:19:16,121 --> 00:19:19,892
You know
that is such a tapestry

395
00:19:19,892 --> 00:19:23,295
of American literature
throughout the 19th century.

396
00:19:23,295 --> 00:19:26,732
Really a remarkable book
that I still keep a copy,

397
00:19:26,899 --> 00:19:29,701
you know, one of the volumes
by my bedside for the

398
00:19:29,701 --> 00:19:31,970
when I can't sleep
in the middle of the night

399
00:19:31,970 --> 00:19:35,440
to pull it up, because it's
always so, so interesting.

400
00:19:36,275 --> 00:19:39,511
-I was thinking about William
Manchester's

401
00:19:40,245 --> 00:19:43,448
series,
about Churchill, right.

402
00:19:43,982 --> 00:19:47,886
He, he—I think that's
maybe even still in print.

403
00:19:48,120 --> 00:19:50,322
-And actually,
I will say there's

404
00:19:50,322 --> 00:19:53,325
biographer named Ray Boomhower

405
00:19:53,325 --> 00:19:57,162
who's written
about a number of journalists.

406
00:19:57,162 --> 00:19:59,831
He wrote about Ernie Pyle
and several others.

407
00:19:59,831 --> 00:20:01,400
But I'm pretty sure

408
00:20:01,400 --> 00:20:04,803
he is working on a biography
of William Manchester now.

409
00:20:05,771 --> 00:20:08,106
-Oh, that would
be very interesting.

410
00:20:08,106 --> 00:20:08,340
Yeah.

411
00:20:08,340 --> 00:20:10,375
-Manchester was a novelist,

412
00:20:10,375 --> 00:20:13,378
and one of the books I have in
my stack here to read

413
00:20:13,378 --> 00:20:14,346
It's in the fifties.

414
00:20:14,346 --> 00:20:17,015
I forget the name of the
the title of the book,

415
00:20:17,015 --> 00:20:20,886
but he wrote a novel
of Baltimore

416
00:20:21,153 --> 00:20:24,156
and sort of how the

417
00:20:24,289 --> 00:20:27,559
the numbers
racket leads into this whole,

418
00:20:28,060 --> 00:20:30,696
you know, conspiracy
infecting the police,

419
00:20:30,696 --> 00:20:33,398
the police
and the politicians, etc.

420
00:20:33,398 --> 00:20:33,865
in it.

421
00:20:33,865 --> 00:20:36,768
It's like it's to me, when
I heard about it, I thought,

422
00:20:36,768 --> 00:20:39,938
this is like The Wire in 1950s
Baltimore.

423
00:20:39,938 --> 00:20:41,473
I got to read that.

424
00:20:41,473 --> 00:20:42,207
-Oh that's.

425
00:20:42,207 --> 00:20:44,876
Yeah, I know, I know.

426
00:20:44,876 --> 00:20:48,914
I feel the same way
about all of these lost books

427
00:20:49,181 --> 00:20:54,019
as you do when you know
the idea that it doesn't that

428
00:20:54,353 --> 00:20:58,290
that we should look for good
good reads just solid

429
00:20:58,290 --> 00:21:02,160
good reads that are nicely
written and 

430
00:21:02,761 --> 00:21:05,964
And when you know,
when we think about

431
00:21:05,964 --> 00:21:09,268
why people aren't reading
or are they reading or

432
00:21:09,268 --> 00:21:13,071
whether they reading, I often
think that we underestimate

433
00:21:13,071 --> 00:21:16,441
what people would read
if they knew about the books.

434
00:21:17,209 --> 00:21:18,577
-Yeah, I mean,

435
00:21:18,577 --> 00:21:21,380
one of the reasons
I'm passionate about what

436
00:21:21,380 --> 00:21:23,415
we're doing with the Recovered
Books series

437
00:21:23,415 --> 00:21:25,117
is that, you know,
I've been writing

438
00:21:25,117 --> 00:21:27,519
about neglected books
for 20 years.

439
00:21:27,519 --> 00:21:30,122
I have this website,
I think I do a decent job,

440
00:21:30,122 --> 00:21:33,125
but frankly,
it hasn't meant books were,

441
00:21:33,358 --> 00:21:36,928
you know, it hasn't changed
the literary world in any way.

442
00:21:37,863 --> 00:21:40,599
Putting a book in print

443
00:21:40,599 --> 00:21:42,601
makes
such an overnight difference,

444
00:21:42,601 --> 00:21:46,071
you know, when people can get
it, frankly, one click away

445
00:21:46,371 --> 00:21:48,573
or find it
in their local bookstore,

446
00:21:48,573 --> 00:21:49,608
they're going to read it.

447
00:21:49,608 --> 00:21:53,378
If the book is something
you have to get through

448
00:21:53,378 --> 00:21:56,381
interlibrary loan, which
I love, interlibrary loan,

449
00:21:56,982 --> 00:21:59,518
one of the greatest things
on the planet.

450
00:21:59,518 --> 00:22:04,289
But the truth is 99 people
out of 100 would will shy away

451
00:22:04,289 --> 00:22:06,692
from the idea
of ever requesting something.

452
00:22:06,692 --> 00:22:09,328
Yeah, through interlibrary loan.
-Right.

453
00:22:09,328 --> 00:22:11,730
Brad, I do wish we could talk longer,

454
00:22:11,730 --> 00:22:13,298
because I feel like
we could go on

455
00:22:13,298 --> 00:22:15,267
and just be book
people together.

456
00:22:15,267 --> 00:22:16,802
I would love that.

457
00:22:16,802 --> 00:22:19,604
And I do hope
when you come back to Seattle,

458
00:22:19,604 --> 00:22:22,808
we could get together
in person and talk books

459
00:22:23,108 --> 00:22:26,111
and thank you for thank you
for coming on the show.

460
00:22:26,478 --> 00:22:28,347
-Thank you for inviting
me. It was wonderful.

461
00:22:29,147 --> 00:22:45,197
♪ Book Lust theme music ♪
