In Review: November 17, 1999

What I'm working on now
Fourteen Princeton authors talk about their latest projects

Good writers are always working. If they aren't finishing new books or screenplays, they are gathering ideas and observations, trying to honor the Jamesian ideal of a writer as "someone on whom nothing is lost." Recently 14 of Princeton's best-known authors spoke with Catherine Saint Louis '96 about their latest projects.

 

Francine Mathews '85
who writes contemporary crime novels and, under the pseudonym of Stephanie Barron, a historical mystery series featuring Jane Austen

I just finished a women's espionage novel about neo-Nazism in Central Europe entitled The Cutout (Bantam, August 2000), which in intelligence terms refers to a go-between. Warner Brothers bought the film rights last summer. Now I'm completing the fifth installment in my historical mystery series featuring Georgian novelist Jane Austen. Jane and the Stillroom Maid (Bantam, 2000) finds Austen in Derbyshire, investigating the death of a local witch and dining among the Devonshires at Chatsworth.

Geoffrey Wolff '60
author of The Duke of Deception

I'm completing a biography of John O'Hara, a five-year project titled The Art of Burning Bridges (Knopf, fall 2000 or winter 2001). I'm interested in the novel of manners, the reflective contempt American readers feel for the enterprise. O'Hara was simplistically dismissed as a social-climbing snob with a rough Irish temper. I hope to restore to his better work its rightful dignity and art, and to O'Hara's character the human complications of his history, acts, and temperament. Next, I'll turn to a novel, provisionally titled If Only, a story of a self-regarding character's criminally limited point of view.

William Zinsser '44
author of On Writing Well

I just edited a book of religious writing called Going on Faith: Writing as a Spiritual Quest (Marlowe & Company, 1999) and made an audio cassette called How to Write a Memoir (HarperAudio, 1999). Now I'm finishing a book called Easy to Remember: The Great American Songwriters and Their Songs (David R. Godine, 2000), which combines my two lifelong vocations-writing and playing those songs on the piano. I'm also writing the lyrics for a cycle of art songs with the composer Chester Biscardi, which will have their first public performance at Sarah Lawrence College in December.

James McPherson
professor of history at Princeton and author of the Pulitzer prize-winning Battle Cry of Freedom

I just finished editing the Encyclopedia of Civil War Biographies (three volumes, Putnam, fall 1999). It's a directory of Americans of all walks of life who achieved some measure of distinction during that period. This summer I also revised the third edition of my textbook, Ordeal by Fire (McGraw Hill, August 2000). There is a certain amount of spinning wheels going over the same territory. But the longer-term project that gets me away from that is a series of short histories about pivotal moments in U.S. history that David Fischer and I cooked up. James Patterson wrote the first, entitled Race and Schools: Legacies of Brown v. Board of Education to be published next year (Oxford University Press). I am working on one on the Battle of Antietam.

A. J. Verdelle
lecturer of creative writing at Princeton and author of The Good Negress

It's my fifth year of working on a big historical novel about the black cowboys who escaped to the West before the Civil War tentatively entitled Meanwhile Back at the Ranch (Riverhead, 2000 or 2001). How they left and where they went is obscure, so most of my imaginative work was thinking about what that crossing might have been like. I was interested in understanding the propertied perspective of both the African-American and the horse, the breadth and the expanse of the nation, and the march toward the end of the century. And the notion of African-American psychology underpins it all.

Madison Smartt Bell '79
author of All Souls' Rising, a finalist for the National Book Award

I am currently writing a novel called Master of the Crossroads (Pantheon, fall 2000), volume two of a trilogy about the Haitian revolution which began with All Souls' Rising. Historically, it covers the period in which Toussaint L'Ouverture changes sides and supports the embattled French republicans because they were fervent about the abolition of slavery. No one could figure out why he aligned himself with the losing side. But what they didn't realize was that L'Ouverture was the winning side, and he was merely deciding who would win with him.

Richard Preston *83
author of The Hot Zone and The Cobra Event

Iam between books right now. Normally I start about five book projects and winnow them down. I start balls juggling in the air-doing preliminary research and even some writing on each. Then one by one the balls fall to the earth until there's only one left in the air, and that's my book. I can't predict what the next one will be. One is obviously a sequel to The Cobra Event, another two are children's books, another is a nonfiction book, another two are collections of my previously published pieces-one about biology and the other about Maine.

Katie Roiphe *95
author of The Morning After

Ihad been doing a lot of political pieces during the Clinton scandal. Now I am in the middle stage of writing a novel that takes up some of the themes and issues I address in my other work, but it's totally fiction. It's not one of those "I slept with lots of guys, and I worry about my weight" novels. That's what people expect me to write, because that's the trend.

Sean Wilentz
professor of history at Princeton and author of Chants Democratic

I've gotten back to the work that the impeachment crisis so rudely interrupted. My book, The Rise of American Democracy from the Revolution to the Civil War (Norton, 2002 or 2003), is now at the top of my desk. It's a high/low history of American politics, meaning that I move fairly quickly from high political history involving traditional characters to the lower echelons discussing everything from rebellious slaves to the popular hero Jedediah Peck. Pick a big theme, Melville said. I am trying to write about a whale.

Yusef Komunyakaa
professor of creative writing at Princeton and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Neon Vernacular

Iam writing new poems and revising others for Pleasure Dome: New & Collected Poems, 1975-1999 (Wesleyan University Press, spring 2001). Another forthcoming collection of poems is Talking Dirty To The Gods (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, fall 2000), which explores everyday phenomena including god-like personae, myths, and history. The challenge was to achieve a certain kind of vibrancy from a 16-line, four-stanza compression. Recently, I completed Slip Knot, a libretto in collaboration with composer T.J. Anderson, about the short life of a Massachusetts slave born in 1747 who died in 1768. It was commissioned by Northwestern University and will premiere there. Other collaborations will soon see the release of several CDs that feature jazz-related music based on my poems and lyrics, one of which is Thirteen Kinds of Desire, sung by Pamela Knowles.

Alan Brinkley '71
author of Liberalism and Its Discontents

I am working on a biography of Henry Luce, the founder and longtime editor/publisher of Time, Life, and Fortune magazines (Knopf, at least three years away). I am using Luce's life to shed some light on the remaking of American culture in the middle years of the 20th century and also to suggest something about the emergence of the modern world of journalism. I am also one of six authors for a little book called The Chicago Handbook for Teachers (University of Chicago Press, 1999), which was created to give practical nitty-gritty advice needed in the classroom. It was designed for people starting out teaching-graduate students and assistant professors- but can be used by all professors. I have also recently completed editing The Reader's Companion to the American Presidency (Houghton Mifflin, spring 2000).

Rachel Hadas *82
author of The Empty Bed

Ihave two books in press. One is a collection of my criticism, Merrill, Cavafy, Poems and Dreams (University of Michigan, fall 2000), with different sections-one about Greek poetry from Homer to Ritsos, another about the poet James Merrill, and a more personal section with an interview by Gloria Barame. Indelible (Wesleyan University Press, fall 2001), my latest book of poems, looks at the life cycle from a distance.

Michael Lewis '82
author of Liar's Poker

Irecently finished The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story (Norton, 1999), which is about the prime mover who causes all the trouble out here, the kind of character who creates a billion dollars for himself out of nothing. It's structured around the entrepreneur Jim Clark and his particular way of groping for things. I am fiddling with a couple of ideas for my next book, which will be a work of nonfiction with a narrative but very different from the power, greed, and glory I've previously explored.

Rebecca Goldstein *77
author of The Mind-Body Problem

My latest novel is Properties of Light: A Novel of Love, Betrayal, and Quantum (Houghton Mifflin, August 2000). It's got lots of secrets-one revelation after another. When I try to describe it, I think of Hobbes's phrase libido sciendi, meaning the Eros of the mind. It's about three physicists driven to limits in their search for knowledge, their need for each other, and their need for the world's love. Its language is quite strange because I tried to get across some real science in a way that would do justice to the belief that physics is a kind of deep poetry.

Book and Video Briefings

A sampling of recent books and videos of interest to Princetonians

Books

Red-Hot and Righteous, by Diane Winston *96 (Har-vard University Press, $27.95). If street-corner bell-ringers at Christmas time come immediately to mind when the Salvation Army is mentioned, this study may dispel that stereotype and add depth to the images of that organization. Winston chronicles this "religion of action" from its 1880 landing in New York City to the present, examining how it survived by using the tools of popular culture and industrial capitalism. She also considers the social activism and organizational leadership opportunities the Army afforded women in their ranks, especially Evangeline Booth, who came up with the idea of stationing "Sallies" at the World War I European front to encourage American troops. Winston is a research fellow at the Center for Media, Culture, and History at New York University.

Tournament of Shadows: The Great Game and the Race for Empire in Central Asia, by Karl E. Meyer *56 and Shareen Blair Brysac (Counterpoint, $35). This book begins with British horse doctor William Moorcroft journeying in the 1820s to acquire a superior breed of horses for the Indian Army and follows into the present the geopolitical struggle for the domination of Central Asia. The husband and wife team of Meyer and Brysac, writing in a novelistic style, recreates the drama of explorers, diplomats, and adventurers of all stripes charting the unknown in Tibet, Mongolia, India, and Afghanistan. Meyer is a former reporter; Brysac's varied career includes being a former documentary director and writer for CBS. Princetonians will enjoy references to alumni such as Allen Dulles '14 and James Burnham '26.

Coercion, by Douglas Rushkoff '83 (Riverhead Books, $24.95). In his '90s update of The Hidden Persuaders, Rushkoff considers the ubiquitous world of advertising. He catalogs how car dealers analyze body language and how Gap sales personnel are trained, unmasks public relations spin, and looks at how music and scents are parlayed in an attempt at mind control. He describes "coercers," the anonymous "they" who wield authority over much of our popular culture, in military terms. Ultimately, he says, we are all part of the coercive environment that paralyzes our judgment, but if we listen to our "inner voice" we can use it as a trigger to act rather than be acted upon.

Coins, Bodies, Games, and Gold: The Politics of Meaning in Archaic Greece, by Leslie Kurke *88 (Princeton University Press, $29.95). Kurke, one of the 1999 MacArthur Foundation Award winners, uses texts ranging from Herodotus and archaic poetry to Aristotle and Attic inscriptions to ruminate on Greek coinage and its implications in the ancient world. A professor of classics and comparative literature at the University of California at Berkeley, she says her book is "an attempt to write the obscure prehistory of political theory through practices: to trace some of the ways the egalitarian ideology of the polis first emerges, as well as acknowledging the ongoing resistance of an elitist tradition to that development."

The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction: The Fiftieth Anniversary Anthology, edited by Edward L. Ferman and Gordon Van Gelder '88 (TOR, $24.95). Van Gelder, Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine's current editor, teamed with the magazine's publisher and its former editor for this edition, a collection of 21 short stories from the past five years. Well-known writers such as Ray Bradbury and Ursula K. LeGuin are represented along with newcomers, including Dale Bailey and Maureen F. McHugh. The editors opted for a mix-fairy tale, alternate histories, supernatural horror, and alien tales-rather than gathering stories under one theme. Another Princeton gets mentioned in Bailey's entry, "Quinn's Way"; the author drew inspiration for the story from tales his father told of life in Princeton, West Virginia, during the Depression.

The Power of Kings, by Paul Kleber Monod '78 (Yale University Press, $35). From the assassination of Henry III of France in 1589 to the death of France's Louis XIV in 1715, Monod traces the Christian religious link between monarchy and power throughout Europe. Within the 150 years spanned by this book, the concept of kingship changed dramatically, from one in which kings were viewed as gods to one in which a human ruler represented the rational state. While he taps sociology, political history, and philosophy, Monod also examines rituals and 35 artistic works to support his scholarly work. Monod teaches history at Middlebury College.

The Pleasure of Finding Things Out, by Richard P. Feynman *42 (Perseus, $24). The late Nobel Prize-winning physicist expounds on topics near, such as teaching science to youngsters, and far, such as quantum electrodynamics, his specialty, in 13 talks, transcribed interviews, and essays (only one is published here for the first time). Scientists and non-scientists may smile as Feynman recounts how he cracked locked safes at Los Alamos, where he worked on the Manhattan Project, and be challenged by the many thought-provoking insights of one of the greatest scientists of our day.

Einstein's German World, Fritz Stern (Princeton University Press, $24.95). Using essays to allow a more personal voice, historian Fritz Stern explores the friendships and frictions that existed among Albert Einstein and his scientific circle in Germany. Within this framework, Stern recalls the great promise of Germany's cultural and scientific culture after World War I and its self-destruction with World War II. The central essay analyzes Einstein's relationship with Nobel Prize-winning chemist Fritz Haber (Stern's godfather) and their opposite responses to German life and their Jewish heritage. Stern, an emeritus professor at Columbia University, writes, "My focus is largely biographical; I have tried to find the points where private lives and public realms intersect."

 

Videos

Surviving AIDS, a NOVA production for WGBH/Boston (available through WGBH Boston Video, P.O. Box 2284, South Burlington, Vermont 05407-2284, $19.95 plus shipping, 60 minutes). The first images of this documentary are not of hospitals but of the P-rade. The footage introduces Robert Massie '78, a hemophiliac who contracted HIV his senior year from a contaminated blood transfusion but whose immune system has stayed healthy-without drug intervention. Researchers racing to produce an AIDS vaccine are studying Massie and others like him known as "long-term non-progressors" to learn why some people's immune systems can fight AIDS while others succumb.

The film goes beyond the laboratories and scientific jargon in explaining how HIV operates and why Massie, an Episcopal minister, is an exception. Since studying Massie's blood, called the "gold standard" by the Boston doctors involved, some researchers are pioneering an approach in which drugs stimulate the body's attack cells at the first hint of HIV infection. Among those interviewed are immunologists, molecular biologists, and patients who have volunteered for experimentation.

Gladiators: Sports & Entertainment in the Roman World, produced by the Institute for Mediterranean Studies, Getzel M. Cohen *70, executive producer (Institute for Mediterranean Studies, 7086 East Aracoma Drive, Cincinnati, Ohio 45237, $24.95, 30 minutes). Gladiators were the "Michael Jordans of their time," explains David Potter, professor of classical studies at the University of Michigan. To prove his point the professor links these professional fighters to sports entertainment today, examining their training, the violence of their contests, and their status in the ancient world. Potter also uses archaeological discoveries to dispel myths popularized in artistic renderings created centuries later, such as the notion gladiators fought to the death (prisoners and convicts did that). Topics from publicity to styles of combat are illustrated with images of ancient artifacts, while views of amphitheaters and famous paintings on this subject entertain the eye.

The Life of George Washington, produced by the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, written by Robert B. Gibby '36 (available from the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, Mount Vernon, Virginia 22121, $24.95 plus $3 postage, 30 minutes). Using original historical prints from the Willard-Budd Collection at Washington's Mount Vernon home as its visual backdrop, this video traces the life of our first president from his earliest days to his death 200 years ago on December 14, 1799. As former New Jersey senator and presidential hopeful Bill Bradley '65 says in his introduction, the narrative attempts to uncover the man behind the legends. While familiar images of Washington are used, those less familiar-exploring Virginia's Dismal Swamp or praying at Valley Forge-add depth to this story, as do period music and battle sound effects at appropriate moments. The video is part of a series.

­Maria LoBiondo

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