The title of this blog--historyspeak--may be slightly misleading because it will not only be talk about the past, but talk about the present--anything that might come into my head about history or anything else that is out-of-date, current, or yet to come. But since I basically live in the 19th century--in the Civil War era--it is likely to be a thought or comment about something going on back then. I return to the 21st century on a regular basis only for sustenance, paying bills, and playing a set or two of tennis. My wife, Kathleen, is never sure on any given day exactly when or whether I will be back in time for dinner. It is always difficult to pry myself loose from my friends in the 19th century, since they are so interesting.
All of those friends back there are technically dead, but that is also misleadiing, for they are vividly alive to me. The reason--the only reason--I write history, is for the opportunity the make them live vividly for you as well. My goal is to try to write non-fiction and make it read like fiction. Don't ask me how that is done. Because I don't really know. As Somerset Maugham, the great Brirish novelist, reputedly said: "There are three basic rules to writing a novel--unfortunately nobody knows what they are."
At any rate, consider that whether we know what we are doing or not we are in this thing--past, present, or future--together. I will greatly appreciate visiting with you, in any or all three venues.
3 comments:
Thanks for articulating a feeling that I share--though my period is WWII. I have been transcribing WWII letters from 3 uncles and my father for nearly a year, and I find it hard to return to the daily-ness of cleaning litter pans, reading local news, or having polite conversations that are not based on world events between 1939 and 1945.
Antigoni
Thanksgiving Day 2007
Hi Jack---
My daughter Cris showed me how to use this blog. How about it!
Your ONE MAN book on Lincoln is your best yet and I have read them all. You outdid yourself on this one. You know you have a wonderful book in your hands when you hate to see it end. Thanks for writing it.
Antigoni and Pete:
The comments and approval of such friends as the two of you is the best kind of all. They could cause me to write another book. I probably will anyhow.
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