As I have mentioned before, I read a lot and keep a list of dozens of books I want to read. Most of those are culled from reviews I read in a variety of publications, including the Sunday New York Times book review section. I saw an article a few months back about a new book on writing literary non-fiction by Phillip Lopate. I’d never heard of the guy, but the article writer referred to him in laudable terms as one of the big wigs of the essay writing world. As I work on my own book, I’ve come to the conclusion that what I’m doing is a series of linked essays. So I figured I should get his new work, To Show and To Tell, which promised to be a “master class” for non-fiction writers.
It spurred many questions — did I have to have a degree in creative writing to be good? How much understanding do I need of the structures used by various lauded essayists write a good piece? I’d never heard of Montaigne, Hazlitt, or read an essay by EB White (the children’s book writer and style guru wrote essays?). Does that disqualify me from ever being an essay writer? What will the impact of the blog be on essay writing? Being me, I found Mr. Lopate’s email address — he runs the creative non-fiction department at Columbia University — and asked him. And he responded. “I’ll make this brief: 1) a writer does not have to have academic knowledge of structure to write well. Nor do you need a degree to write nonfiction well. 2) My book is intended for both the reader and the writer. 3) I do believe that it’s necessary to read as much as you can. For starters, I would read my anthology “The Art of the Personal Essay.” It has the Baldwin, Montaigne and E B White essays. 4) blogs? it’s too early to tell what their effect will be on essays.”
I can’t tell you how cool I think it is when someone who has published a book writes to me. The first time it happened I was a fresh new reporter and wrote to the author of Winterchill, Ernest Finney, who kindly wrote me back and once took me out to lunch. I had a long correspondence with Nuala O’Faolain, a columnist for the Irish Times when I lived in Ireland. She was incredibly encouraging to me. After I came back to the states and she released her wonderful memoir, Are You Somebody, we wrote a few emails back and forth. I have dozens of writer friends on Facebook, some of whom I have met face to face, some of whom might recognize my name if you said it to them. I get a thrill every time one of them comments on a comment or writes on my wall.
I picked up Mr. Lopate’s latest essay collection Portrait Inside My Head, as well as the anthology he mentioned. I found them inspiring and helpful.
I also ordered a copy of The Art of Good Prose, by Tracy Kidder and his long-time editor Richard Todd. Kidder is one of my favorite prose authors. Mountains Beyond Mountains and House are my favorites. I consider him a long-form journalist more than essayist, but his book has something to teach me. I’ve dogeared pages. If only I could find his email address, I’m pretty sure I’d bombard him with questions.
Actually, any book I read spurs questions for its author. I have a hard copy of Roy Blount, Jr.’s Alphabet Juice with the inside cover filled with minute commentary and questions, complete with associated page numbers. I still think about sending him a letter made out of my notes. Since I can’t find an email address for him, I have a plan on how to get it to him, too. His wife has an art gallery. I’ll send it to him care of her, care of the gallery. I used that ploy once to send a letter to Gerald Ford when he was president and I was 10. I figured Mrs. Ford would have more free time than he did, and wouldn’t mind getting my note in front of him. I got a response, but it wasn’t a personal one. Still, it could work with Mr. Blount.
The problem with reading books about writing is that they often have lists of further reading, or bibliographies that I actually peruse. I end up adding books to my “to be read” list. This also happens when I read the book review section of just about any magazine (O is good for books; surprisingly, so is People — as an aside, this is the magazine that Paul Farmer, subject of Mountains Beyond Mountains refers to as the Journal of Popular Studies, or JPS. It feels much better to call it that in discussion than to admit I read People magazine for the articles).
When I wrote a year ago about my list it had 81 books on it. Of those, I’ve purchased and read maybe 10 of them, and added dozens more. Here’s a link to a fairly current copy. It’s never ending, is it? If you’re a reader, there’s always another book. My birthday is in 9 days. Feel free to send me a one. I can’t promise when I’ll read it, but I can promise I’ll have questions and comments. So if you send me a book, be sure to include author contact information.
